He could not have been happier to have her here, though, no matter how badly off she was. Merlin knew he was a weaker man than the one she’d been with before, and he could tell that her pride had taken a beating, as well, but no matter what the world threw at them, no matter how they failed, they were always good at this.
Groaning at the feeling of her nails breaking his skin, he pressed into her touch, his own fingers curling bruisingly into her hips as he aligned his with hers, until he was inside her. All of his blood had rerouted south now, and without his mind in the equation, his world had reached a semblance of equilibrium now; everything was right, if only for the moment. He could deal with everything else later.
Not all of his blood had had a chance to be rerouted south, Ella had made sure of that. She tasted the blood she'd kept from the journey on her tongue as she moved to kiss him again, getting a heady feeling from the way his mouth tasted. Being away from him for 48 hours did no less to her than being away from him for two weeks when she used to travel to Bulgaria for Alek. Even now the pain she felt from the wounds she'd acquired in the attack were fading to the background as she reveled in how his fingers dug into her hips, his teeth tore at her mouth, he moved inside of her.
Nothing, nothing could dampen that, not the shite they constantly went through, not anything.
Ella's pride hadn't really taken a beating, though. It wasn't her pride that kept her wanting to, for lack of a better word, protect Alek. No, she felt like her soul, her very essence of being, had taken a beating, had been split when she'd realized how bad off both Terrence and Alek were.
Having Terrence here, though, that was all the healing she really needed. She couldn't say for certain how long they spent melding into one person as he moved against her and she him, couldn't say anymore which of the marks on her skin were from him and which were from the attack. However long it was later, Ella rested against him, eyes finally closing again as she breathed heavily and took solace in the way he'd made her toes curl and her blood boil pleasantly as it coursed through her veins and trickle from scratches and bites.