Page 34 of Return to Garoureve

“With my hand tangled in your hair, keepin’ you close,” he murmured, nodding as he approached. “I remember.”

“Things were different then. It only burned a little when you touched me.”

“Yeah...”

Violet swallowed hard as he sat down beside her on the bed, distance still separating them. It wasn’t much, but after years of being apart, anything other than clinging to one another was too far for her taste.

She hated this. Hated the separation. Hated the fear.

“Why do you think she made it so we couldn’t touch bare skin?” Henrik asked, his voice full of melancholy. “I mean, if she was tryin’ to keep me from distractin’ you, then lettin’ me do everythin’ but touch you... oh.”

Violet chuckled under her breath and smiled to herself as it seemed to click. “I don’t think she actually intended for the spell to go as it did. All she wanted was to make sure we didn’t consummate the bond too soon. I mean, it’s not normal for us to feel it that young. Normally, it’s after, you know, maturity. She didn’t want me getting pregnant at sixteen, which I appreciate, but—“

“She really thought I wouldn’t‘ve been able to hold out until we were ready? I mean... sure, the bond is drivin’ me crazy with need for you, but I coulda waited.”

“She wasn’t worried about you,” Violet said, bursting into laughter. “I was the concern. I was ready to climb you before it was confirmed, but once I knew? Henrik... I mean, Mabel was wrong about a lot of things, but she was right to be worried. We would have had sex within a week.”

Henrik’s ears turned red, a classic sign of his embarrassment, drawing more laughter from Violet. Her sweet boy, her sweet man...

She loved him. So much.

“I love you,” Violet whispered as she stared into his eyes. “I’ve always loved you. It’s the only thing about myself I’ve ever felt sure of. My love for you.”

“And your love for art. Ain’t no surprise for me that you ended up doin’ it as a job.”

He was right about that. She did love art, but... “You were always my favorite subject to draw.”

Henrik was quiet as he looked down at her, not answering. She stared up at him, wishing she could close the silence with a kiss, could do something more than stare at him, but...

After a few moments, he shifted and moved on the bed, climbing up onto it, onto the side where he used to sleep, closer to the window. Always closer to the window. His head settled down on her pillows, and he reached a gloved hand out to her. In an instant, she was rolling over and crawling up onto the bed beside him, not allowing any blanket between them as she rolled over and pressed her backside to his front. Henrik groaned, and she could feel his cock hardening against her butt.

Henrik’s arm wrapped around her waist and she moved her gloved hand to his forearm, gripping it tight as he clung to her. They had moved so fast from sitting side by side, uncertain and hesitant, to wrapped up in one another, and now she couldn’t let go. His hand released her belly to move to her other hand, and their fingers interlocked immediately, clinging to one another.

Everything in her body had been so on fire for days, between his proximity and then the grinding and groping and then his brand on her skin. She had felt in a whirlwind, the wind then suddenly dropping and everything going stagnant, and everything about life had seemed so chaotic.

Nothing made sense anymore. She had no answers. She had no future.

But now, right now, even with layers between them keeping her from feeling his bare skin pressed against her own...

Everything was calm. Everything made sense. Everything was settled.

She wanted to scream and cry, but all she could manage to do was breathe.

She was with him, her Henrik, laying in her bed, clinging to him as he wrapped his arms around her. Sure, everything was shit, but she was with him. What the fuck else mattered?

Henrik sniffed behind her, and she wondered if he would be the one to start crying first, when he took in another big whiff and shifted awkwardly behind her. What the hell was he—

“Why does it smell like burned plastic in here?”

Violet immediately started laughing, remembering why, exactly, her apartment loosely smelled burnt... at least, to her human-ish nose. Of course Henrik would be able to tell there had been a fire, and exactly what it was.

“I might have set my bed on fire trying to break the spell...” ‘Might have’ meaning ‘she did’, but she wouldn’t admit to it. Not officially. Even though he already, technically, knew she had tried.

Henrik let out a long sigh, the noise from it telling her that now was the time to discuss what they needed to do. Shit. This was what she had been wanting to avoid. The hard discussions.

Pulling away slightly, Violet rolled over and set her head on the pillow opposite Henrik’s, making sure to keep a safe distance between them. She didn’t want to scar them both with an accidental nose brush, but she still wanted to stay close enough to touch him how and where she could.

His arm looped around her middle, his hand pressed against her lower back, and she stared into his eyes, waiting to hear what he had to say.

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