There was no question that together they would head to the chamber upstairs, but when Celeste crossed the threshold, she froze.
Reeve had just taken off his baldric but kept Sid in hand. “What is it?”
She looked about, and he was afraid to see a shiver and a frown, but instead she clasped her hands in front of her and grinned. “It feels tingly in here.”
“Good tingly or bad tingly?”
She looked on the wards that lined the walls with a fondness he was briefly jealous of. “Very good.”
He nodded and took Sid to the attached bathing chamber. He waited for the sword to comment on the strangeness of being set to rest for the night in a separate room, specifically one with a tub, but the Obsidian Widow Maker was, for once, silent.
CHAPTER 26
ALTERING THE ALTAR AT WHICH ONE WORSHIPS
Celeste was already in the bed when Reeve emerged from the bathing chamber. She’d made quick work of her dress, left only in that thin, white material with lace for straps, but had pulled the linens up over her lap. In the dark, she’d lit a candle on the side table, and its glow was warm over her pale skin, pink when he stared at her for so long from the doorway.
“I’ll, uh, be down here, if you need me.” He quickly looked away and gestured to the floor.
“Reeve,” said Celeste with a firmness, “don’t be silly.”
Hesitation rooted deep in his bones, but he couldn’t deny his desire to climb in beside her. He’d wanted to the night before as well, though then it had been a little different. After her nightmare, he had only wanted to remain close, to guard against anything that dared threaten her. Now, he still wanted to be close, and he still wanted to keep everything else away, but he wondered if he himself should be counted amongst those threats because of the other things he wanted to do to her.
Though the way she was tapping the pillow at her side and hesitantly smiling, it seemed she might want him to do those things. And maybe some other things he didn’t even know about. Yet.
He took a deep breath and finally climbed in. Carefully measuring out the space between, he laid back, folded his hands over his chest, and stared up at the solitary candle’s light dancing over the darkened ceiling. His limbs wanted to fidget and his heart beat so loud he imagined even Plum had to hear it from his nest in the temple’s rafters, but he remained as still as possible.
“You saved Eliot,” Celeste broke the quiet with a voice far steadier than he knew his own would be.
Reeve licked his lips and swallowed the lump in his throat, heat flaring in his face. “He found a dry place to wait out the storm, and he would have found his way back when it was over. He may not speak, but he’s smart. He was just frightened.”
“Well, he would have been frightened for much longer if you hadn’t found him.” The bed displace beside Reeve, and he held very still as he felt Celeste’s presence come near. “Thank you for being so good.” She pressed her lips to his cheek.
It all happened so fast that Reeve barely realized he had taken Celeste by the middle and thrown himself atop her until his mouth was on hers. Celeste squealed with surprise under his lips, and he was reminded of the last time the two of them were in the very same bed.
“Sorry, sorry,” he panted, pushing himself up and away, but her hands had clutched onto his biceps, and despite the thinness of her arms, she was not allowing him to go very far.
“You don’t need to apologize.” She blinked up at him, shimmering silver pools catching the candlelight and holding his gaze in earnest. She ran a hand up to the collar of his tunic. “Do you always wear your clothes to bed?”
Ah, good, an easy question. “No.”
A devious grin spread out over her face, and she yanked the tunic right over his head. It only blinded him a moment, and then she tossed it into the chamber, wrapped arms around his neck, and pulled him into another searing kiss.
Reeve kept himself aloft on a knee and an elbow, a struggle to maintain the sliver of space he felt was appropriate while wanting to cover every inch of her body with his own, but she was lying beneath him with so little on and was so small herself, he knew he’d absolutely crush her. Still, he longed to be free of every stitch of clothing and to press her skin right to his.
But then her hands were fumbling at the waist of his breeches, and despite some awkward wiggling, he couldn’t seem to lower his knee and allow her to actually pull them off.
She instead pulled herself back and let him go. “Actually, this probably isn’t very fair, is it?” And without much more warning, she slipped her chemise off over her head.
Reeve had never been in bed with a woman before, let alone a naked one, but in taking in Celeste’s body for the first time, he finally understood why the others sang the praises of breasts and stomachs and hips so enthusiastically. He expected to be terrified, and his heart indeed pumped like he were engaged in a realm-altering battle, but when he looked down on her, there was nothing to truly be afraid of, no dangerous exploit laid out on the mattress that would consume his soul if he did something wrong, just a person who had chosen to be there with him.
And she wasn’treallynaked, she still had on that locket, after all, though as it fell into the dip of her throat, it only seemed to heighten his awareness of every other part of her.
“You’re beautiful,” he said as he leaned down to kiss her again. He’d been thinking it since they met, but the sprawl of her pale flesh against the blackness of her hair had ripped the truth out of him like a prayer.
She winced, and he pulled back.
“Do you think I would lie to you?”
