King of the Asheville Coven (Winterset Coven #1)(13)

Aric wouldn’t meet her eyes anymore, though his arm stayed tight around her shoulders. “How long ago did you leave him?”

“Six months. I literally closed my eyes and put my finger on a map, landed on Winterset, packed a few bags, and then left in the night. Six months here, and I feel like I’m finding the things I used to love about myself. I feel more myself, but I’m always looking over my shoulder, waiting for him to show up. Waiting for him to take everything away.”

“He won’t.”

“But you don’t know that.”

“I do, Sadey,” Aric said, leveling her with those demon-black eyes of his. “I won’t let him hurt you ever. I don’t want you to run anymore.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying stay. Stay and set up your life here. Stay and go out with me and—”

“Aric, we’re strangers.”

“Bullshit. I had to force myself not to come back here night after night because you felt big. I know you’re scared. I know it must be terrifying to go through what you did with that domineering * and then be bound to a man you don’t know. I get it. I’m scared, too, but from the second you opened your eyes out by that wreck, you felt important. You felt like you would make things easier, better.”

“Make what easier?”

“Arabella was my Brock. I fell for her before I knew what she was, and when I found out she was a vampire, I tried to break it off. I had this incredible life. Friends, family. I had a great job at a fire station I loved. My life was all lake trips on the weekends, four-wheeling, rock-climbing, camping trips with my friends. I was happy, and she Turned me anyway.”

“Against your will?”

His jaw clenched so hard a muscle jumped there. “I loved the sunlight. I loved my life, and she stole everything from me. I know about wanting to leave. I know about the anger. You were braver than me, Sadey. Stronger. You left the bad behind, while I became the king of my coven.”

And now she could see him. Really see him. He wasn’t one of the heartless vampires she’d been taught to fear. He had been broken like her but had dug in his heels. He thought she was the strong one, the brave one, but he was the one who took over his coven and cared for his people enough to keep them from war. To keep them from complete annihilation. He cared enough to facilitate change in them. To curb their violent tendencies and bring them around to a softer way of thinking. He’d kept his old job of saving people because he cared in a way that was unnatural for the creature of the dark Arabella had turned him into.

His coven probably didn’t realize it, but Aric was likely the best thing that had ever happened to them.

And now Garret’s murmured words when she’d knocked on Aric’s bedroom door made perfect sense. Take good care of our king. He shoulders a lot.

Aric was possibly the strongest and most admirable man she’d ever known.

No wonder her animal had chosen him.

No wonder she’d allowed Aric’s bite to bond them.

“I like when you make that sound,” he murmured, locking her in his gaze. His eyes had lightened to a dawn gray now. “I like when you’re happy.”

She giggled as her cheeks heated with a blush. “I didn’t realize I was purring.”

The slight smile dipped from his lips when he dropped his gaze to her mouth. Slowly, he leaned down and sipped at her lips. With a helpless noise, Sadey melted into him and slipped her arms around his taut waist. He brushed his tongue against the closed seam of her lips in silent question, and she opened for him. He dragged her closer as he dipped his tongue to hers, and she rested her fingertips on his chiseled jaw just to feel the muscles work there.

This wasn’t the passionate, fire-catching kisses he’d given her earlier. This one convinced her that perhaps this growing bond between them wasn’t a mistake. That maybe it was Fate’s way of making up for Brock’s shortcomings. Maybe she’d needed to go through that awful ordeal with him to fully appreciate when a good man came into her life.

Heaviness evaporated from her shoulders as he held her. It disappeared completely when he brushed his finger down her cheek and rested his touch onto her neck, right where he’d bitten her. Slowly, he pulled her into his lap until she straddled him. Sadey thought he would push for more because she could feel his thick erection pressed between her legs. But he didn’t. Instead, he gave her three, sweet, smacking kisses, then secured the blanket around her shoulders and relaxed back, pulling her with him. And he hugged her. Just rested his chin against her shoulder and held her in a way that cinched up some of her shattered pieces.

Her eyes burned with emotion, but she blinked hard so she wouldn’t cry here with Aric. These tears were left over from Brock, and they didn’t belong here now.

He rubbed her back in gentle circles and whispered, “Please stay.”

And suddenly she wanted to. She wanted to be strong and brave like Aric. She wanted to dig her heels into a place and make it hers. She wanted to stop living a half-life on the run. She wanted to see this thing through with the man who had saved her life, covered for her, thought of her, and drew her face. She wanted to see if there was a life with the good man her animal had chosen.

“Okay,” she murmured.

“Okay what?”

Oh, he wanted her to say it out loud so he had no doubts. So he could hear the honesty in her voice, and she got it. If he was the one thinking of leaving, she would want that same security, too.