Braxton blows out a heavy breath before he forcibly softens his shoulders and gives me a lazy grin.
“We could always go back to my room.” He’s saying it in jest, but honestly, I fear it might be our only option.
“I was actually thinking the same thing.”
His brows shoot to his hairline, and I roll my eyes.
“Look, our clothes are covered in blood and who knows what else, these chairs, even though ridiculously oversized, are too stiff to actually sleep comfortably on, and… well… I...” I pause, knowing admitting this last part out loud will be the hardest truth of all. “I don’t want to be alone.”
“You’re serious.”
“Just for tonight.” I give Braxton a stern look. “I only need one night to settle after the events, and then I’m sure the castle will feel like back to the stuffy prison it always has been.”
Braxton nods contemplatively before getting to his feet at an achingly slow pace. “Alright, then, we’ll go back to my room for tonight. I’ll make sure to have everything sorted for you to go back to your normal brooding around the castle by morning.”
I scoff. “I don’t brood. You brood.” I wrinkle my nose at him when his smile broadens.
Without another word, he tentatively opens the door to the study, checks down the hallways, and ushers me to follow him to his room.
His room.
I’m going to Braxton’s room.
I’m going to sleep in Braxton’s bed.
And I can still remember what it felt like to have him buried inside of me.
This is going to be a long night.
45
Azalea
Whenwegottohis room, Braxton immediately ran me a bath, where I meticulously scrubbed every droplet of blood off of my skin until it turned pink. I honestly wasn’t sure what was mine, what was Braxton’s, and what was Gravesley.Was any of it mine?After I emerged from his bath chamber, he gave me my privacy to change into his shirt, which he laid out for me on the bed.
Now, Braxton and I are lying together in his bed. I asked him if he was going to be a gentleman and let me have the bed to myself, and he let me know exactly what he thought of that idea by climbing in right beside me after he washed himself and changed his clothes.
We’ve more or less stayed like that since. Both of us refuse to sleep on the floor, and neither of us are anywhere close to being able to fall asleep. Braxton has been abusing his bottom lip between his teeth for at least five minutes now, and whatever thought he was wrestling with, he finally seems to concede to. Letting out a heavy sigh, he rolls over and reaches into the small table next to his bed.
“I want you to have this.”
He holds up his hand, and I see an absolutely beautiful necklace dangling from his fingertips. I can’t help but look at it distrustingly.
“Is this your way of trying to bribe me to sleep with you?”
“Clearly, I didn’t need to bribe you to want to sleep with me, or have you already forgotten about the library?” He flashes me a teasing grin, and I scowl at him.
“It must not have been that memorable.” I shrug with nonchalance.
“Your multiple orgasms tell me otherwise.”
My cheeks flame, and I reach for the necklace to keep from having to come up with a retort to his painfully true remark.
It’s a lariat necklace that has a delicate gold chain. There’s one large rose quartz stone where the junction of the chains of the necklace meets, and a second slightly smaller rose quartz stone dangling at the very bottom of the necklace.
“It’s beautiful,” I say, still unsure of why he would be gifting this to me.
“Let me put it on you.”
