When they leave, I turn back to the mirror, checking my appearance one last time.
Auren walks up behind me. He slides his arms around my waist and gathers me back against him. He nuzzles my temple, and I let my head tip back against his shoulder.
“Are you alright?” he murmurs.
“Yes. Why would I not be?”
I stare at his reflection in the mirror, my gaze traveling over his gray-blue skin and dark hair, his glowing blue eyes fixed on me with a tenderness that makes my chest ache.
“I thought you might have given them a sharper reception.”
I turn in his arms to face him, cupping his cheek. “I cannot complain. Not when it led me to you. To us.” The wordsthicken in my throat, not from sadness, but from the sheer overwhelming weight of how true they are. I brush my thumb across his lips as I study his handsome face. “I am completely, incandescently happy, my love.”
His expression softens and he drops his forehead to mine. “So am I, me’lira. You are everything to me.”
Tears sting my eyes. “I love you so much, Auren.”
He wraps his arms around my waist and seals his mouth over mine. It’s not the fierce sort of kiss he gives me in private when he is all heat, and hunger, and fiery possession. It’s gentler than that, though no less consuming for its tenderness, and I melt into his kiss with a soft sigh.
“You have no idea,” he murmurs as he pulls back, “what those words do to me.”
A smile crests my lips. “I suspect I do.”
He captures my mouth again in a searing kiss. And even though I’m supposed to be crowned in less than an hour, I want him so desperately I would reschedule the event entirely just to spend the day in bed together.
He threads his fingers through my hair. Gripping the silken strands, he angles my mouth to his as he curls his tongue around mine.
Gods above, we make love at least twice a day. If he keeps touching me like this, we won’t have just two children like I’ve planned, we’ll have a dozen at least.
The sound of someone clearing their throat interrupts the moment and we turn to the door to find Tarin.
“My apologies,” he says, his cheeks flushed dark.
“You are forgiven, but just this once,” I tease.
That earns a ghost of a smirk from him, and I think of how far we’ve come. Where once I saw only cold judgment, I now see the truth of him. He’s loyal, protective, and fiercely devoted to those he loves. And somehow… that devotion has come to include me.
“It’s nearly time.” He grins. “And I figured I might find you two here, doing exactly as you were when I entered the room.”
Auren and I laugh. “Just wait,” my husband says. “One day you’ll fall in love too, and you’ll understand.”
Tarin arches a playful brow. “Perhaps.”
He holds a box out to Auren and smiles. “I brought it, just as you asked.”
Auren takes it from him and carefully opens it. Inside is a delicate silver necklace with a round, moonstone pendant on the end. “This belonged to our mother,” he says. “It matches your wedding ring.”
He moves behind me and I watch his reflection in the mirror as he carefully drapes it around my neck, fastening the clasp. “She wore it on her coronation day as well.”
Emotions lodge in my throat as I brush my fingers over the silver chain. “It’s lovely.” I turn to look at them both, tears in my eyes because I know how much this means to them. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Mother would have wanted you to have it,” Tarin says.
“It has been in our family for several generations,” Auren adds. “Perhaps someday you will give it to our daughter.”
My heart squeezes. Stretching up on my toes, I give him a tender kiss.
Tarin clears his throat, and we turn to him. “Sorry to interrupt again,” he teases. “But you have a ceremony to attend, remember?”
