Chapter 7 - The Translation of the Heart
Their lips met in a deep, explosive kiss that had been building beneath four years of silence, restraint, and hidden longing.
Adrian let out a low, rough growl against her mouth, his long arms wrapping tightly around her waist, lifting her off her feet and pulling her flush against his chest.
Elena held onto him fiercely, her fingers tangled in his hair, tasting the heat, the scotch, and the absolute intensity of a man who had finally surrendered his rigid control.
He carried her across the soft rug, setting her down gently on the deep leather sofa in front of the roaring fireplace.
He leaned over her, his hands framing her face, his dark eyes searching hers with wild, desperate passion.
“Tell me to stop, Elena,” Adrian rasped, his breath hot against her skin. “Tell me right now, and I will step away.”
Elena looked up at him, a radiant, breathtaking smile breaking across her face.
“Don't you dare stop, Adrian Vale,” she whispered softly. “I’ve spent four years translating every language in the world. It’s time you translated this one for me.”
Adrian smiled—a real, breathtaking, devastatingly handsome smile that lit up his entire face—and leaned down to kiss her again.
Outside the grand stone mansion, the heavy Chicago snowstorm raged on through the cold night, burying the city under a thick blanket of white ice.
Inside the library, bathed in the deep amber glow of the roaring hearth, there was only warmth, safety, and the long-overdue surrender of two souls who had finally stopped running from each other.
Every wall Adrian had meticulously built around his life for fifteen years crumbled into ash.
He touched her with a reverent, intense gentleness, shedding his terrifying persona as Chicago’s most feared man, leaving behind only the real man who loved her with every fiber of his being.
May you like
And Elena, held safely in his strong arms, realized that she was no longer standing in his dark shadow.
She was standing right beside him, in the light.
