Page 135 of A Reign of Roses
“Very much so.”
I could almost hear her grin, and found myself doing the same.
We had only slept together a handful of times—one of the greatest tragedies known to man—and yet in such a brief period, she’d come to understand something so deeply personal about myself, I hadn’t even known it. And I’d been bedding women this way for years. “You’re a perceptive little bird, aren’t you?”
Arwen nodded against my chest and I laughed.
“Didyoulike it?” I asked.
“Yes,” she admitted. “Not every time. Mostly I like when you…”
Heat simmered in my veins. “When I what?” I could hear the growl already taking root in my voice. I was useless around this woman.
“You know. When youhandleme.”
I barked a laugh. “Good Gods, I hope that’s not what it is I’m doing.”
“But,” she said, “I did like it. It was empowering.”
“You are always powerful.”
Arwen nodded noncommittally against my chest.
“That thing you do, with your lighte…” The image of Arwen’s bright white fire, blinding and scorching and nimble, soared through my mind.
“Sunfire,” she murmured, and I knew her eyes were closed. “In my head I call it sunfire.”
“It’s not anything I’ve seen before.”
“Really?”
“Really. Thatsunfire…it’s just like you. Beautiful and dangerous. Soft but unbreakable. Strength and vulnerability in one.” I ran my fingers tenderly along her back. “It makes sense that it’s the embodiment of your lighte.”
I was a lucky bastard. I’d fallen in love with a woman who opened up my mind in ways I’d never imagined. Who showed me how strength could be found in tenderness, or how the vulnerability of giving yourself over to someone could be a mighty, fortifying force. I’d fallen in love with a woman who was my friend. A light in pitch-darkness. A bird to guide me home.
Never mind that war was looming and our miserable fates were sealed and we’d already lost so much. Never mind that we might never truly be married. I was lucky just to be holding her tonight.
For a while she said nothing, only nuzzled her head closer to mine. Worming her way into the crease of my head and shoulder she called my nook.Eventually, I wondered if she’d fallen asleep.
Until she asked, “When should we be married?”
“Tonight?” I laughed faintly. “Tomorrow?”
Arwen rolled from my chest and onto her side. “You’re right.”
“I am?”
She sat up. “Tomorrow. Before we go back to Solaris. I want to live in this moment. Right now. Who knows what’s coming…Like you said earlier, we deserve all the joy we can get these days.”
“Did I say that?” It didn’t sound like me.
“No,” she said, undeterred. “But it’s what you meant.”
I grinned, basking in the soft glow of her positivity. “I love it in there.”
Arwen’s eyes narrowed. “Where?”
When I placed a finger between her brows, her bright smile lit the room like sunlight.
