Page 56 of Finding Closure

He winked at me and kept working while I did. The caretakers were kind and said they were going to run some errands and get some shopping done since I was there. I cleansed their rooms just because I was there and doing it, but Ididn’t go in far or like snoop. It definitely wasn’t an inspection or anything.

Darby had twenty-five easels set up and canvases loaded when I finished. He was putting together more drying racks in the storage room when I checked on him. I’d asked Katrina to order them a while ago and then hadn’t done anything with them or been back.

He cleared his throat when he realized I was there. “If I was as cool as you, I’d let out my feelings about the festival while it was fresh in my heart. Not to sell, but it would probably be cool for Faerie to see how a fairy sees their normal if they didn’t grow up with it. Hopefully, it could help them to appreciate it like I did.”

“You are so amazing. Thank you, my mate,” I whispered. I moved by him and gave him a heated kiss before heading back to unwrap and open paints. A lot of them had hardened even in the containers because of how long they were left, but I had a ton more.

And my magic automatically mixed the colors I wanted.

Darby was awesome on so many levels. Mostly because jumping right into painting our relationship was tricky. Doing it after not having done this for so long was even more complicated. Plus, with so much more on my mind and emotions—this was a great way to get back into it.

Apparently, my magic agreed.

The canvases were full of the different stalls when my magic finished and it was clear that it was the first round only. I chuckled. “I need more easels.”

“I’ll have Cara order them,” Darby said from the spare room. “Remember to hydrate. I’ll come get them to dry.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too,agra,” he chuckled.

He really was so perfect.

He handled that as I practiced my control using magic to move ten blank canvases at a time from the garage and get them one by one onto the now-empty easels. I opened more paint in between and then leaned more canvases against the wall because… Why not? I didn’t really need the easels since I wasn’t actually painting with a paintbrush, right?

Darby chuckled when he saw it, nodding that it made sense.

“How did that feel?” he asked when I let out my magic and another round of canvases was full.

“Amazing,” I breathed as I rolled my neck and reached above my head. “I feel so settled. Even letting out this happy memory and the fun that night—it’s all tied together. The emotions built inside of me that I hadn’t been able to go see this before. That I’m not like them and have missed so much. What I’ve been through to get here and how many don’t appreciate it.”

“I can smell it,” he admitted. He moved closer but was careful of my wings as he placed his hand on my side and slid it over my stomach. “But I’m going to grow a set and push my mate to do what she needs. You need this as much as you need to cleanse. I know—it works with Hudson and Julian. That’s become your thing just like flying with Hudson and now Neldor.

“Or kitesurfing with Lucca—snowboarding now in Faerie with him. I’m glad. I want you to have all of those things. But I want us to keep having this. They can join—I would never—I can share. This is ours, and I’ve hated myself for not pushing you to take this time and let this out. I just hate feeling demanding, but I will fight for you,agra.”

I nodded and leaned into him. “I always mean to, but it’s like I blink and it’s a month later.” I turned and faced him, brushing my lips over his. “And it is our thing. You’ve always supported this and never even chuckled that it was—you always saw it for what it could be for me and bigger than what most supes thought it was.”

“Because that’s who you are,” he breathed against my lips. “You make it all bigger than any of us fools could ever imagine.” His kiss was more intense this time. “Keep going and get more out before I put something hard inside of you,agra. Because I’m going to. Over and over again.”

I blinked at him in shock.

He simply chuckled. “You aresensualwhen you paint, Tams. It’s almost like watching you climax. It’s a release of pent-up tension. Yeah, it turns me on.” He moved his lower body against mine to prove his point.

Okay then.

I did two more rounds of painting and then started to close all the paint up while Darby tried to find more places for the paintings to dry. He ended up just laying them all flat on the floor in one of the spare rooms after putting down plastic tarps.

“You’re wrapping up?” he hedged when he came back out and saw me putting the last of the paint on the storage shelf.

“I ran out of canvases,” I chuckled, glancing at him over his shoulder. “Now, you had something to show me? Did I hear that right?”

“Is everything closed up?” he checked. He was on me the moment I nodded.

I kissed him as he lifted me under my ass and wrapped my legs around him. I teleported us to the portal to Faerie, and someone must have activated it for us because I felt the tightness in my chest of going through. Once we were in Faerie, I teleported us to our new suite in the castle, letting him decide how things played out.

“No one disturb us,” he told whoever was there and listening before carrying me into his room.

I kicked the door closed behind us and then teleported across the room to throw him off balance. I held up my handto hold him off and started stripping. “I’m taking care of everything, my sexy mate.”

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