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“Which is still fucking insane.” I hesitate while he checks my other wrist. “You said this house was ours.”

“Because it is.”

“What does that mean?”

He runs his thumb over the last mark before letting go of my wrist. “It means I bought it for us, husband. We live here.”

I stare at him. He bought this house for us? The river. The green. All of it. Somewhere he expects me to wake up tomorrow, and the day after that.

“Try not to look so horrified.”

A laugh slips out of me before I can stop it. Asher grins, tossing the cloth back into the bathroom before disappearing after it.

He comes back less than a minute later, carrying a plate, and sits beside me on the bed. There’s bread, cheese, fruit, and something salty I don’t recognize.

We eat without talking much. The music is still playing somewhere behind us, quieter now, as rain moves steadily against the glass. He passes me pieces from the plate whenever my hand is empty, and after a while I stop thinking about the fact that he’s doing it.

My stomach warms. So does something else I don’t yet have a name for.

At some point I catch him watching me chew. “What are you looking at?”

“My husband.” His mouth tilts. “I’m allowed.”

Another laugh escapes me, quieter this time, and for a second we just look at each other, as if we’ve both realized how completely fucking strange this is.

By the time he sets the plate aside, my stomach is warm, my body heavy, and the room has begun to blur pleasantly around the edges.

Asher stretches out flat on his back beside me. “Come here.”

I go, fitting myself into his side with my cheek on his chest. His arm comes down around me, heavy and warm, holding me against him while his hand settles over my upper arm.

Rain whispers over the roof, the fire burns down to embers, and his heart beats beneath my ear, slow enough for mine to follow.

An old word comes back to me. Halcyon. Calm after bad weather. It has no business fitting a man like him, but somehow it does. After all, not so long ago he was a man with a visor, deciding whether I’d live or die.

Now, I fall asleep on his chest before I can finish the thought.

22

ASH

Iwake to rain drumming softly against the glass, steady enough that the whole house seems to breathe with it. I lie still for another moment, eyes closed, listening as the room slowly comes back into focus.

Jade is out cold beside me on his front, one arm thrown across my chest. Blond hair lies wrecked across his forehead, his mouth open slightly and his lashes dark against his cheek. His lips are still swollen from last night, and I press my mouth to the back of his head without waking him.

His wrists rest near the pillow, red bands circling both where my belt held them. My stormbird. I look at them longer than I mean to. I didn’t think he’d trust me enough to follow me onto that bed. I didn’t think he’d hand me the parts of himself he keeps from everyone else.

Turns out I’ve only just started unwrapping my husband.

Last night he fought me on everything, but he let me have that. He doesn’t even know he did.

I slip out of bed and head for the bathroom. Beyond the glass, rain runs through the trees and turns the river beyond them silver, the whole view blurred at the edges by weather.

Stepping beneath the shower, I tip my face into the spray. For a while there’s nothing but hot water.

Then I hear floorboards behind me, followed by the bathroom door. The shower opens a second later and warm air moves across my back as Jade steps in. His mouth touches the top of my spine, his hands sliding around my ribs to settle against my chest, and before I think about it, I lean back into him.

“Did you sleep well in my bed, husband?”