Page 50 of A Baron of Bonds
“You’ll make it, love. Here—” He pulled my arm around his shoulder, gripping my waist even harder with his strong hands that I knew very, very well.
We began our ascent to what I could only hope was a room to rest in. I seemed to no longer care about anything but finding a place to curl up and sleep.
I think we climbed for an hour, patrons chatting as they passed us down the stairs. We were overtaken by many of them on our endless journey, some of them looking back at us to give a knowing smile.
On what must have been the eightieth landing, I fell back against the wall, slapping a hand to my forehead in need of collapsing.
Rev was in front of me immediately to keep me upright, and I swore I heard him laughing into my neck as he kissed my cheek. He turned around, pulling my arms over his shoulders and bending slightly, grabbing the backs of my knees from behind.
“You ken-not be s…serious, Baron Revich.”
“I am entirely serious, Karus, my love. Now hop on.”
I less hopped and more sprang too high, almost knocking him over as he laughed and stumbled, but caught my legs nonetheless. I rested my head on his shoulder, my arms hanging loosely around his neck as he carried me on his back up an unfathomable number of steps.
We reached the top. Me, a parasite of sorts, who made no effort to make the journey easier as my eyes lulled, and I struggled to stay awake. He, a panting strongman, his workout admirable and impressive. He set me down gently on the final landing and turned quickly to catch me if I fell.
He breathed heavily and grinned, wiping sweat from his brow, and I smiled, laughing at what, I couldn’t articulate.
“Do we live up here now?” I asked in confusion, my head lolling to one side as I fell into his arms, pressed against his chest. He smelled of warmth, and earth, and home, and I struggled not to cry then and there, though I wasn’t sure why.
“We do for now. Come,”—he kissed my hair and pulled me upright again—“let me show you where you’ll live for the next two days.”
Curiosity forcing its way through my drunken stupor, I let him lead me hand-in-hand to the room at the end of the hall. He pulled a silver key from his pocket and turned the lock.
When he opened the door and pulled me through, I sobered slightly, trying my best to concentrate as I squinted around the room that was so lovely and welcoming. I burst into laughter for reasons I couldn’t explain.
A table for two sat in one corner that led to a set of doors and a balcony that overlooked the city. His parcels lay on the table next to a vase of the same burgundy mums that he had found for our binding. The table also held two mugs and a kettle, along with a bag of what I assumed was styris tea.
A door at the back of the room led to a washing room and an ornately carved armoire stood tall against one wall next to anunlit fireplace. Even a bookshelf graced the room, filled to the brim with spines of varying colors and embossments.
I stepped toward the massive four-poster bed, lightweight cerulean curtains tied back on each side and draped in the top center, bowing slightly.
I laughed, the sound flooding the room as each note of it escaped my lungs rapidly in a hilarity only I would likely understand.
I turned to him in a sly smile. “But, my dear Baron…you’ve pro…you’ve procured a room with only one bed.” I chortled at the slur of my own joke, falling into his chest again.
His chest rumbled, and he wrapped his hands across my back, my palms pressed close between our bodies. I wanted to curl up into him and sleep for days, never processing what I knew he was angry about, never dwelling on what else about the Blightress I needed to tell him, and never once losing myself to the guilt of the disease that had caused so much death in this city.
He pressed his lips to my forehead for a long moment, breathing deep before sliding his arm underneath my legs to take me to the bed.
He sat me there gently, kneeling before me, pulling off my slippers one by one. I wiggled my chilled toes, wishing the fireplace was burning bright.
“Incendo,” he muttered, not even glancing at the fireplace laden with neatly stacked wood, its orange embers dying slowly from the last time it had burned. The logs burst into a flutter of fire, the first crackle of wood resounding in the room.
I grabbed his vest and pulled him to my lips, kissing wide and lazy, my head swimming through a vast ocean, but stopping to enjoy this.
He kissed me back, but not for long, pulling away with one of his incredibly heated side smiles that had my body aching and tingly.
I tried to bring him back, but he resisted, pulling away from my attempts to keep him close. He walked to the table, picking up the paper package there.
I squinted, doing what I could to focus, my mouth agape and curious as he unbundled the twine and so frustratingly slowly unbound the paper.
He lifted tiny silken straps of a green so deep, it mimicked the pines of Felgren on a moonless night. The nightgown slid swiftly off the table, and he held it high for me to see.
My eyes brightened at the cupped neckline trimmed in soft, black lace. The silky high waist cascaded into a shimmer of green with a hem lined in the same black material.
“You didn’t order that today.” I closed my eyes and shook my head, trying to gather my thoughts. “She didn’t just have that in the back room for anyone.”
