Serpent King's Bride: A Dark Mafia Romance Trilogy

With trembling fingers, I flipped the lid open, revealing the ring that I’d chosen for her—a band of white gold with clusters of emeralds and a diamond at the center. The gemstones caught the moonlight and made faint rainbows flicker across her face, her eyes wide.

“Abby, will you marry me?”

The forest around us held its breath. The canopy of redwoods seemed to lean in closer, witnessing the gravity of this moment. Abby’s gaze flickered down to the ring, then back up to meet mine, her expression a tangle of love, fear, and disbelief.

She exhaled, long and slow, a sound that seemed to come from the very depths of her. “Yes,” she whispered fiercely, a tear trailing down her cheek. “I want that. Yes.”

But the gun remained in her hand, a stark reminder of where we’d been just moments before. She held it as if she’d forgotten it was there, or perhaps as if letting go meant letting go of something else—some last defense against the hope I was offering her.

She needed me to tell her what to do.

“Turn the safety on, Abby,” I said with a calmness I didn’t feel. My voice, low and commanding, seemed to reach through the fog that clouded her mind. She blinked, and her fingers obeyed, moving mechanically to click the safety into place.

I rose slowly, making no sudden moves that might startle her. With a careful motion, I reached out and took the gun from her hands, feeling its cold weight for a brief moment before tossing it aside, where it disappeared among the ferns and underbrush.

Then, as though we were alone in the world, just us and the ancient trees, I took her trembling hand in mine. Sliding the ring onto her finger was like turning a key to unlock something new within us both.

It was a promise, solid and real, glinting there in the quiet majesty of the redwoods.

We stood there, motionless, the only sound our mingled breaths and the distant call of a night creature. The mist swirled around us, painting everything with silver strokes, and the moon, hanging full above, bathed us in its ethereal glow.

Abby’s eyes, those deep wells of emotion, moved from the ring back to me. In them, I saw a storm of feelings—regret, hope, love—all merging into a single, piercing look that seemed to say everything she couldn’t put into words.

Abruptly, she closed the distance between us, her lips finding mine with a passion that rocked me to my core. I steadied myself, grasping her face in my hands, feeling the dampness of her cheeks. “I love you,” I whispered against her lips, each word a vow that twined around my heart.

Her response was immediate, her kiss fervent and demanding, as if trying to communicate all her fears, her love, her relief into the very fabric of my being.

I matched her intensity, my own emotions raw and exposed. The frenzied beat of my heart felt like it could burst through my chest at any moment.

Driven by a need deeper than desire, I gently pushed her back until she was pressed up against the cool bark of a towering redwood, whispering “I love you” again, again. My kisses trailed from her mouth down her neck, where I paused to nip at her skin, marking her in a primal act that spoke of possession and belonging.

Her hands, urgent and unyielding, fumbled with the button of my pants, her movements fueled by a fervor that mirrored my own. Her fingers slipped inside, finding me hard and ready, and she wrapped around me with a firmness that drew a groan from the depths of my throat.

“Abby,” I gasped, as she began to stroke me with a rhythm as chaotic and unrestrained as the situation we found ourselves in. She kissed me again, fiercely, and in the heat of the moment, her teeth caught my lip, the sharp pain mingling with the intense pleasure of her touch. The blood on my lips smeared across hers, the taste heady and metallic.

Without breaking our kiss, I reached down, my hand sliding under the hem of her dress, fingers brushing against the lace of her panties. With one swift movement, I yanked the delicate fabric aside, lining myself up with her. Every fiber of my being was focused on this moment, on Abby, on the connection that had turned my world upside down and reshaped it around her.

I thrust inside her, raw and unfiltered emotion transforming into physical motion. A guttural groan escaped my lips and blended with Abby’s cry, piercing the darkness around us. Our noises were primitive, unrestrained—like animals here in this ancient forest.

Her back pressed against the rough bark of the redwood, she braced herself, arms wrapped around my neck, pulling me deeper into her embrace. I held her by the ass, gripping her flesh with a possessiveness that surged through my veins like wildfire. She lifted her legs, wrapping them around my hips, her heels digging into me, urging me on.

We moved together in a frenzied pace, our bodies chasing the pinnacle of pleasure that loomed just within reach. Her cries grew louder, mingling with mine, echoing off the towering trees that stood witness to our union.

“Abby,” I panted, my voice lost amidst the symphony of nocturnal sounds and our shared climax that was building like a storm on the horizon.

“Please, Nathan,” she begged, her voice breaking as we both teetered on the edge of release.

The world narrowed down to the two of us, everything else fading into insignificance. We raced towards oblivion, our cries crescendoing into the night, each call and response propelling us closer until we reached the peak together.

With the force of her kiss, of her pussy clenching around me, the last of my restraint shattered. I came inside her, groaning against her lips, tangling my fingers in her hair.

We held each other close as we trembled in the aftershocks of what we’d sparked between us. My arms were still wrapped around her, holding her close, protecting her from everything except me. And in that moment, I was gentle with her, kissing her forehead, her cheeks, her lips. She met my eyes, and something unspoken passed between us—a promise, a future.

“Abby,” I whispered, each kiss a tender echo of my earlier desperation. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” she whispered.

With care, I stroked her hair away from her face, tucking stray strands behind her ear, taking in every detail as if seeing her for the first time. Leaning back in, I kissed her once more, softly, savoring the taste of her, the heat of her, the sheer miracle of her presence.