I slipped an arm around his waist. “The bathtub in this place is huge. I could run it for you.”
“Is it big enough for two?”
“We can find out.”
His eyes flashed bright blue. The magic of the strid had never quite left him, and it was particularly vibrant now. “Lead the way.”
“First, I have a gift for you, too.”
“A massage with a happy ending?”
“No. Well—Yes,ahem. If you wanted, that too, but I was referring to something else.”
Dusting my hands on my jeans, I helped him up off the grass. He winced, spine popping as he stretched. He followed me into the house, where I picked up a tin of paint from the cupboard under the stairs.
“I think my arms will snap off like toothpicks if I try to get painting done after all that gardening.”
“You don’t have to do it, but look.” I showed him the color label.Baked cherry.“I figured we could paint our bedroom door with it. Maybe a different color for every room in the house?”
His smile melted into something more secretive and fond, and he didn’t have words, but he linked our pinkies together and ducked his head into my shoulder.
He made us drinks while I ran the bath, conjuring a few rose petals and lighting a candle. Kessian and my combined possessions could notbegin to fill the house, but he’d had enough suncatchers to put one in every window. The study still needed renovations from the fire, and after clearing nearly everything out, we’d discovered even more clocks in the loft. I’d kept a few reminders of Grandad, but I was ready to call the place my own rather than linger in the past. In the year to come, I wondered what colors we’d paint each room, what kind of art would go on the walls, how many hobbies Kessian could collect in the room I’d set aside for his crafts. Would I open a ceramics shop, maybe next to Witches and Stitches?
I found that I didn’t know for certain what the future held, but for the first time in a long time, I liked dreaming of it.
Kessian came in with our drinks on a tray balanced on one arm. I took it from him and set it on the windowsill.
“How romantic,” he said of the rose petals.
I started undoing the buttons of his shirt. “It’s our first night living together.”
“We practically lived together already.”
“Yes, but now it’s official.”
He looked at me with a queer vulnerability, fingers hooked in the belt loops of my jeans. His shrugged out of his shirt. I peppered one shoulder with a kiss while sliding off his trousers. While he climbed into the water, I shed all my clothes and got in behind him. He took my arms, looping them around his shoulders like a scarf, leaned back and let out the longest, most contented sigh.
I trickled water over his chest, leaving a trail of goose bumps. I kissed his nape and kneaded the knot in his shoulder with my thumb. I’d sink my hand below the rose petals later. For now, I wanted to scrub out every weary line of tension in his muscles.
“Did you really think I was going to say no?” he murmured.
“Mm?”
“To moving in together. Did you think I wasn’t coming today?”
I hesitated. “I knew it was a big step. I wouldn’t have blamed you if you needed time.”
“When I arrived today, you looked …”
“Stressed?”
“Up a notch from stressed. Freaked out.”
I sighed, drawing swirls in the fine, damp hairs at the nape of his neck. “I didn’t want to scare you off.”
“Scared is the last thing I am right now.” He tilted his head back so he could look at me. “Maybe if we’d met six years ago when it had all been fresh, I’d have second-guessed moving in with anyone. But after knowing you, I doubt it. I meant what I said at Fae’s wedding back then. I’d want to know how this story goes regardless of how it ends, because every day with you has been worth it. This is the safest I’ve ever felt.”
He kissed me, slow and blooming into something more. His tongue danced with mine, the water whispering against the lip of the tub as he shifted to get a better angle, and when his legs spread as wide as the bath would allow, I followed my impulse from earlier. It wasn’t long before we were getting water and rose petals on the floor. When he’d finished, he turned, took me in hand, and the glide of his tongue against mine made me see stars behind my eyelids.
