“I love you, Aleksei.” And she did. She was so completely filled with love for him she could barely think straight.
Aleksei kissed her, still buried to the root. Long after he sent her to sleep, he stayed inside of her, the place he loved to be most. He drank in her scent. Kept the taste of her on his tongue. She loved him. A miracle. His. He knew he would spend his life working to make her happy. He also knew she would bend over backward to give him everything he wanted.
He brushed kisses against her throat. “I love you, too, kessake,” he whispered, and gave the command for the soil to close around and over them. Still buried deep, his body in hers, he laid his head in the sweet hollow between her shoulder and neck and allowed his heart and lungs to cease working until the next rising. He would wake inside her, right where he wanted to be.