Wisteria

“Hello, Sweetbrier.” He took her chin in his hand, and between her lips Aris whispered, “I’ve finally found you.”

He plucked a blueberry from a thriving bush and popped it into his mouth, sensing his wife’s touch upon it.

Perfect. It was perfect.

The woman he had not stopped thinking about. The one his very skin burned for.

His wife.

His wife. There before him all this time.

What a fool he’d been not to see it before

Because the truth of it could no longer be ignored. For the second time in his life, Aris Dryden was falling in love. Only this time, he prayed that fate would be on his side

“I will take care of your daughter, Elijah. I swear it on my life.”

Oh, how he meant it. Despite all his conflicting emotions and terror at the realization of what was happening to him, Aris meant every word. He would find Chaos, and he would burn her alive if that was what it took.

She was the one who Aris was searching for, not Signa.

She was Life.

twice with Lady Asherby, the daughter of a marquess who frequented her father’s gentleman’s club whenever he visited the country.

It was wondrous. And for a sliver of a moment, as the barest hint of a smile crossed his lips—not a smirk nor any hint of smugness, but a true and proper smile—so was Aris.

“I have a hard time believing Aris was ever capable of love,” just to fill the void. The lie seared her tongue the moment she’d said it, for the truth was that she knew no one as romantic as Aris. The man was more than capable of love; he was fueled by it. Who else would remain in search of his wife for so many centuries?

She even recalled believing that she herself would have been happy to exist in such a space.

What a fool she’d been to have ever put that idea into the universe.