Page 17 of The Cruel Dawn
“I thought we ran out of that,” I say, pointing to the bottle in his hand.
He chuckles and says, “We did but when you were away, I had nothing to do, so…”
I grin and point at him. “You made the bubble-stuff! Just like your mother said you would! She was right! Admit it.”
He rolls his eyes and holds out his hands. “Fine. She was right. Learning how to make the bubble-stuff will now benefit the both of us.”
“You’re damn right it will.”
“Because I get to see you naked now.”
“You still want to see me naked?” I ask, eyebrow cocked.
“Fuck yeah,” he says, capping the vial, “but more than that, I want to see you happy, especially after a day like today.”
I hop on his back and nuzzle his neck. “Ha, you love me.”
He shakes his head, blushing.
I give him a sloppy kiss on his cheek. “I can’t wait to tell your mom that you made me bubble baths.”
He watches me undress, and his eyes slide from my breasts down to my hips. His gaze never leaves me even as I slip into the hot water and dip beneath the bubbles.
My skin tickles and warms.
“Are you joining me?” I scoop up bubbles and blow them into the air.
Zephar pushes off his breeches. His body is marked by those destroyed realms, orbs and symbols and tendrils rippling across his muscles. He stands there, this mighty warrior, in his perfect stance. Supreme is good all the time, and all the time, Supreme is good.
His golden eyes sparkle. “Am I still good enough?”
He’s swollen enough. He’s large enough. Oh, yeah. He’s good enough.
I stare at him in awe. There is no form like this man anywhere on Vallendor or in all of the 67,000 realms.
But he’s too big for this tub, and his legs and feet stick out like tree trunks.
“This isn’t gonna work,” I say.
He taps the side of the vat. “I’ll build us a bigger bathtub, one that fits two.”
I lift an eyebrow. “So a lake, then?”
He splashes me with water and grimaces as he shifts on the bench.
I wince. “You’re uncomfortable. I’m sorry.”
He tries to grin. “A little longer.” He shifts again. “Since last spring, we’ve bathed alone, and we’ve slept alone and…” He splashes me with water again. “I just want to enjoy this. I just want to enjoy you. I just want to talk about crazy shit and sing stupid songs and…” He shrugs and smiles. “Be yours again.”
I say, “Yeah,” feeling like shit. Because I haven’t slept alone nor have I bathed alone, and I need to tell him that, but I don’t want to, even though I wasn’t in my right mind those times. I couldn’t even remember my own name, so how could he expect me to rememberhisname or that we were together? Yes, Jadon and I talked about the possibility that I had someone waiting for me.What if you were already in love before waking up in Maford? What if someone’s waiting for you?Back then, on that night as we sat on either end of a log, my heart told me that no one was waiting for me, that my heart would remember that kind of love. An unforgettable love.Shit. I knew nothing. I was wrong. Because here I am. In love.
“When others had given up,” Zephar is saying now, “when others grew convinced that either you weren’t coming back or had been killed, I knew. My heart knew. And so, I waited.”
Because that’s love.
Zephar carries me into our tent as I kiss and lick the muscles flexing along his jaw and neck, trying to focus only on him, to forget the guilt churning in my belly. He’s iron beneath my hands and everywhere they roam, but then my hands find his face, and I close my eyes and something bubbles inside of me that shifts my desire to sadness.
He doesn’t speak, and soon, he pulls me into his arms and whispers, “It’s okay. I understand.”
