by C. R. Jane
"You'll find out soon enough," I tell her, not able to stop myself from grabbing a kiss. She surprises me when she fists my hair, keeping my lips locked on hers. Heat rushes straight to my dick. For months I've craved any kind of intimacy from her and the feel of her soft skin against mine, after so many nights of trying to remember what it felt like, lights a fire under my skin.
Our kissing becomes frantic and somehow my shirt is removed and her fingers are tracing all over the tattoos that I seem to always have had. She stops when she notices the change to the tattoo over my heart which used to read "Lust over love." She gives a soft sigh and kisses it gently. Before she disappeared, I had gotten it changed while on tour. It now reads "Everlasting Love" with "Eva" written underneath.
"Someday I want to know what each of these tattoos mean," she tells me.
"I would like to know that myself," I tell her.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm not sure where a lot of these came from. I just have always had them for as long as I can remember," I tell her. I watch her eyes widen at how old I must be to not remember that.
I begin to kiss her to distract her from the fact that she is dating an old man and it soon escalates into me on top of her with her shirt off. She's wearing a simple black bra that highlights her gold skin. It's somehow the sexiest thing I've ever seen. I skim my nose down the side of her neck and she gasps with pleasure. I massage her breasts on top of her bra but I don't try to take her bra off. I want our first time to be special, whether it's on this trip or not.
"We need to stop," I tell her, my whole body cursing at me as I say the words. She looks at me in surprise but begins to softly kiss down my neck, ignoring my words.
"That sounds like a very bad idea," she whispers, and I agree with her wholeheartedly. There's a confidence about her lately that is so fucking sexy. I didn't think it was possible for me to be more attracted to her. I've always found the fact that she is so reserved and shy to be an enchanting quality about her, but this new addition to Eva's repertoire is perfectly heartstopping.
"The first time I hear your sweet little cries as I make you fall apart beneath me is going to be somewhere where I know that the flight attendant can't hear them too," I whisper.
Her eyes grow wide with that statement and she sits up, frantically pulling on her shirt. I laugh at her panic but just enjoy the show as the last sliver of her perfect skin disappears from view.
***
Eva's eyes are huge when she sees the penthouse we're staying in at the Four Seasons. Upon entering our room and dropping our bags on the floor, she runs to the balcony, bypassing everything else in order to gape at the view of the Eiffel Tower. She stands there with her mouth slightly open and tears glistening in her eyes.
"It's beautiful," she gasps, not taking her eyes off of it. I come up behind her and put my arms around her. "I see something more beautiful," I tell her, squeezing her against me. I know its cheesy the second it comes out of my mouth but I can't help it. It's hard to even marvel at one of the world's greatest landmarks with her in front of me. Her reaction does make me excited for the surprise I've booked for her after the show though.
We call up for room service and her eyes light up when carts and carts of different food are wheeled in under silver lids. I remembered Beckham bragging about a few picnics he made for her where he basically ordered all the food that New York had to offer. I figured I should try the same thing with Paris food.
"Is this all for us?" she asks in wonder, as the waiters begin lifting up the lids showing an array of pastries, cheeses, fruit, and French bread that represent some of the best food that Paris has to offer.
"It's in my concert rider that I need a lot of food to prepare for my shows," I explain, not letting on that this is way out of the ordinary.
"But your show isn't until tomorrow," she says, humming when she samples a particularly tasty strawberry pastry.
"Haven't you ever heard of carb loading?" I ask her jokingly.
She rolls her eyes at me.
"I know you ordered all of this for us," she says, kissing my mouth. I take advantage of her closeness by deepening the kiss. My tongue sweeps through her mouth, enjoying the taste of strawberry and quintessential Eva.
We watch the light of day slowly fade into night, and Eva gasps in delight as the glittering lights of the Tower come on. Violin music from a street performer dances through the air and I pull her close. As we begin dancing I tell her how much I love her, how sorry I am for what she's had to go through. Her eyes are clouded with sweet tears. I sing the french lyrics to the violin song playing and she melts into my arms. I can't remember ever being happier.
Chapter 24
Eva
It's dark. I can't see Mason's face so it seems easier to admit things to him that I would normally keep buried deep in the darkest places of my heart.
"It wasn't all bad," I whisper to him, the words unfurling from me despite my best intentions.
"What do you mean?" he asks, the skepticism in his voice pronounced.
"Aiden made me feel strong for maybe the first time in my life. He made me feel like I didn't have to be protected every second. He wanted me to be powerful, even if it was only for his own gain, even if it ended up not being real. I still have that knowledge now. I know what being powerful feels like."
"Aiden is responsible for the downfall of an entire world," he tells me harshly. "He kidnapped you and tortured you. Am I…are we so awful that a monster gives you more than we do?" he asks, a hint of anger mixed with sadness laced through his words.
We're both quiet after that. The answer is complicated.
"Sometimes you don't see me as I really am," I finally tell him after a long moment.
"And who exactly are you?" he asks.
I pause before answering, finally knowing the answer to that question for the first time in this new life.
"I'm the Queen."
Epilogue
My phone buzzes with a text. I glance at it and see that it's from Lexi. "Can you meet?"it says. Lexi's another one who has been avoiding me since her initial relief in finding me. There's so much we need to talk about, so much I need to know. I've been trying to give her space to recover from using so much magic to find me, but I've been getting impatient and was finally going to call her tomorrow. Maybe now she's finally ready to give me answers.
I look over to the other side of the bed where Damon is, the one who has fallen asleep during a movie for once. Damon and I have tentatively patched things up. He just is refusing to talk about what happened. Beckham will be here in a little bit to sleep on the couch since he doesn't like to be away from me at night anymore. He had a late night of filming on the project that is still behind from when Beckham took time off to search for me. I should still have another hour until he arrives. I listen with my new and improved hearing. I can hear Mason softly snoring in his room.
I decide to go meet her, reasoning that I will be back before anyone even wakes up…and I'll leave a note. The guys never leave me alone for even a second since I've been back, not that I blame them, but Lexi wouldn't text me if it wasn't important.
I text Shelton that I need a car and wait for it to pull up to the front before hustling through the rain to get in the car.
"Does Damon know about this?" Shelton asks as I get in the car.
"I'm a grown woman," I pout. "I don't need to ask permission to do things...but I did leave a note."
"I'll text him," he replies with a sigh. "You didn't see how messed up he was...how messed up they all were when you disappeared. They blamed themselves."
A rush of guilt passes over me. "He hasn't been sleeping lately. I just didn't want to bother him,"I reply softly.
Shelton just smiles at me reassuringly and types out a text. I'm sure Damon will be along shortly to the address Lexi sent me.
We d
rive through the streets that are more empty than usual due to the rain. There's a solemn feeling in the air, a sense of expectancy. I'm nervous for the answers to all of the questions I have for Lexi.
Shelton pulls up to a park that's at the address Lexi gave me.
"Are you sure this is it?" he asks, looking askance at the fact that Lexi wanted me to meet her at a park in the middle of a storm.
"This is it," I tell him, peering through the window to see if I can see her.
"There she is," I tell him, pointing to a lone figure sitting on a park bench. I frown at the fact that Lexi is not even bothering to use her powers to block out the rain like the guys told me she is capable of.
"I'll be right back," I tell Shelton, getting out of the car and ignoring the umbrella he holds out for me to take.
"Lexi," I call out, jogging over to where she's sitting.
She doesn't look up when I sit down next to her on the rain soaked metal bench.
Looking at the sky I try to joke with her. "I'm not too sure that it's wise for us to be sitting on a metal bench during a storm."
She says nothing, but the sound of her sniffling catches my attention.
"Lexi, what's going on? Why are we out here?"
She says nothing for a minute.
"I didn't tell the guys everything," she says to me, her voice clogged with tears.
"What do you mean?"
"About what I know."
I rub her shoulder reassuringly. "The guys filled me in that you can't tell us everything, and that it's because of some sort of magic I used. You don't have to be upset about that."
"It's not that. I thought that this would only hurt you. You had already been through so much when you found out. So I took the memory from you, thinking you would be better off without it, " she says in a numb voice.
"What did you take from me?" I ask hesitantly, sure that I don't actually want to hear the answer.
She looks at me, the rain coming down in sheets upon us, making it looking like tears are streaming down her face.
"Who your parents really were," she says.
And suddenly my world is even more unclear.
To Be Continued…
Definitions
Ha: Short for hectare in Chinese. It's a form of measurement.
Di fu ling : In Chinese supernatural folklore, Di fu ling refers to ghosts who are bound to certain locations on Earth, such as their place of burial or a place they had a strong attachment to when they were alive.
Jiangshi : In Chinese supernatural folklore, the Jiangshi is also known as the "Chinese vampire" even though it behaves more like a zombie rather than a vampire (in Western cultures). They are reanimated corpses that move by hopping around and they kill living beings to absorb theiryang energy.
Author's Note
And just like that, Book 3 is done. Am I killing you yet with the cliffhangers? I think this one is a little nicer than the others, but I'm sure many of you will disagree. I hope you enjoyed meeting Aiden. He's deliciously evil in my opinion and will give us all sorts of trouble in the future. True love never dies right?
I really can't wait to take you farther down this path with Eva. It was my goal for you to start to see a stronger Eva in this book, than in the ones before. I think sometimes we can't be who we really are until we know where we came from. As Eva uncovers her past she will only get stronger from here on out. For me, Eva has always been strong. I think it takes an enormous amount of strength to be positive and trust people after everything that she has been through. Hopefully you will grow to see her that way as well.
Thank you as always for being on this trip with me. Your sweet comments and messages never cease to amaze me with how wonderful you all are. Never be shy about messaging me on Facebook with your questions and comments. I love hearing from you!
Please leave a review on Amazon to give me further motivation to keep the story going. As I've said before, reviews are the lifeblood of authors, and I read all of them.
Visit my Facebook page to get updates.
Visit my Amazon Author page.
Visit myWebsite.
Sign up for my newsletter to stay updated on new releases, find out random facts about me, and get access to different points of view from Eva and the guys.
Other Books by C.R. Jane
The Fated Wings Series
First Impressions
Forgotten Specters
The Fallen One (a Fated Wings Novella)
Forbidden Queens
Frightful Beginnings (a Fated Wings Short Story)
The Rock God (a Fated Wings Novella, coming soon)
Faded Realms (coming soon)
The Timeless Affection Series
Lamented Pasts (October 2018)
The Rise Again Series
The Day After Nothing (May 2019)