His.
I plant my palm against his chest when he tries to dip for another kiss.
Obedient even in this moment, he stops, pauses, reads me, and chuckles. “Yes, love. Of course. I am also yours.”
Mine.
I smile and let him kiss me.
Chapter 34
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stabbing is romantic, like cages. Don’t question it.
“May I have a wand?” I ask, perusing Castor’s secret room of fun magical things. Seated at his cluttered desk, he spins in his chair, arms folded. Every so often, he’ll stop, lift his phone, and make a voice memo of something he needs to research or work on to further our kingdom’s plans.
This time, he stops with his body angled toward me. “Of course. They are, however, functionally useless. I’ve collected those purely for aesthetics.”
Opening the glass case, I remove a rose quartz wand adorned in carved flowers. Tracing petals, I say, “I love aesthetics.”
Castor hums. “Do you suppose I need to put more attention into the beautification of our kingdom?”
“We only have a few hundred citizens. We probably need to prioritize our resources. Also, I think things have turned out rather beautiful, regardless of the level of attention put toward it.”
“Have they?” he asks.
Right. He wouldn’t be able to tell.
“Yes. The children and I spent some time transplanting flowers from the woods around the finished homes earlier. The dark wood and mossy roofs work well together, and the way the trees have rerooted and grown around the buildings is magical. Along the road, it’s very clearly a faerie village, and the homes taking shape in the caverns are incredible, too. They’re great big domes carved into stone, connected by hanging bridges and tracks. It’s all gleaming and neon, slathered with fluorescent scum or goo or something like that. I don’t know. Stuff glows pale bright greens and blues in there, and it’s lovely.”
“Lovely,” he echoes, then spins back to his desk. “Marvelous. Lovely.” He smiles. “We’ve made something lovely, have we?”
Abandoning the pretty wand, I make my way to him, spin him back toward me, and sit in his lap. “We have.”
His hands unravel from one another to find places on me. They move across my body, and delight builds in him. Ecstatic, he says, “Have you gained weight, my darling?”
I stiffen.
“Oh, no, love. Don’t do that. This iswonderfulnews.”
“It…is?”
“It’s proof you’re eating properly now. I’m so relieved. I had thought you were too thin for your stature. I’ve been quite worried about it.”
I blink at his soft expression, so gentle and loving I hardly know what to do with it. “You have been?”
“Could you not tell?”
“You’re…worried a lot. About all sorts of things. Practically all the time. It’s hard to decipher what worry belongs to what.”
His thumb caresses my stomach. “Ah. Forgive me for that.”
“No, I won’t. I like it.”
“You…like that I’m an inconsolable ball of anxiety most of the time?”
I settle against him and wrap my arms around his head. “Yes.”
