The moment Etienne saw her hazel eyes started to tear, he tried to pull away, but for once her reflexes were faster than his, her arms circling around his neck to keep him from leaving.
“Let go,” he gritted out.
But her arms around him only tightened. “Have you been eating well? Drinking enough blood? Killing enough vam—”
“Stop this.” Etienne’s voice was hollow. “I know why you’re here. I know Caylie went to see you. Luka felt obliged to inform me about it, and I can easily guess—”
“That if I heard about your experiment, it might make me come back for the wrong reasons?”
Etienne’s jaw clenched. “Did you?”
“She showed me what your people have been writing—” Spencer saw him whiten, and her heart lurched in pain.
“She had no fucking right—”
“Just stop the experiments,” she whispered.
“I can’t.”
“Even if I tell you it won’t make a difference?”
And there it was, he thought dully. There had always been the smallest part of him that hoped the experiments could help him get her back, but even that sliver of hope was gone now.
“You understand now, r-right? It won’t make any difference, so please—” Her words broke off when he suddenly made use of his strength and speed, and in a blink of an eye, they were both on their feet, and he was cupping her face.
“I love you,” he said rawly. “I know I’ve lied too many times for you to believe me, but it’s the truth.”
It was then she saw the despair that haunted his gaze, just that moment she realized what he was thinking.
“I wish I had known earlier, I wish I hadn’t been so fucking blind so that I could’ve spared you the pain of…” He swallowed hard. “I fucked up. I know I fucked up too many times for you to forgive me, and that’s fine. All I’m asking is that I can still love you—” His voice turned ragged. “The experiments are all I have left of you. It’s the only way I can love you even when we’re apart.”
“Etienne, no…”
Pain nearly crushed him alive at her continued refusal. “Please, mi vavli. It’s all I have fucking left—”
Spencer raised herself on her toes and silenced him with a teary kiss.
“You m-misunderstood,” she whispered brokenly against his lips. “I said it won’t make a difference because there’s nothing for you to prove.” Clutching his shoulders with trembling fingers, she pulled back and lifted tear-filled eyes to his. “I believe you,” she whispered tremulously. “I believe love came first, and I never stopped loving you.”
Epilogue
Several months later
A momentous silence swept over the room as Domenico Moretti, serving as the representative of the newly established L’Alliance, affixed his signature on the last page of the treaty. The contract was then passed to the government leaders, one to represent each continent, who scrawled their names on the same page one after another.
When it was all done and pens were laid to rest, the hushed silence within the assembly hall deepened…until those on the platform stood to face the crowd, and with it, a deafening applause rose from the thousands of spectators that had come to witness the birth of a new world. With the vampires no longer constraining themselves to the shadows, it was imperative that humans and preternaturals not only coexist harmoniously. Their very survival depended on their ability to trust each other, and while the treaty was a step towards the right direction, Spencer knew there was a long way to go before both sides stopped viewing each other with fear and suspicion.
Fingers cupping her chin caused Spencer to glance up, and despite everything, a tiny thrill still squeezed her heart at seeing the love that was now a constant glitter in Etienne’s dark gaze.
“It is not good for you to be frowning so heavily, Mrs. Hirsche.” The billionaire’s fingers gently smoothed over her forehead as he spoke, and Spencer had to take a deep breath. Seeing this, her husband said gravely, “Apologies, my love. I didn’t mean to turn you on in public.”
Color burst in her cheeks even as her stupid, hormone-driven body drew even more perverse pleasure from his teasing, and she had to tightly press her legs together in a futile attempt to relieve the moist pressure that was already making her pussy quiver in need.
“My God, Etienne, shut up.” A quick, furtive look around her confirmed Spencer’s worst suspicions. While it was impossible for the humans seated nearby to hear her husband’s words, there were also preternaturals around them, and the way they were either grinning openly at her or politely averting their gazes said enough.
Lips curving in a smirk, Etienne snatched her hand, and as he brought it up to press his lips against her knuckles, he silkily delivered his answer. “No.”
Spencer let out a little growl as she tried to yank her hand out of his hold, but it was like freeing herself from steel handcuffs, and because her body wasn’t even on her side, she couldn’t even make her resistance last.