you do not need to do this to yourself.” I pointed across the room. “Cooper is here, also. I assure you that she is well tended to right now.”
“Yeah. You’re right. I know.”
“If it would help, Braison informed me of a tactic Tennessee uses to help her in situations like this…I could try it?”
She looked up at me under dark eyelashes and smirked. “Okay.”
I reached down and scooped her up into my arms, lifting her up in the air.
“Riah,” she said with a gasp. She giggled and her breath rushed over my face. “Is this the tactic?”
Like this, her face was mere inches from mine. “Is it working?”
“Oh, most definitely.” She hooked her arms around my neck and nestled in closer. “If there’s a step two, you may apply it now.”
With her resting safely in the cradle of my arms I backed out of the room.
“Where are you bringing us?
“To our new room to get some sleep.”
“I was just worried about them. I’m sorry.”
I pushed the door then leapt inside the main floor. “Don’t ever apologize for caring for your friends.”
“I love you,” she purred against my ear.
“I love you, too.”
I pushed my wings out and flew us up the stairs to the third floor then down to our room. Saraphina and I had been given a room in the house, one that we would share. Together. It was one thing I’d never ever in a million years thought I’d get to do, I’d never even imagined it. Sharing a room meant the same bed every night, waking up together every morning. And Saraphina hadn’t even questioned it when Tegan told us to pick our room.
The whole time we’d been picking earlier I’d been a nervous disaster.
But as I opened the door with her still in my arms I knew Saraphina had chosen the room well. The balcony off the back faced the Old Lands and natural light poured in through the windows.
We hadn’t had a chance to really move in or get any furniture – which were words I never thought would actually ever be said. But there was a smart television on the wall and a mattress on the floor in the corner. I carried her over to the bed then carefully sat her down.
She leaned back and hair splayed out all around her in a fiery halo that seemed to hold a bit of her glittering golden magic. She rested one of her arms over her head and she looked like a piece of art. Like something this beautiful couldn’t have been made. I dropped down on the mattress beside her jostling her ever so slightly.
She rolled to her side and pressed her hand to my stomach. The heat of her touch scorched through my shirt. She slid her hand lower then slipped under my shirt. Her nails scratched over my bare skin ever so slightly and my muscles burned to her touch. A low growl sounded in the back of my throat.
I lowered my head and pressed my lips to hers. Fire exploded behind my eyes like it was the first time we’d ever kissed. My breath was stolen from my lungs. I took her face between my hands and kissed her harder, needing to feel the graze of her teeth on my lips. I slid my tongue between her lips and our tongues danced. She hooked her leg over my hips and dragged me close, squeezing me flush against her body.
“That’s not why I brought you to bed,” I whispered against her mouth.
She chuckled then licked my tongue. “It’s why I let you carry me to bed.”
I pulled back to look down at her. “Saraphina—”
“We did our soulmate binding ceremony today, Riah,” she purred and blinked slowly.
She wiggled one hand over herself and light flashed— and her clothes vanished. There was nothing blocking my eyes from soaking in every ounce of her body. So I let myself drink her in. She arched her back, pressing her body into me.
“Saraphina,” I growled low in my throat.
She giggled and wiggled her fingers again — light flashed in my face and then warm air swept over my body. I froze and pushed up on my hands to look down at my body and gasped. There was nothing between us now but the air and the fire in her eyes told me that wasn’t going to be enough.
“Tricksy,” I whispered and nibbled on her bottom lip. I hissed as our bare bodies touched.