And when he blinked open his electric-blue eyes at her, looking as dazed as she felt, the only thing she could think to say was, “Best sex evah!”
But soon their laughter turned to touches again, and from there to heated caresses. Robin moved down between her thighs, blowing a breath against the center of her, making her jerk in delight.
He feasted on her, making her scream out in the type of blissful agony that bordered on torture when he finally relented and gave her the release she’d craved. And though his chest heaved with sweat and she was nothing but a boneless heap, she returned the favor.
Taking her time, working her way down his body one lick and nibble at a time.
He jerked when she bit down on the corner of his hip. “You sure you’re not part vampire, my pet?” His voice had grown hoarse.
Giggling and deliriously happy, she smacked the spot where she’d bitten him, and then nuzzled against it, licking it soft and slow until he writhed and danced for her once again. “Sometimes I wish I had been,” she said softly.
His hands trailed through the ends of her hair and his gaze was serious as he said, “Not me. Though your curse kept us apart for years, it was also your curse that led me to you. And now that it’s all over, I can never regret that.”
Turning her head into his hip, she pressed a lingering kiss on the crease where hip met thigh. “Even twenty years later, you’ve still not grown tired of me?”
“Oh, my jewel, as I told you once before, it’s simply not possible. I’ve the taste of you, and now my addiction has only grown. You mean everything to me, Nixie. Everything. And tomorrow we will finally make this official.”
Her lips twitched. “You telling me? Or asking me?” Her words trembled with suppressed laughter.
He cupped her jaw. “Will you marry me?”
She snorted. “Really, Robin, I think you know the answer to that one. As if you needed to ask.”
“You saucy wench.” He flicked at the tip of her nose and she laughed. “And don’t you ever change.”
“Not bloody likely.” She nipped at his finger hard and then returned back to the task at hand, taking his full length into her mouth.
He groaned loud and long, digging his fingers through her hair as he met each bob of her lips with a gentle thrust.
And though they lay in bed, neither of them slept a wink that very long Kingdom night…
Chapter 21
The ceremony was intimate. They’d already married before their subjects and exchanged their vows, but for Robin it was important that he do it privately as well.
In front of those they loved most and who know them both as they truly were.
Not Maiden Marian and Crispin the Lion-Hearted, but as Nixie Delis Black and Robin Hood.
“I, Robin Hood, take thee, Nixie Black, to love, honor, and cherish all the days of my life.” He pressed his thumb upon her knuckle, brushing it tenderly.
“I”—her sweet voice shivered across his flesh—“Nixie Black, daughter of Paz and Tristan Black, take thee, Robin Hood, to be my lawfully wedded husband. To love, to honor, and to cherish”—she tilted her chin, and the gravity of her words was as though she were saying to him for the first time—“all the days of my life.”
Her smile stole his breath.
After twenty years together, he still wanted her, more and more each day. He knew her body, her soul, and now Robin knew her inside out. There wasn’t another in all of the universe that knew him like she did. That she could still want him, still need him with the same fiery intensity that he needed her, was a humbling thought.
They stood within the privacy of his royal gardens. Danika, fairy godmother to the villains, presided over their nuptials. The night stretched long, but it wasn’t dark. There was a silvery twilight sheen that lent an air of magic to everything.
And though they stood outside and there were balconies covering every square inch of the castle, no one who’d not been invited to the private wedding could look upon them. For Danika had imprisoned them all within a verdant garden of wildflowers that grew twenty feet high and was laced together at the upper reaches.
Jericho, Danika’s husband, handed Robin the necklaces with the stones of Veritas hanging off them—one square, one heart shaped, both a deeply jeweled ruby.
Stepping into his bride, he drew his nose down the length of her swan-like neck. “Are you ready, my pet?” he breathed into the shell of her ear.
Behind them, Nixie’s mother sobbed quietly, hugged by her own husband—the golem genie, Tristan.
Robin had never deigned to restore the memories of his men. Marian’s true identity was a part of their relationship that now felt sacrosanct, a secret known only to a very special few—to those within these flowery walls.