Rage and Ruin by Jennifer L. Armentrout Page 0,157
pajama bottoms hanging low on his lean hips and hair damp around his face, he asked, “You want me with you?”
Plopping onto the bed, I nodded as I scooted over. He slid onto the bed with far more grace, leaving the bedside lamp on.
I lay down, unsure what to do. Should I initiate fun times? Was I expected to? Was he? I didn’t think being together meant having sex every time you ended up in a bed with your significant other. Not that I didn’t want to, but I was, well, I was a little sore. Like not cringe-worthy sore, but...different.
I wished I could call Jada and ask.
“Mind if I turn out the light?” Zayne asked.
“Nope,” I said, hoping it didn’t sound so much like a squeak as it did to my own ears.
The bed shifted and the light turned off. Then there was a shift again as Zayne rolled toward me. Like he’d done on the rooftop, he snagged me by the waist, arm under my back, and tucked me against his warm chest.
“You comfortable like this?” was his next question.
“Yeah.” He was warm and smelled like fresh mint, and I liked how one of his hands found mine in the dark. Our fingers threaded together. “Are you...going to sleep?”
“Eventually.” There was a pause. “We didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.”
In the darkness, I flushed. “Not my fault.”
“I would say neither of us were at fault. Or both of us were.”
“But you brought out the cookies, and that energized me.”
He laughed, and a few seconds later, I felt his mouth against my temple, pressing a quick kiss there. He started telling me about the first time he’d met Roth, and how he had struggled to maintain his human form in public. I listened, laughing at how obvious Roth had been about goading him into shifting. He told me how Nicolai and Dez had both reluctantly come to like the demon prince, if not completely trust him, and about his own history with Danika. How his father had wanted him and Danika to mate, but he’d always viewed her as more of a sister.
Finally, he confirmed that Danika and Nicolai were, indeed, doing the couple thing. We both determined that Nicolai was probably having a harder time dealing with her than he was running the clan, because she was unlike any other female Warden I knew. He told me about Nicolai’s first wife, who’d died during childbirth, and Zayne admitted that after being in the room with Jasmine’s twins for an hour, he wasn’t sure he’d ever want kids. He’d make the exception on adopting once they were old enough to shift, and I’d laughed, thinking how I’d overhead Matthew once say he’d adopt if the child was housebroken. I’d about died, because yeah, potty training had to be one of the circles of Hell.
We talked until our eyes got heavy and the breaks between responses grew longer. Never once did the topic of the Harbinger come up, or anything related to our duty, and while we lay together in the dark, there was no tomorrow to worry about, no pressures or fears.
And this was better than anything I could’ve hoped for. Anything I could’ve wanted or needed. Just us and words and our fingers, threaded together.
Those minutes that stretched out were simply...more.
* * *
An update we’d be waiting for came unexpectedly, right before we left the apartment to patrol—the eerily empty apartment. Movers had come that morning, a small army that quickly packed up the kitchen, the mats and punching bag, and everything in the bedroom. We’d been planning to swing by the new place before we left for the evening, but that wasn’t going to happen now. The first time I’d see it would be tonight, and luckily, Peanut already knew where to find us. I’d reminded him this morning, and he’d responded that walls meant nothing to him and he was a “free range” ghost.
Sigh.
Zayne’s phone rang as I stood where the couch used to be, twisting three sections of my hair into the lamest looking braid ever.
“What’s up, Dez?” he answered as he walked past me, dipping to press a quick kiss on my forehead. “What? For real?”
Zayne stiffened, and all my attention focused on him as he turned back to me. “Okay. Thank you.” A pause. “Yeah, I’ll keep you guys updated. Thanks again.”
“What?” I asked the moment he disconnected the call.