Lover Arisen (Black Dagger Brotherhood #20)(128)

“What the hell possessed me to buy this,” she muttered.

Besides, Balthazar had been talking about going to that 24-hour diner. Not some fancy place with tablecloths and a ma?tre d’—

Down below, the door opened and two big feet registered on the floorboards, the creaking carrying up the staircase.

“It’s me,” Balthazar called out as he closed things.

There was no jangle of keys. She was getting used to that, the kind of thing she hadn’t noticed until the love of her life had moved in with her—and didn’t need them to get past dead bolts.

Not because he was a really good thief, either.

“How did it go?” She shut the medicine cabinet. “Did it… are we okay?”

She was coming out of the bath as he took the steps two at a time, an enormous figure dressed in black leather emerging at the head of the stairwell.

“Please tell me we’re okay—”

He didn’t speak as he entered her bedroom, and when she got a load of the tension in his face, she wanted to curse. And cry. Especially as he gathered her up in his arms and just held on to her like he was afraid she was going to disappear on him.

Like maybe he’d found out this was all a dream and his alarm clock was about to go off.

Like what had felt like destiny was the curse of star-crossed love.

“Shit,” she whispered as she stroked his broad back. “Just… shit.”

When he’d left to see his King, whoever that was, it had been to iron out how much he could stay in his world and what he could do there if he was living in hers. Although some human mates had been allowed in his community, they’d all given up their human existences, and though she hated putting him in a predicament, she couldn’t abandon her job. Balthazar, to his immense credit, hadn’t given her an ultimatum to quit homicide. Instead, he’d been resolved to let his side go if things came to that.

And it looked like they had.

“Come here,” she said as she drew him over to the bed. Their bed. “And you might as well just spit it out. I’d rather deal with reality, even if it sucks.”

He sat beside her on the mattress, his weight such that she was tilted into his body. Not that she minded.

His scent, the dark spices she’d once thought were cologne, was as much a thrill in her nose as always, and as she studied his profile, he was even more mysterious and beautiful than he’d been when she’d first seen him.

After he’d allowed her to remember him, that was.

“Tell me,” she murmured. Even though she knew—

He pulled himself together. “We’re fine. And I can still fight and pull shifts at the Audience House. They’ve asked me to move out of the mansion, but I get that. It’s the First Family’s crib. The security risks are too great.” He took a deep breath. “My cousins can’t wait to spend some proper time with you. The Brothers and fighters as well—and their shellans, too. Wives, I mean.”

Erika blinked. “Wait… what—”

“Vishous, you know him—well, he does all the security, and he’s going to insist on coming here to upgrade your alarm system for the time being. And they are requiring us to move into a house that’s better equipped for my safety. You know, daytime shutters. A tunnel escape. A little more rural, to get away from a congestion of your kind. But you’d said you were open to relocating?”

She shook her head. “No. I mean, yes, of course. But I don’t understand. What went wrong then?”

Balthazar stared into space for a moment. “I love you with all that I am, all that I will ever be. And I don’t care what I have to give up to be with you and keep you happy and safe. It’s going to be my life’s work.”

Erika flushed, her heart warming inside the cage of her chest. Funny, she had waited a lifetime to hear those words, without being aware that they were what she’d wanted to hear. And now, sitting in a bedroom she had slept in for years… she was really and truly home.

But that was about him, wasn’t it. Not any street address.

“I love you, too.” She reached up and smoothed his hair. “I know this still must be hard for you. Moving out of—”

“Nah, that’s not the tough part.” His eyes searched her face. “I’d give up anything for you.”

When he leaned in a little farther, she lifted her lips for his kiss and they lingered in that suspended moment forever. Then again, love made everything an eternity, whether it was a gasp or a heartbeat… or decades of life together.

As he eased back, he looked down her body—and his eyebrows popped. “Um…”

“Oh, yeah.” She pulled at the bodice again. “It’s a little much.”

“Can I have a twirl? Just so I can see you properly.”

Standing up, she struck a pose in front of him and then spun on the ball of one foot, as close to a ballerina as a homicide detective with no dance training or innate talent could get.

Which was to say, she’d have had better luck pretending to be a linebacker.

Balthazar stroked his jaw. “Damn, woman. You are… a frickin’ smoke show in that dress.”

“I am? Really?” Okay, enough with the “pick-me girl” stuff. “I mean, of course I am.”