“The first time I met death, it was at a ball and we danced a waltz.”

“It is not your time, love. You will not die tonight.All this time she thought herself in love with the notion of Death. His gallantry, his beautiful soul. She believed he loved her because he had spared her from his grip. But it had not been Death, but Black.“Why?” she asked, and her body shook, knowing his sacrifice, knowing he knew her most guarded secret.“Because I loved you,” he murmured. “I couldn’t let you go, because I knew I could no longer see you, I couldn’t live, either.”Black had risked his life to save her from taking her own.He rose, helped her up and clutched her in his arms. “It is too soon for you to make your decision,” he said. “Come to me when you know what you want. My wishes will remain unchanged.”“What do you want?”He kissed her, pressed her body into his hot, hard one. “To be inside you. To lay you out and touch you with my hands, my mouth and tongue. I want to slip deep inside you and never leave. I want to wake up in the morning and open my eyes to find you lying there next to me. I want to look at my children and see you in their little faces.”“Jude,” she whispered, holding him, weakening.“But I want you to want that as much as I do, Isabella.”“We have too many secrets,” she began. “Our pasts…”“Secrets, like passion, are meant to be spent. I will bear all my sins, all my secrets, when you come to me. It’s all I can offer. You see, little love, I’m afraid, too, but the difference between us is that I believe it’s worth it to face that fear if it means that I’ll have you.”

“You kissed me, and I opened my eyes and thought you were Death. You were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and I clung to the memory of you because it gave me comfort—the only bit of happiness I had ever had. You were my secret fantasy, my lover. My story… Lord Death is you, and the woman he stalks…is me.”“Why have you come,” he asked, “when you now know the truth?”“Because when you saved me, you forged a link between us. I don’t believe it will ever break.”“Bella,” he whispered, “I couldn’t allow you to take your life. Couldn’t bear the thought of existing in a world that you did not.”

“Tis not your time, my love,” he whispered. “You will not die tonight.” “Never,” I said to him, “for I have been blessed by Death’s Eternal Kiss.”

“Pearls, because your skin is as smooth and luminescent as one, and because the first time my lips caressed your throat I thought your flesh as opulent and lushas one. Gold,” he whispered, moving closer, “because it reminded me of how your hair looked in the dyingcandlelight, how it burned and glistened, and how badly I want to lie in bed, in our chamber, and watch you at your dressing table, unpinning it for me. I will have that, Lucy, therights of a husband to enter his wife’s room, to see her at her toilette, to watch what no other man will ever begranted. You do understand that? That I won’t settle for less?”“You have made your line in the sand very clear.”He grinned. “You can cross it anytime you wish, you know. You might even like it on my side.”

“I’m still scared, still wanting to run at times when I look into your eyes and wonder how I will ever be the sort of man you deserve. I want so much to deserve you. To be worthy of a woman like you.”

“Everywhere you are, I will be. Everywhere you go, I willgo. I will follow you into your dreams, stay while you sleep,watch while you eat.”That sinful bottom lip touched hers, then played with it,brushing it, tugging on it, parting her mouth as if he had allthe time in the world to play and coax. “I will be the very airyou breathe.”