I lower my chin and look at him through my lashes. “Do you want me to spend the night here, with you?”
He cups my jaw and runs a thumb along my bottom lip. “I want you to spend a lifetime with me.”
Chapter Thirty-One
SEB
When I wake and find Zoe contentedly sleeping within the curl of my body, I almost can’t contain my joy. She’s mine. She accepted the mating bond. I lower my nose and breathe in the scent of her sleep-warmed skin. My mating scent mingles with hers. I don’t want to wake her. She needs her sleep. But I can’t stop myself from spreading my fingers on her stomach.
She rolls onto her back and stretches, blinking sleepy eyes at me. I roll with her, over her, in her. She’s naked, thank fuck, as am I. A brilliant late-night decision on my part.
“Oh, Seb,” she says softly.
“Do you want me to stop?”
She kisses along my neck to my ear. “Hell no.”
I don’t stop. Not until she’s arching in my arms for the third time and I’m spilling into her. My dragon breathes a contented sigh and curls at the back of my head.
After a few more minutes of postcoital bliss, she bounds from the bed and cleans herself up in the bathroom, then starts pulling on her dress.
“Dressing is highly overrated.”
“I need to go back to my place to change and do my morning routine. We should get started right away. Do you have anything gold I can use to make you a ring?”
I frown. “You should move some of your things here. I’ll clear a drawer for you and space in the closet.”
“Did you hear what I asked about the gold?”
I nod. “We have time, Zoe.”
“No, we don’t. I heard you tell Ellison and Lucas that you planned to go after Roman Cifarelli soon, as soon as they could get you into where he’s hiding. You need this ring before you do that.”
I thought I could wait to broach this subject for at least a day. Our mating should be a deliriously happy occasion. The last thing I want to think about is Roman. But she’s right. It’s my responsibility to kill Roman. His death might be the only thing that could disorient the Saint’s Order enough to disrupt this war, make room for an accord or at least balance the scales.
“I can do it without the ring.”
“Why would you want to? I can do this. I can help you.”
I can feel her anger rising. It’s important to Zoe that I believe in her abilities, and I do, but I also love her more than I love my life.
“I know. I know you can. But I don’t want you to rush ascending. After what happened last time, I’d rather you never use gold dust again.”
Zoe grabs her head.
“What’s wrong?” I put my hand on her shoulder.
“Splitting headache. The spider is back.”
“The spider?”
She looks at me like she didn’t realize she was saying it out loud.
“Can we talk about this over coffee?”
Twenty minutes later, she’s dressed and sitting at my kitchen table with a massive cappuccino in her hands and a plate of eggs and bacon that Patrick was kind enough to cook for us steaming in front of her. She still looks tired. I pray to the creator that she’s not coming down with something.
“You asked about the spider,” she says, looking down into her coffee.
