Cassia rolled in his arms to face him. Aevrin kissed her hungrily. She pushed him onto his back and straddled him, grinding against his hardness. He groaned, and grabbed her hips, pushing up against her.
Cassia bent down to plant a kiss on his lips.
“Happy twenty-fifth,” she whispered, and then peeled herself off him and jumped quickly out of bed.
“Now that’s just mean. You’re going to leave me like this?” He gestured at the stiff shape between his legs.
“What? You have hands,” she said. She gave him a grin over her shoulder as she pulled on warm clothes, then slipped out the door.
Cassia had thought about drudd-syrup pancakes, but she hadn’t wanted to over use the flavor and take away the excitement of the pie. Better to do a whole array of things Aevrin liked. So she’d baked a boarbird and cheese egg tart and made the dough for cream biscuits the night before. She got the fire going the moment she made it downstairs. By the time the Rivekers started showing up she had grallo brewed, bacon frying, and a bowl of sugared berries. The way Aevrin looked at her in awe when she pulled all the baked goods out of the oven made the extra work worth it.
Despite his teasing they didn’t run immediately upstairs after the breakfast spread. They were both too full. Cassia didn’t envy Sath, Mavek, and Sorven as they slowly ambled outside, off to a long day of hard work.
Besides. Vadalae’s wings couldn’t carry him in flight yet—wings healed slowly—but the drake was big enough now to be ridden safely on all fours. Cassia and her dragon had gone alone into town a few days back so she could get Aevrin a gift. The book she’d found in the town’s little book emporium on home building was wrapped up and ready for the family dinner. But theothergift was a set of red lace underthings she’d found at Larie’s. She wasn’t quite ready to squeeze into it yet, not when even her trousers felt tight from that breakfast.
It was a quiet morning. She cleaned the kitchen, slapping Aevrin’s hand when he tried to help, but ignored the rest of the house, which could sit one day. Then at Aevrin’s suggestion they saddled their dragons and went for a brief ride in the mountains, keeping to the ground because of Vada’s wings, the air chill and the views breathtaking. When they reached an overview Vadalae gripped his claws into the stone, drew his head back a second, then roared savagely out over the expanse of the valley. Kazeic grumbled to himself and pretended to ignore the smaller male.
Laughing, Cassia slid out of the saddle and scratched Vada’s neck. Aevrin joined her and wrapped his arm possessively around Cassia’s waist.
“Are you having a good day?” she checked.
“Yeah. It’s good spending more time with you ‘stead of working all day.”
“It is,” she agreed. “I got the sense you don’t love your birthday.”
“Not big on all the attention,” he admitted. “I mean, I like it from you. But the whole family at once is just a bit much.”
“You really wouldn’t have minded if Sorven took your day.”
“Nope. But I do like having the day off. I’m serious about pa getting some ranch hands. And I wanna help, more, around the house. I hate only seeing you at night.”
“You do see a lot of me at night,” she said with a smirk. He laughed.
“And I look mighty hard,” he teased back, squeezing her tight against him. “But it’s not enough, Cassia. I wanna spend every second with you that I can.”
“Yeah,” she agreed, and slipped her hand around his waist, too. “Me too.”
“You know, you mean a lot to me.”
“I know. You mean a lot to me too.”
“No, I’m trying to…” He ground the ball of one foot against the dirt for a moment, still squeezing her tight. “Cassia… I guess it’s not a secret, but I’ve been trying to find a good time to tell you for a while.” Aevrin’s face turned towards hers. She looked back at him. Her heart was beating fast and she couldn’t quite say why.
“Yeah?” she whispered.
“Miss Cassia, I’m in love with you something fierce,” Aevrin told her, his voice serious, his eyes staring straight into hers. She stopped breathing a moment, melting against him and drowning in his eyes.
She’d always known the world around her was beautiful. But she’d never known her life could be so beautiful, too. And it wasn’t just the little things. It was the big ones, too. Because there was nothing small about this moment. It felt earth-shattering, larger than every other thing in her life.
There was nothing that mattered like love mattered, Cassia realized.
“You do?” she whispered, clinging to him, heart still pounding.
“Yeah,” Aevrin said, and gulped. “You don’t have to say it back. I just wanted you to know. You’ve changed my life. I don’t want a future without you in it. I don’t wanna wake up in the morning and not have you be layin’ there with me.”
“I love you too,” she said, because she did, after all, and it was stupid to pretend she didn’t.
A smile split over his face. He pulled her into his arms; bent down and kissed her softly, then deeper.
