The war left so many invisible wounds on us all.
Now, though, we would be together. And I was so ready to relish in the feeling of their bodies again, their sweat-soaked skin as it slid against my own.
My cock twitched and grew at the thought, and I noticed Ilyas and Peytor adjusting their obvious erections.
Lust thickened in the small space, causing Folami to squeeze her thighs together involuntarily. I bit my lower lip to conceal a carnal smile.
Yes, this isexactlyhow we’re going to pass the time.
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-One
Faylinn
“Mama, mama!” Fia’s little voice squealed, interrupting the manic scratching of my pen as I desperately tried to transcribe as many words as possible in my free morning. I groaned, realizing I’d only succeeded in writing half of a chapter in two hours.
This is going to take fifty years at this rate.
I sighed and blew on the ink to dry it before closing the golden book and pushing it away from the edge of the desk, out of reach of prying hands. I smiled as the pattering of little feet grew louder, abandoned giggles and squeals bouncing off the corridors. My children breezed into our study, all wild hair and bare feet, chocolate or some other substance smooshed across their faces and down their tunics.
Laughing, I stood up from the chair and swung Fia into my arms, spinning her in a circle as I laid countless kisses against her soft neck. She giggled and screamed before I set her down, only to pick up the two-year-old twins and repeat the action. Their little bodies shook with their mirth, toddler giggles warming my heart and chasing away any previous ire.
“Mama, mama!” all three of them chanted, out of breath as they jumped on tiptoes.
“What! What!” I exclaimed back, squatting to kneel at their eye level.
Fia’s hazel eyes, just this side of green—so like Ben’s—glittered with unrestrained excitement as she brandished a slightly crumpled and more than a little chocolate-stained letter in my face.
I reared back with a laugh at her exuberance.
“Uncle Torin and Aunt Ellowyn wrote us again!” she screamed.
Letters from her aunt and uncle were the highlight of any day. The younger two nodded along with her, though they had little idea what they were agreeing to.
“Hmmm,” I said, tapping my chin lightly. “And I suppose you’d like me to read it to you?”
“Yes!” the twins said, their little lisps making the word sound more like ‘yesh.’
“Wetter, peas.”
Noor pointed one little chubby finger at the letter, saying, “Dis dis,” while Ayla sucked her thumb and watched. It was amazing that two children who shared one womb could be so different—like the sun and moon. Ayla looked like Rohak, with her deep emerald eyes and light-brown skin, but was much more like me; quiet but personable, and took great enjoyment in picture books and coloring. She was also Cotton’s favorite of the three children, and I often saw the grey cat curled up on her lap, purring contentedly while my daughter absently stroked his fur with sticky fingers.
Noor, however, was nearly my carbon copy in appearance but all Rohak in action. His brown curls bounced around his ears, green and gold-flecked hazel eyes boring into mine as he grumpily demanded that I “wead dis.”
I loved them both endlessly.
Sinking to the ground, I held my arms out so all three kids could tumble onto my lap. Fia sat first, pulling Noor onto her lap as Ayla cuddled into my side.
“Dear d’Alvey’s,” I started, but could continue no further when the door swung open, revealing my happy and smiling husband.
“Daddy!” Fia shrieked, carefully placing Noor to the side so she could run to my husband. He enveloped her in a tight hug before opening his arms a second time for the twins.
“What have you got on your mouths?” he asked, licking the pad of his thumb to rub at the chocolate plastered on their cheeks. They giggled and squirmed as he wiped, desperately trying to escape their confines.
“Cook gave us chocolate! Then told us to ‘shoo,’” Fia said gravely. She was even more of a law-abider than my stoic husband and was the source of tales I told Ben and Asha at their headstone each month. It was a trait she must have inherited from Asha, which was only reinforced by Rohak. Gods knew Ben and I were terrible at following rules.
“Is that so?” Rohak said, his eyes flicking to mine, a silent conversation between the two of us. I had no doubt that at the end of the day, Rohak would be having a very strongly worded conversation with Cook. My husband was tolerant of much, but you absolutely did not fuck with his children.
“Were you bothering Cook?” I asked, trying to talk my husband off the ledgeand show him perhaps the other side of it without directly calling attention to his intentions. It was a tactic that had worked well for us ever since Fia started walking and talking, getting into heaps of trouble when our backs were turned for a few seconds.
