Page 65 of Iridian

“I’m trying, sweetness,” he said, and the soldier who’d gone to check on whatever danger was out there seemed to justmaterializebetween the trees and went back to his place without ever even glancing our way. He turned around, kept his arms loose to the sides and closed his eyes—and it was like he’d never even moved in the first place.

“Are they gone?” I dared to ask.

“Yes,” Taland said. “Nobody’s out there right now. Wanna?—”

“Go inside, yes,” I cut him off. “Let’s go inside.”

When we turned, the two soldiers who’d been directly behind us opened their eyes, stepped out of the line and moved back just a couple feet.

“They’re just making way,” Taland whispered, eyes on me. “I know they’re making you uncomfortable.”

“You just thought about them making way?” He nodded. “And they justheardthat? Just like that?”

“Yep,” said Taland, trying to wave me off like it wasn’t a big deal, even though he knew it was.

My Goddess. Thirty super soldiers who were connected to your own mind and all you had to do wasthinksomething to get them moving?

Yeah, it was a big deal, all right. Maybe that’s why I laughed all the way back to that house again.

Chapter 16

Rosabel La Rouge

We went straight to bed together because I didn’t want to sit and watch the trees and the sky anymore. I did want to hear the birds, so Taland pulled a window up just a bit and put the thick curtain halfway over it. Plenty of light came through to the bed. Not the most comfortable bed, but Taland was there with his warmth and his muscles and his satin-smooth skin, so you wouldn’t find me complaining. I made a pillow out of his shoulder, and he had an arm wrapped around me to make sure I couldn’t move if I tried. With his other hand, he touched my face and caressed my hair, my arm, played with my fingers over his chest while they traced the shape of my favorite tattoo on him. The tallarose, which wasus.

We stayed like that for a long time, just listening to each other breathing, listening to the birds,adjustingto this new reality we seemed to be facing. Out of all the things that Ineversaw coming in my life, being on a mountain with Taland while a small army of super-soldiers guarded us was at the top of my list—for now.The Iris Roe or the Regah chamber or anything else couldn’t compare.

Yet as I listened to his heart beating so close to my ear, I began to feel more and more at ease. I began to realize what it meant that David Hill was dead, and the Devil was possibly dead, too, and the Council knew where we were, yes—but what exactly could they do about it?

“We’re okay,” Taland said, and he said it like he just came to the realization, the same as me.

“Apparently we are,” I said in wonder. “Apparently we’rereallyokay.” As much as my paranoia insisted that there had to be loopholes, that we couldn’t justbe hereat peace and not worry when we were both fugitives and the Council knew where we were, I couldn’t deny this.

Once more, when I started laughing at the sheer absurdity of this whole thing, he did, too. So that’s how we ended up laughing our hearts out in bed, possibly scaring away the birds outside the window that could hear us, but that was okay, too.

I had tears in my eyes a minute in, and the bed was shaking with our bodies, and Taland pulled me up higher so he could see my face, look into my eyes with his white ones. Just now, I wasn’t startled. Just now, Iexpectedthem to be white. It was Taland, no matter what colors he wore. And him Ifeltmore than saw.

“Apparently we are,” he repeated in a soft whisper, holding my face in his hands, smiling—for real this time.

“I love you so much it hurts,” I blurted because it was the truth, and it was the only truth that mattered.

For a moment, Taland froze, looked up at me like he didn’t even understand what those words meant.

“Even now?”

I shook my head, in awe of how utterly silly he could be sometimes. I lowered my head until the tips of our nosestouched and said, “Especially now, Taland. And especially tomorrow, and especially the day after. Through summer breezes and fucking hurricanes.”

His eyes closed like he was suddenly relieved. When I kissed his lips, he let me. He just lay there with his eyes closed and let me plant little kisses all over his face for as long as he needed to convince himself that just because his eyes were white, nothing had changed between us. On the contrary—I felt him more than ever before.

Then his hands moved down my back and to my waist, and he squeezed me to him harder until a moan ripped out of me.

Now that I’d calmed down and accepted that this was our life, I could move that doubt and that paranoia out of the way and focus on him completely. On his body under mine. On his hands, the way his fingers dug into my back. Of his breathing that became faster with every new kiss I planted on his skin.

Then he raised his hips and his cock touched my leg—hard. Unsurprising because I was already wet between my legs, too.

Suddenly, Taland moved. I screamed when my back hit the mattress and he was on top of me, eagerly waiting for my mouth to open so he could stick his tongue in my throat and kiss me until nothing else but him remained in my mind.

“I heard you, baby. Loud and clear,” Taland said as he sucked my lips between his teeth and bit them. “Now I’m going to show you exactly how much I love you—especiallynow.”

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