“But he’s inmyroom.”
“No. He isn’t.”
My eyes widen, remembering her whisper to him earlier.
I’m standing in front of Baelen’s bedroom and she isn’t blocking my way. “May I… go in?”
“I will not stop you. But the choice is yours—and yours alone.” She withdraws with a cheeky grin. “Although… you did already eat the royal wedding berries so you may not be able to back out now…”
She skips her bony ass along the corridor and disappears around the corner before I can say anything else. I press my palms against the wooden door.
This is Baelen’s room.
With Baelen’s bed.
And Baelen.
I don’t wait another moment, pushing on the handle, swinging it wide. He stands in the middle of the room, in front of the bed, naked to the waist, water droplets dripping from his hair onto his broad shoulders and down his massive chest. His head is down, his strong hands loose at his sides. I remember the first moment I saw him inside the Storm Vault’s anteroom. His head was down then too; he’d dropped to a knee and held his heartstone out to me, offering it to me even though it might mean his death.
I close the door behind me and the sound of the lock clicking makes him look up. The intensity of his gaze sets my body on fire, but he doesn’t move. He won’t move. Everything from this moment is my choice.
I cross the distance, craving his hands and mouth, his strong arms, but instead of touching him, I whisper, “Wait for me, Baelen. I won’t be long.”
As fast as my wobbly legs can carry me, I race to the bathroom, turn on the shower, and let the water run over me, my body already tingling with the electricity in the air around Baelen. If he wanted to, he could blast this door down and whisk me into his arms, but he won’t. He waited an eternity for me while he slept. He waited seven years for me while I was the Storm Princess. He will wait again because I asked him to.
Drying myself off, I remove my headpiece before I return to the bedroom, wanting nothing on my body when I go to him. He hasn’t moved from the spot where I left him on the other side of the room, except to half-turn, one corner of his mouth lifting into a sexy smile as his gaze runs from my dripping hair all the way past my naked parts to my toes.
I clear my throat, my voice a low rasp. “If I’m going to come to your bed, Baelen Rath, I think you need to be in it.”
Without speaking, he removes his clothes and lies himself down, his big body filling most of one side, never taking his eyes off me. My heart thunders in my chest but I have no doubts.
As I lie down beside him, I inhale the wild air around us, his power igniting mine, and I welcome the storm we’re about to create in his room. In his bed.
When my lips find his, I finally understand why the gargoyles and my Storm Command came to see me tonight. Not because they knew I was going to make my choice, but because we only have a few nights left.
In five days we will go to war. We will fight for our lives and our future. We will fight for our world and our freedom. We have to love while we can, live while we can, share our stories while we can, fight for each other while we can.
Because there might not be a tomorrow. We might not have any more days.
I open my heart and share every part of it with Baelen, giving him all of myself, accepting every part of him in return, a whole world of love while we have it.
