Page 62 of Entering a New World

Rhett.

Opening my eyes, I blinked a couple of times to get used to the light, then turned my head.

Oh. This was what his bedroom looked like.

I smiled as I took it all in.

It was very Rhett. Calm, stoic, but at the same time very comfortable. The bed itself was a king-sized, and the focal point of the room. Four posters, made from a very light, pale wood that perfectly contrasted the grey, almost black covers I was lying on. The walls were painted in different shades of matte grey, the only pops of colour in the room were the varying shades of green. A woven rug made out of green fibre lay in front of the bed and stretched to a small sitting area on the other side of the room. The two chairs adorning a coffee table were made out of the same wood as the bed. It all looked very cohesive, more so than I’d have expected from Rhett.

And the plants…

I smiled as I studied the big, potted fern that took up most of the coffee table.

Yeah, that was all him.

The whole room was dotted with plants, really. He even had one of these fancy moss “paintings” hanging on a wall, the moss a lush, dark green. I had the urge to touch it, feel for myself if it was as soft as it appeared to be, but I didn’t want to get up just yet.

No, for the moment I just wanted to bask in the calm of the room.

My own bedroom in Vancouver definitely couldn’t compete with this. I snorted and shook my head. My room was a mess. Granted, I didn’t have much space in my apartment to begin with so everything was kind of crammed, especially since I’d needed to make space for a small filming area. Also, ring lights, tripods, and other filming equipment took up a lot of space.

I much preferred Rhett’s room.

Or was it our room?

We hadn’t talked about it, but we were mated now, weren’t we? Bonded to each other? We were connected in a way that was more serious than marriage, yet we hadn’t even talked about living arrangements.

I chuckled, waiting for the well-justified panic to settle in, but… it didn’t come. At all.

Instead, something inside my chest pulsed, and a calm that in a weird way didn’t feel like me, washed over me. It was the strangest thing, and I closed my eyes to investigate.

How could I feel something inside of me that did not feel like me? Kind of foreign, but familiar at the same time.

I didn’t need to be a genius to know it had something to do with our mating.

It’d spread out from my chest, so I started there. Taking a deep breath, I listened inside of myself, searching for something that was different or new. It really didn’t take long for me to find. Deeply rooted in the center of my chest, right next to my heart was a source of warmth. I placed my hand above it, but my skin felt normal. No scars, no bumps, hell, even though it felt warm inside, the skin on the outside wasn’t hotter.

Footsteps sounded in the hallway, quickly coming closer.

A smile tugged at my lips, and that… thing inside my chest brightened.

Rhett was coming.

I knew it with utter certainty, even though the incessant tugging sensation was gone. There was no pull urging me to get close to him anymore. This warmth inside of me, the calm spreading from my chest into every single cell… it was different. But not any less strong.

The door opened with a quiet woosh, and a gush of warm air filtered into the room. It was accompanied by a scent that I knew was Rhett; nature and moss, mixed with a hint of musk. It hit me like a gut punch and stole my breath for a moment.

“You’re awake,” Rhett said, a wide smile on his face, his warm eyes almost glowing in the pale light. “Right on time, too.”

He walked over to the bed and plopped down next to me before leaning over and placing a gentle kiss on my forehead. I sighed quietly and snuggled up to him, placing my head in his lap.

“How long was I out of it?”

Rhett’s hand found its way into my hair and gently massaged my scalp. Immediately, my body grew lax and my eyes fell closed. This was the best feeling in the world.

“Long enough for me to freak out and call Jasper. And Gray. And then I called Charlene and Kenny,” Rhett admitted with a chuckle.

“And that means?” I asked, a pang of guilt ringing through me. Quit it, I chastised myself. It’s not your fault he fucked you so good you passed out. If anything, it’s his fault.

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