The End of Gods (A Welcome to the Underworld Novel, Book 4) (49 page)

Yoori
genuinely smiled
at the sheer astonishment of what she felt.

“Fourteen years later, and you’re still a Snob,” she murmured in awe.

He nodded, exhibiting the same awestruck daze. “Fourteen years later, and you’re still a Brat.”

“It took us . . . a while to get here,” she repeated again, not knowing before how long it
actually
took for them.

It had been a lifetime for them. It literally had.

“It has always been you,” she uttered, astounded with the enormity of the type of love she had with him. They had always been meant for each other. They were
always
meant to be.

. . . There are moments in life where you feel nothing but a sense of perfection.

The stars have aligned, time has stood still, the storms are at bay, the cruelty of the world has receded, and you are given one of those few perfect moments in life where everything makes sense, where everything is beautiful, where everything—
even for a brief moment
—is
perfect
. 

For Choi Yoori, that beautiful and perfect moment in her life emerged as she stood there with Tae Hyun, the sudden epiphany swimming through her, filling her with amazement.

It has always been him.

Stroking his face, unable to control herself anymore, she raised herself on her tiptoes and kissed him passionately, tears of comprehension gliding down her cheeks as something
extraordinary
happened. As she pressed her lips against his, she could feel her entire body illume into life. The very fibers and senses that made up her very existence came into play and made themselves known—it was as though for the first time in their lives, they were actually
living
and
breathing
for the first time.

The vision of color in her eyes had suddenly gotten more vibrant—
as if it, too, was excited for a future it saw with Tae Hyun.

Her lips ached as they struggled to find his—
their yearning pout also longing for the feel of Tae Hyun’s lips brushing against them.

Her skin sighed against Tae Hyun’s touch—
the fibers within it begging for more attention as it pulled itself closer to his loving hands
.

And finally, her heart—the one entity in her body that Tae Hyun left the biggest impression on. Pumping furiously and relentlessly, it attacked her chest,
never in its life loving someone as much as it loved Tae Hyun
.

It was a simple, yet complex, set of emotions that shook Yoori to the very core of her existence.

Yoori didn’t need Tae Hyun to live—
she very well knew that.

She didn’t need him to survive—
she knew that too.

She knew all of that.

She knew all of that as she tightened her embrace around him, her tears flowing freely for him while she basked in his hold.

She didn’t need Tae Hyun to survive; she just
yearned
for him.

She yearned for him to make her life complete. She yearned for the happiness, the beauty, and the timelessness of loving him.
How would she ever go back to having a lifeless mind, body, and soul without him? How would she ever go back to living the same life she did when she finally saw the magic of life when she was with him? How would she continue to breathe without him by her side to make her feel alive, to make her feel human, to take her breath away?

Her heart twisted in agonizing knots at the thought.

I could never go back to that life,
Yoori concluded easily.

She could very well live without him, but without him, life just wasn’t worth it.

“I love you,” he breathed out, his hands raising and cradling her cheeks. His loving fingers caressed her skin with unparalleled adoration. There was no uncertainty within his voice. It was delivered with a vow that had Yoori’s heart expanding. “I will
always
love you.”

It was the single most extraordinary and amazing sensation she had ever experienced in her life—to know that standing before her, the man who had stolen every inch of her stubborn heart was feeling the exact same sensation as her. He loved her more than he loved himself, more than life itself, and he would continue to love her past his own lifetime.

It was a silent understanding on each of their parts, but she knew at that exact second, Tae Hyun was experiencing the same type of epiphany. The way his fingers stroked over her, the way his body leaned into hers, the way she felt his heart pound away, and the way he looked at her . . . She knew that he felt everything she was feeling: awe, disbelief, gratefulness, amazement, and finally happiness. Pure, unadulterated happiness.

They had finally found
it
.

They had finally found the city they were looking for.

“. . . Paris is the city of love . . .”
Her own dreamy and hopeful voice whispered into her subconscious, acting as a lullaby to her ears.
“
You can’t go to Paris unless you’re madly in love with the person who is taking you. And not just the type of love where you tell one another that you can’t live without each other. No . . . not that type of love. But the type of love that is unconditional—the type that is undying. You know . . . the type that can withstand anything . . . one of those once—
”

Then—

“You’ll tell me what it feels like, right?”
Yoori breathed out quietly, never feeling more blessed in her entire life.
“When you find Paris?”

Smiling lightly, Tae Hyun’s fingers continued to trace its affection over the skin of her cheeks. He stared deeply into her tear-misted eyes with glistening eyes of his own. Without another second wasted, the once seemingly impossible occurred.

“Choi Yoori . . .” Tae Hyun whispered, his voice filled with awe that he had finally reached this moment in his life—
that what he wished for had come to fruition
.

He pressed his forehead against hers, allowing their hot breaths to mingle together while his lips brushed over her yearning ones. With the world seemingly quieting itself in awe, the water from the showerhead deluging down as if in celebration, and the steam arising from the warm water as if hiding them in their own magical world, all that was left in Yoori’s world was Tae Hyun.

All that was left in her world were the most beautiful set of words that she would ever hear in her lifetime. The melodic words streamed from his lips, sending her into a world filled with nothing but timeless magic.

“
I found
Paris
,” he began softly, pressing a world of emotions into those three simple words. “It’s a thousand times more beautiful than I could’ve ever dreamed it to be. So, you know what that means, right?”

Standing there, with everything in her world never having felt more perfect than before, Yoori continued to listen to him as he spoke, while happy tears cloaked her eyes.

With his eyes locked on hers, he parted his lips and told her exactly what it meant. He told her how everything that led to that moment made him feel, he told her how it felt right then and there to be standing there with her, and he told her what that all meant to him, and the sobs escaped Yoori’s chest.

She nodded and held him close to her, her heart expanding as she agreed with everything he said. She did not know it was possible to love someone so much until that very moment, as she realized how much he meant to her and how much he would always mean to her.  

“. . . Until it fades,” he assured her again, his eyes promising that this was a vow he would never break to her.

“Until it fades,” she agreed with him vehemently, knowing in her heart that such magic would never fade. It would live on and on, past a lifetime and past all the lifetimes to come.

“My dad said that Paris is the city of love. If you want to win a woman’s heart, then you have to take her to Paris—you have to
show
her Paris,” Tae Hyun said moments later, his smile widening as he thought about the distant past in which he first said all of this. Yoori couldn’t help but smile as she listened to him go on. “When I was younger, I told myself that I’d go there when I was older, when I have a girl I want to take.” 

He let out a long breath, getting intimately closer to her while placing his hand on the shower wall behind her. He leaned in to give Yoori an up-close view of all the perfect features of his gorgeous face.

His voice soft, he quietly said, “Is it a no-brainer to tell you that we’re leaving for Paris tomorrow?”

“I would’ve punched you if you told me you were taking me anywhere else,” Yoori replied, laughing through her tears.

Paris.

They were finally freaking going to Paris!

He laughed, the dark sexy gaze returning to him while he took a moment to gaze appreciatively at her body.

“Punch me, right?”

His amused expression was inviting and challenging. Being poetic and romantic aside, Tae Hyun’s raging hormones had yet to be quelled, and after finally finding what they were looking for, he was more than ready to celebrate the finding with the love of his life. He planned to not only take her to Paris tomorrow, but also
showing
her Paris tonight.

“Do your worst,” he challenged. A mischievous glint then caught his eyes. He easily feigned disappointment by then adding, “But to be perfectly honest, you seem to be the fragile little doll type . . . too controlled and prudish. I like my woman uncontrolled, wildly demanding in my bed, and I don’t think you’re wild enough to take me on.”

“Oh, really?” Yoori inquired humorously, placing her hands on her hips like she was extremely offended.

He nodded, his eyes continuously challenging her to prove him wrong. Another appreciative gaze swept across her petite body before he added, “You’re free to
try
and prove me wrong if you want.”

Yoori grinned, accepting the challenge. “You’re going down, you shameless womanizer.”

His face completely illuminated with excitement. “Yeah?”

Lifting her hands from her hips while her own sensuous eyes were still on him, she moved her fingers up to his chest. She felt the scintillating muscles ripple at her simple touch. Her eyes pulsing with suggestive desire, she lightly pressed the palm of her hands into his chest, feeling the heat of his body and the beating of his heart. She positioned him right underneath the raining water and watched as the rivulets of water ran down his body, kissing every inch of that perfect physique with adoration. 

No more waiting.

She was done waiting.

Seeing that the moment was perfect as Tae Hyun once promised, she now wanted him to show her why every splendid, euphoric, and magical moment of what would come next,
would be
worth it
.

“Welcome to
Paris
, Boomerang,” Yoori whispered thoughtlessly.

She beamed uncontrollably, her body waiting in anticipation for the magic to come.

After twenty-four years of waiting for the perfect man to give this moment to, she finally found the most perfect one of all: her once-in-a-lifetime love.

It has always been Kwon Tae Hyun, and it will only be Kwon Tae Hyun.

“Welcome to
Paris
, Boomerang,” Tae Hyun whispered back, a wickedly seductive smile holding onto his lips. It was a smile that promised her nothing but perfection for what was to come.

With a relieved laugh, knowing that he could finally free himself from sexual frustration hell, an insatiable and ravenous Tae Hyun swiftly draped his arms around her waist like his life depended on it and pulled her to his chest. He brought her through the cloud of steam, and when his delicious lips found hers, he wrapped her against the length of his powerful body.

Exhibiting ardent care that was coupled with primal animal needs, he
finally
quelled all the sexual frustrations that had been the bane of their existence by
finally
making love to her, by finally giving her the perfection he had always promised her,
and by
finally
bringing down the stars, the moon, and the city she had wanted all her life.

“But things might change in the future . . .”

27: Wherever You Go, I’ll Follow

He wasn’t there when she woke up.

Subconsciously seeking his warmth in her sleep, a once slumberous Yoori woke up when she was met with a vacant space in bed. Curiosity veiling her newly opened eyes, she instinctively touched the empty spot. The coldness of the bed chilled her, resulting in a dreaded chasm that materialized in the core of her stomach. The coldness signified to the observational Queen within her that Tae Hyun hadn’t been in bed for a while.

“Tae Hyun?” her hoarse morning voice whispered.

When she received no response, Yoori turned her attention to the entirety of their enormous bedroom. Her eyes drifted past the floor-to-ceiling windows, which revealed the picturesque view of the quiet lake under the dark morning sky, and swam across the dim room. Her gaze was expectant,
hopeful
that she would find Tae Hyun popping his head out from the bathroom. That hopefulness was eclipsed by the persevering silence.

Tae Hyun was nowhere in sight.

The beating of her heart grew in franticness and the silence within the room was becoming deafening. An unfounded fear she didn’t comprehend began to grip her mind, making her uneasy in ways that terrified her to her very soul. Under any other circumstances, Yoori would not have found herself so worked up over the fact that Tae Hyun wasn’t in bed. Yet,
for some odd and unexplainable reason
, she felt differently today.

She wanted him by her side today; she didn’t want him to go missing.

Not today
.

“Tae Hyun,” she called anxiously, “where are you?”

Never one to sit around and hope for an answer, Yoori threw off the comforter and jumped out of bed. She made a beeline for the black hoodie closest to her and rapidly threw it over her naked body. Tae Hyun’s black hoodie draped over her upper body and rested just above her thighs. Yoori hurried towards the door, but abruptly stopped when her eyes caught sight of the bedside drawer that was slightly pulled opened. It was the drawer that held their guns. 

The drumming of her heart escalated at the sight.

Approaching the innocuous-looking drawer, Yoori’s hand trembled as she pulled the wooden handle and slid the top drawer further out. All the air escaped from her lungs when all that she found were her gold guns.

Tae Hyun’s silver guns . . .
they were missing
.

A sprout of paranoia ignited in her chest. Anxiety spread like a wildfire through her body. Where was he? Where was Tae Hyun, and why were his guns missing?

Yoori frantically grabbed her guns. In a matter of seconds, she was out of the room and searching for him.

“Tae Hyun?” she called softly, running down the stairs barefooted. Shivering from the morning cold, she hoped to hear his voice in the house. When she didn’t, she felt the fear within her soar even higher.

A million different questions tore through her mind—all of them pertaining to the Underworld. Had the Underworld found them? Did they come after them? Did Tae Hyun go to fend them off? Another thought troubled her mind.
Tae Hyun didn’t do anything stupid, did he? He didn’t go back to the Underworld to fight them by himself, did he?
There were countless questions that circulated in her frightened mind, and she knew the only way to get them all answered—
to silence them all
—was to find Tae Hyun as soon as possible.

A blast of morning breeze skidded across her skin as she ran outside. Undeterred by the cold, Yoori’s frantic eyes continued to search for Tae Hyun. The silence, though deafening to her within the barriers of the house, was a song of relief in this setting.

There were no gunshots out here.

There was no Underworld out here
.

Slightly comforted by this fact, but only slightly, as she still had no idea where the hell Tae Hyun was, Yoori ran to the front yard. Her relief was heightened when she found that their cars were still in the driveway. A grateful exhalation emanated from her chest.
Tae Hyun couldn’t have physically left the lake house if his Jaguar was still here
.
Her anxiety subsiding by the second, Yoori continued to look around, softly calling out his name so that she wouldn’t wake their neighbors. She circled around the lake house, her bare feet stepping over the newly watered grass lawn.

Reprieve cascaded over her when she
finally
saw Tae Hyun.

He was standing in front of the colossal lake with his two silver guns in hand. Shirtless and wearing only his black and blue pajama pants, he stared quietly at the lake. The wind grazed over his still body before drifting through his hair and tousling the fabric of his pants. He looked calm, collected, and at peace while his eyes admired the expanse of the landscape before him.

The fact that he was safe and unharmed was all that she needed to see; it was all that she needed to bring order to her once anarchic world.

Yoori smiled self-mockingly to herself.

She understood now why the Underworld forbade them to fall in love. It was an understatement to say that Yoori couldn’t have felt more vulnerable. In a society ruled over by selfish entities, the last thing they wanted was for their leaders to be co-dependent upon someone else. She understood all too well why the Underworld looked down upon love, but now, as emotions that she had never once felt invaded her, she understood all too clearly why it was such a dangerous emotion for the Gods of the Underworld to fall victim to.

Love was the most powerful feeling humans could ever dream to experience. In that same regard, it was the most weakening and the most debilitating emotion that humans could ever realistically live with. With it, you would never feel more powerful, like you were an invincible entity protected by the heavens. Without it, you would never feel more weak and broken, like you were an insignificant creature who’d fallen from grace. Love was an antidote and a poison, the former or latter being solely dependent on the one you gave your heart to.

Yoori briefly closed her eyes and permitted the magnitude of her feelings to rain down upon her.

Everyday, she was learning something new with this emotion, and everyday, it surprised her more and more with how powerful this emotion was. It was incredible how it was capable of making a fool out of a woman like her. God help her that she could love someone so much that the thought of him missing was enough to drive her insane, and the sight of him without maladies eased all her fears. God help her that it was humanly possible to love someone more than life itself. God help her if she should ever lose him. It was a thought that Yoori couldn’t bear and a thought that she didn’t know if she could live with if it ever came to fruition.

Luckily for Yoori, these morbid thoughts did not progress any further. Before she could focus any more energy on it, she became sublimely sidetracked with the more timeless distractions of life.

As if feeling her presence, Tae Hyun averted his eyes from the lake and turned them curiously in her direction. Upon seeing her, he graced her with a smile that had every cell in her body awake and lively. In that dreamlike moment of seeing that gorgeous smile of his, everything was all right in her world again.

“Hey,” he greeted warmly, turning his entire body around to face her. Though it was evident in his gaze that he was curious as to why she was awake and outside, he didn’t voice it. He merely smiled at her, not caring about her reasons. He only cared that she was with him. 

Already putting the small bout of fear she felt in the backburner, Yoori allowed a warm smile to touch her face. She approached him in eagerness. 

“Hi,” she replied quietly, her voice cracking slightly as she stopped in front of him.

Tae Hyun laughed, tilting his head after hearing the hoarseness in her voice. Guns still in hand, he gently wrapped his arms around her hips. He lovingly pulled her close to him.

“What happened to your voice, Princess?” he asked, playfully nipping his nose with hers.

Yoori clamped her mouth shut, blushing slightly when she recalled
why
her voice was so hoarse. She shook her head at him, wordlessly telling him that she wasn’t planning on answering that question.

His persevering smile ensured her that he was not about to let this go. He then posed another question to push her into a corner where she would have no choice but to answer him.

“How was your night last night?”

Yoori blushed harder, remembering all too clearly how her night was. Throughout the entirety of the evening, as they fell into their own world of bliss, Tae Hyun and Yoori, after months upon excruciating months of teasing and sexual frustration, spent the entire night into the late morning making love. She recalled the euphoric state she was in while she was with him, the King who conquered all the cities last night while he drove her crazy with ecstasy at the same time.

He was animalistic in bed, yet gentle. He made her scream while simultaneously whimpering in satisfaction. He was insatiable, yet attentive. He possessed her, but he made love to her. He was a contradiction in every way possible, and he was simply perfect in every way possible.

Needless to say, on Yoori’s very satisfied part, Kwon Tae Hyun was a Sex God in every sense of the word. He more than proved it as he gave her countless moons, stars, and cities the night prior. He worshipped her body as he promised he would, and she enjoyed every moment of it. Screw Prince Charming when you had an Illusionist who could produce the type of timeless magic Kwon Tae Hyun evoked for her last night.

“I was with my Illusionist last night,” Yoori teased, humoring the one who had not only stolen her heart, but also every inch of her body and soul.

“Oh, really?” he inquired, fighting hard to keep his smile from morphing into a huge, prideful grin.

She nodded, hiding her silly grin as well. “I think he used magic and made my voice disappear.”

She screamed, she was screaming so much from the extravagance of being with him. Goddamn her. Yoori didn’t know
why
she was such a prude and waited this long to have one of the most magical nights of her life.

Better late than never
, she mused bitterly. 

“Yes, I do recall you screaming, biting, clawing your nails into my skin, and telling me how wonderful I was last night,” he murmured, subtly bringing her attention to the bite marks she left on his shoulders. Pride undulated in his voice as he pulled her just a bit closer to him. He reminded her of how much fun they had by pressing his warm body against hers. “I’ve been keeping that pretty little body of yours busy, haven’t I?” A wickedly prideful grin curved his lips. “Didn’t you pass out quite a few times?”

“I did
not
pass out,” she defended weakly. Yoori felt like a fool as she felt her body lean into his involuntarily. It was like the fibers in her body were now conditioned to want to be touched by him. Even if she had some semblance of control, it was all shot to hell with her treacherous body continuously seeking him out. “I was just closing my eyes.”

“No,” he helped amend, “you just took a cat nap.”

“You’re enjoying this ‘morning-after’ moment, aren’t you?” she accused sourly.

“Very much so,” he admitted shamelessly. He nipped his nose with hers again. “For what it’s worth, I would’ve passed out too if I wasn’t so greedy and wanted more of you.” A playful grin appeared on his handsome face before he abruptly added, “You know what this makes us,
right
?”

Yoori curiously tilted her head at the odd question.

“Lovers?” she answered uncertainly.

He shook his head, his lips twitching as if fighting to keep from laughing.

Doing well to keep his face free of emotions, he nonchalantly said, “Friends with benefits.”

Yoori giggled girlishly, unable to help it. “You’re my booty call?”

“I’m your booty call,” Tae Hyun concurred disbelievingly, laughing with her.

“Was the wait worth it, my Illusionist?” Yoori prompted seconds later, curious to know how last night panned out for him.

He did not disappoint with his answer.

“Every splendid, euphoric, and magical moment of it.”

They smiled again, unable to help but stupidly grin at the moment they were having—the wondrous moment every human being spent a lifetime waiting for and a lifetime missing when it disappeared.

“Why aren’t you sleeping?” Tae Hyun then asked. “I know you didn’t get much sleep last night, if any at all.”

“Why aren’t you?” she challenged. “As I recall, it was the King who conquered all the cities last night.” It was only after asking something as playful as this did her rationale return. She lowered her eyes and appraised the guns in his hands. The humor from her face subdued faintly. “What are you doing out here anyway?”

“I wanted to see the sunrise,” he told her thoughtfully. He turned back into the direction of the lake and the dark morning sky. “Do you realize that for as long as we’ve known each other, we’ve never watched the sunrise together?”