Chapter 30
The first days on Vartik went by in a blur of happiness. Gemma had never experienced the absolute freedom that she had now, and not just because she was no longer locked in a sanitarium. It wasn’t just a freedom to go where she wanted, to do as she pleased. It was the freedom of thinking clearly for the first time in her life. The freedom to turn off the world when she wanted, the freedom to focus on just one thing.
And that one thing was generally her mate.
Cal was the perfect host. Attentive. Warm. Funny. And so caring that she couldn’t see herself ever finding anything better than what she had with him.
He held her close at night, his breath warm on her neck, the pressure of his arms around her a comfort she could have never imagined. They talked for hours, endlessly, about everything and everyone. About their pasts. About their future. About who they were and who they wanted to be. Together.
They’d spent much of that first week holed up in his quarters together, until his family would no longer allow them to cloister themselves anymore. Gemma had made her first tentative steps into family functions cautiously. She had very little experience in social situations, and she was terribly worried she’d make a silly mistake and ruin everything.
Mayra had done much to reassure her. A Guardian like her, Mayra had related her own story of redemption with the aid of a dashing Vartik male.
Gemma had been at her first family dinner and Mayra had sat beside her, asking about her transition. Gemma and she had talked for hours, having to both repeatedly fend off their men who would every so often quest to recapture their attentions.
“Shoo,” Mayra said, tossing her mate Nojan a saucy smile. “Behave or I won’t wear that little red thing that you like so much tonight.”
Nojan’s eyes flashed with lust. “Tease.”
Mayra laughed and waved him away. “Vartik males are a handful, aren’t they?”
Gemma agreed, sending a wink Cal’s way. “You can say that again.”
“Maybe I wouldn’t be so impatient if we could get fucking married already,” Cal said, leaning their way. “I promised to marry you as soon as we set foot on this planet, and it’s been a week already!”
“It’s because I’m not ready to squeeze myself into a formal gown yet, you jerk,” Jazmine said from across the room, an infant nestled in her arms. “The queen has to look her best at a royal wedding, and I did just give birth.”
“You always look your best, honey,” Marek said, a baby settled in the crook of his arm. “You couldn’t look any other way.”
“Thank you, baby,” Jaz said, leaning over to kiss him on the cheek.
“With all due respect, Your Majesty,” Cal said, “this is our wedding. And I’m not going to wait for much longer.”
Zelup gestured toward Cal, a drink in his large hand. “You’d think you could stand the wait since you once swore you’d never marry.”
“Yeah, bro,” Nojan said, piling on. “This is the guy who said that marriage is for men of lesser character. And handsomeness.”
Everyone laughed.
“I think he also told me once that he’d never limit himself to just one woman,” his younger brother, Penn, quipped. “Because who goes to a buffet and eats just one plate?”
“I know what I said,” Cal said, his face heating. “And none of that matters now. I’m marrying Gemma immediately.”
“You’ll marry Gemma when your king allows it,” Jaz said haughtily but with a cheeky smile on her face. “He does have to perform the ceremony and give his blessings, remember?”
Cal gritted his teeth, but Gemma kissed his cheek and told him that it didn’t matter. In her own mind, they were already bound to one another, so what did some ancient vows matter one way or another?
She’d heard several more humorous quotations attributed to her fiancé since that night. Apparently, he’d been quite a libertine before he’d gotten to her. She couldn’t really blame him. He was the handsomest man she’d ever seen, and that included all of his brothers, which were strapping beings in their own right.
Cal was a step above them all. Any woman would be out of her mind to pass up a night with him. And it seemed that that was all it had been. One night of amusement and then he’d say goodbye.
Gemma couldn’t imagine giving him up after just one night and felt supremely happy that she didn’t have to. It was funny, though, to watch Cal step all over himself to reassure her that his past indiscretions meant nothing.
“You’re the only woman for me,” he’d whisper to her at night, his head between her thighs before he brought her to the peak of ecstasy with his mouth over and over again. “I’ll never have another, not after tasting you.”
Or when he’d drive into her, his cock throbbing inside her, his strong arms caging her in, he’d look deep into her eyes and smile. “You’re sheer perfection. There is no other woman that could ever bring me such pleasure. Such joy.”
Things would eventually devolve into moans and sighs of decadent sensuality, but the words he said in those moments, she held deeply in her heart, treasuring them.
