Page 84 of Glass Hearts
“Sorry, Sunshine,” he says breathlessly. “I couldn’t help it.”
Archer kisses my thigh before rolling away, a soft brush of lips on skin, but I grab his face and kiss him with the same raw passion I just gave Koi. He happily returns it, growling into my mouth, nipping at my lips.
“I think it’s time for you to get some rest, darling,” Archer says as he sets me down right next to him.
Deciding not to fight it, I let my heavy eyelids drift off to sleep.
Koi
It feels like a dream to watch my Sunshine in bed, sleeping peacefully. She must feel safe around us, even if her stepfamily did a number on us, trying to break that trust. We all look to her repeatedly, as if checking that she is real and still there. To ensure she doesn’t wake up, we talk through our mind links.
“Yeah, so we aren’t going to just be friends,” Grayer says. The smile is back on his face when he isn’t looking at her back.
“Gray, she went through something traumatic that involved us. Even before she started warming up to us, she had always voiced not wanting to settle down. Let’s not scare the poor woman away now. She has to come to us. We can push a bit, but she has to say she loves us back before we can even talk about forever,” Sylas says while taking another sip of Arabella’s leftover wine. His eyes haven’t moved away from Arabella, regularly checking the ointment to make sure there are no adverse reactions.
Archer, the lucky fucker, hasn’t stopped smiling either. We are sitting in the candlelight, and I can tell he is doing another sketch of our girl while she sleeps.
“We do need to come up with a plan though, I think we also need to teach our girl a bit on how to defend herself. I worry about what will happen once we get to the castle and somehow she gets separated from us,” Archer says, pausing his sketching to look us in the eye.
“That won’t happen, ever again.” Grayer growls.
“Arch is right, Gray, I would rather us be safe than sorry. We had been lucky when that bear had saved her from that awful man. But what if there wasn’t a bear? Just like we can’t always rely on our magic, she can’t either.”
Arabella stirs, almost turning over onto her back, but Grayer is there to ensure she stays on her belly for the healing.
“By the looks of it, we will be here for a few days. When we aren’t planning and teaching Arabella, maybe we can court the dang girl. We have been shitty boyfriends, if that’s what we even are,” I reply. “We had been actively courting other ladies while we were falling for her. She never got the meals or the wooing.”
“I like the way you think, brother.” Grayer smiles, grabbing Arabella’s hand to give her a chaste kiss. “She deserves more. I say you and I go out tomorrow to put a date together. Sy and Arch can teach our girl.”
I smile back and nod. Sylas beats me to it in taking the other side of Arabella on the bed.
“Jerk,” I say to him with no mirth.
It is so nice to have our girl back. Our group once again feels whole.
We are never letting go.
* * *
Arabella is up before all of us, changed back into that asshole’s shirt.
“Nope, that won’t do,” Grayer says as he goes into Sylas’s bag to retrieve some of her clothes. Thank goodness Sylas thought to pack for her; he is always a few steps ahead. She excitedly jumps, seeing her clothes.
“I still can’t believe how well that cream worked; it’s as if I was never hurt. Sure, the scars are still there, but I feel backto new.” She hugs Sylas. At first, he is stunned, but he quickly recovers and wraps his arms around her, kissing the top of her head.
“Of course, Vixen. I am just glad you are feeling better.”
We sit down for breakfast, falling into an easy conversation of Arabella telling us about her new bear friends.
Repetitive taps on the window break our conversation as Arabella runs to the window to open it. “Petra!”
One thing we are still getting used to is the one-sided conversations we hear. We know she can mind-link to them like we can to each other, but it’s nice that she tries to speak out loud as much as she can when she is around others who know of her magic.
“What do you mean, Lo never left the castle?” We all start listening more intently. This could be bad.
“Fuck, is this another thing we fucked up on!? Maybe we should have hidden Lo before running to find the Duchess,” Grayer says, worry twisting his features.
“Even if we had tried, I don’t think Lo would have listened to us, insisting on our getting going,” Archer says, as if trying to convince himself.
