Page 50 of Their World

He stroked a hand up and down my arm as he held me.

His warmth, his familiar scent, his body wrapped around mine, and his apology mixed together and leeched away all the pain and anger, leaving behind a deep exhaustion.

“We were so worried when you left,” he whispered and tightened his arms around me. “We had no way of knowing if you were safe or not.”

“How long were we gone for?”

“A few hours,” he said.

Our timeframe matching had to be because the Grand Advisor hadn’t been able to manipulate my mind.

Trey leaned back, cupped my cheek, and turned my head to face him. “Liliana, talk to me. You’re keeping so much inside your head while your face is showing a variety of emotions. Talk to me.”

“Stay with me tonight,” I said and looked into his eyes. “Please.”

His eyes widened a bit. “You want me to stay here?”

I nodded. “I have an awful feeling, one that’s followed me since I was in the demon world. I … I think something awful is about to happen.”

Trey kissed my cheek and rested his forehead against the side of my head. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“Will you stay?”

He nodded. “Whatever you want.”

Scooting over, he let me crawl out of his lap and lay down. Immediately, he spooned his body around mine and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me tight against him.

“Remember when we used to camp out?” he asked. “How mad Caleb was at first and how Ember convinced him to let us stay?”

There were many nights that Trey, Mason, Kayden, Tony, Maya, and I spent simply living in the forest, sitting together around a fire, then cuddling together to sleep. We’d done it during the summer and fall months from the time I was six until we were twelve. Dad had been nervous about boys and girls being alone together, but Mom reminded him that we were gallivanting around our territory all the time alone and we hadn’t gotten into trouble yet. He finally caved.

“Those were some of the best nights of my life,” Trey whispered and kissed the back of my head. “Being with you for as long as I wanted. Just existing. No royal training, politics, or enemies. Just us being us.”

“Then we had to grow up and the fun ended,” I whispered.

He nuzzled my neck and kissed it softly. “Whenever we had a particularly bad battle or my mom would hound me about getting a mate, it was those memories that helped me get through it. You’ve always been the light to escape my darkness. I’m sorry about the years apart. I’m sorry you had to face things on your own and you thought we didn’t care for you. I will spendthe rest of my life ensuring you know how much I love you. Ensuring I do everything in my power to make you happy.”

“Trey?”

“Yeah?”

“Mark me?”

His body shuddered behind me. “You’re sure?”

I rolled over to face him and nodded. “I am.”

Brushing my hair back from my face, he said, “Answer something first?”

“What?”

“Are you sure there’s nothing between you and the demon king? Mason told us how he treated you.”

Smiling, I tapped the tip of his nose and asked, “Are you jealous, Prince Trey?”

“That’s what I need to know, if I should be jealous.”

“No, I am not interested in the demon king. Like I told you, my heart belongs to you three and has forever.”

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