“I don’t remember that at all,” I said, arching into him. I brought my hand up to the back of his head, trying to hold it in place. “You must have dreamed it.”
“I don’t know if I did,” he said, teeth scraping against my neck. “In fact, I’m pretty sure we were standing right about here when it happened. And you squeaked a little bit, just like—”
His grip tightened, and the noise that came from my mouth was something I would never be proud of.
“—that,” he finished, sounding unbearably smug. “Now, I remember it.”
He laughed as I turned around and shoved him away, but he grabbed on to my hand and wouldn’t let me go.
“You’re an ass,” I said.
He shrugged. “Probably. But then, you are too. It’s why we go so well together.”
“I’ve obviously made a very big mistake. You should go and see if Justin will take you back and I will find someone who isn’t a cock tease and who is also vascular and has nicer nipples.”
He rolled his eyes as he tugged me forward. “Because that’s going to happen. You’re stuck with me and my average nipples. I mean, who else is going to be my own personal Foxy Lady?”
He kissed me, and I bit his lip just this side of too hard. He didn’t seem to mind, if his tongue had anything to say about it. I let him mack on my face (because I was a nice person) for a little bit, before he pulled away, eyes crinkling in the corners. Somehow, my hands had found their way to his chest and were curled into the leather jerkin he wore. He smelled like sun and sweat and grass. He had a smudge of dirt on his cheek and a thin, clotted cut on his bicep that I’d have to look at to make sure it didn’t need stitching.
“Training went well, then?” I asked.
He nodded. “For the most part.”
“Still getting shit?”
“Daily.” Which, really, I should have felt bad about, what with the Castle Guard firmly planted in my corner and their rah-rah Go Sam mentality. They hadn’t been too happy with him for waiting until the last (and worst) possible second to finally own up to his feelings for me. Don’t get me wrong, knights were strong and hardworking and some of the fiercest people I had ever known. But they could also be the bitchiest, especially when they or someone they cared about had been wronged. How I’d come to foster that level of devotion, I had no idea, but I wasn’t going to question it.
Honestly, though, I felt bad. I really did. I grinned at him. “Shouldn’t have fucked up, then, huh?”
“Or maybe,” he said, arching an eyebrow, “you could go and tell them they no longer need to defend your honor, given that I realized the error of my ways over a year ago.”
“Nah,” I said, poking him in the chest. “You chose not to jerk me off. I choose to let them jerk you around.”
“I don’t know that the punishment fits the crime,” he said.
“You’re welcome. Not that I mind, but what’re you doing here? I thought we were supposed to meet for dinner.”
“Yeah,” he said. “We were. About an hour ago.”
I winced. “Shit. My bad, dude. I got caught up in… uh. Working. On stuff.”
“What kind of stuff?”
“Magic stuff. You wouldn’t understand.”
“That’s odd, because I already got stopped by Morgan on my way down here,” he said, looking smug again. “He said something entirely different. And he wouldn’t stop looking at my crotch with a rather fearful expression on his face.”
“Godsdammit,” I muttered.
“You couldn’t have gotten to fifty stanzas?”
I laughed and punched him lightly on the shoulder. “Bastard.”
He leaned forward, lips trailing along my cheek until he reached my ear. “Bring it with you,” he whispered. “You can read it to me later.”
Hell fucking yeah I was going to do that. I was going to read it the fuck all over him.
WE WERE up the stairs, laughing quietly to ourselves, shoulders bumping, hands clasped between us. It was easy, this thing between us, easier than it had any right to be given all the shit we’d gone through to get to this point. It’d hurt when I thought I could never have it. When we’d danced the night he was promoted to Knight Commander and became engaged to the Prince, I’d told myself that that was all I was going to have. That was all I was going to let myself have. It’d been too much to pine away in silent misery wanting something that I could never call my own. I wallowed, sure, but I knew the difference between the fantasy in my head and the reality in front of me.
But it’s a funny thing, life is. No matter what you have planned, there’s always going to be that one thing that comes along and says, ha ha, fuck you, this is what’s going to happen now.
I could admit to being worried that, after all was said and done, if it’d be the same between us. That without being chased by Darks or cults or rabid fangirls, if we could just be Ryan and Sam without any of the bullshit.
Turns out we could.
Quite well in fact.
Sure, I grated on his nerves every now and then, and he really needed to learn not to be a douchebag all the time, but it was working for us. Mom and Dad had been hinting that they’d like to see something come of it before long, but I’d made sure to shut that shit down right away before Ryan could hear anything and before the idea could take root in my head. I had too much on my plate already as it was. Besides, we had time for all of that later.
Aside from an overzealous manticore that thought I would look better if my skin had been burnt to a crisp, everything had been quiet.
The Darks stayed away after their ill-advised attack on the castle.
Verania was safe.
People were happy.
Eventually, I just stopped waiting for the other shoe to drop. And even if it had, I was surrounded by people who would do everything for me, much like I’d do anything for them.
So there we were, jostling each other back and forth, only paying attention to each other, the way it should have been. We were young and in love and stupid, but we were allowed to be. After everything we’d been through, this was our happy ending.
I didn’t see the woman in front of us. Didn’t see her until I crashed into her.
I tried to apologize, but she slapped her hand over my mouth and dragged me into the shadows of the flickering torch on the wall. She was old, the lines and crags on her face pronounced, like a map to all her years. Her eyes shone darkly, her raven hair falling on her shoulders. Her wrinkled hand was warm against my face, her grip strong and sure for such an old thing. She had large metal bangles on her wrists that clanged together as she pressed me up against the wall.
“What the hell are you doing?” Ryan demanded, taking a step toward us.