Chapter Thirty-four

We Should Fight More Often

MILA

A long time later, Riley sagged on the mattress next to her. He turned his face on the pillow to face Mila, and with the goofiest smile, he said, “We should fight more often.”

Mila burst out laughing. There was so much joy inside her she felt too small to contain it. She beamed at him with an equally dorky face. “If you’re prepared to admit how wrong you are every time we fight, I’m down for it.”

Riley grabbed her by the waist and pulled her toward himself, rolling half on top of her while simultaneously tickling her sides and nuzzling her neck. “You’re getting cocky.”

Mila giggled uncontrollably and couldn’t even come up with a smart comeback.

“As if you could talk, Mr. Smug Grin,” she managed to choke out at last.

“Oh, I am smug.” Riley’s steadily growing smirk was glued to his face. “I have the most beautiful witch in Salem in my bed.”

Mila mock-gagged. “Now you’re just being corny.”

“Who did you call corny?”

Mila couldn’t help but laugh when he started tickling her even more. He wasn’t listening to her pleas to stop, so Mila had to resort to more subtle techniques. She shifted under him so that now he wasn’t only half on top of her, but squarely between her legs.

It didn’t take long for Riley to catch up. He stopped tickling her but was still grinning like an idiot when he said, “Seriously, Bennet, you’d resort to seducing me?”

In the most innocent voice she could muster, Mila replied, “The tactic seems to be working, Inquisitor King.”

Using his formal title finally did it. Riley’s pupils blew out and tickling became the furthest thing on his mind.

Mila didn’t mind the shift of focus one bit.

***

Another long while later, thoroughly exhausted from the re-match under the sheets, Mila lay on the mattress, facing Riley and smiling slightly deliriously for a while before he suddenly got up and put a shirt on.

Mila thought that covering his six-pack was a crime against all women.

He smirked and shot her a quick, “Heard that,” through the mental bond.

“Oh, well,” she shot back. “It’s true.”

“How come I can hear you, too, now?”

She smiled and stretched under the sheets like a lazy cat. “I guess all the sex loosened my mental barriers.”

He laughed, both out loud and through their mental connection. “I promise I’m getting dressed for an excellent reason,” Riley said, pulling on a pair of sweatpants that hung low on his hips—gargoyles, even his hipbones were so sexy, as was that V of muscles disappearing below his waistband.

Looking at her from under a curtain of black hair, Riley buttoned down the shirt and covered all that deliciousness.

Mila groaned in protest in her head.

“Steaming cauldrons, Bennet, you’re a greedy little goblin.”

She sat on the bed and grabbed him by those delicious hips to pull him to her. “Can you tell me again what is this excellent reason you have to be getting dressed? Because at the moment, I really can’t fathom a single one.”

“Can I interest you in having dinner with me, Bennet?” he said, pressing a soft kiss to Mila’s temple. “Or did you eat already?”

“No, I came here straight from the DMJ.”

“The DMJ?” Riley frowned.

“Yeah, that’s how I found out we’re soulmates… Judge Templeton figured it out after I told her about the mental bond.”

“Why did you tell her about it?”

“I was trying to convince her my potion must’ve somehow still worked on us after she’d educated me on magical law enforcement officers wearing protective gear against curses, and stunner gun hits, removing all magic from their target.”

Riley tilted his neck and scratched the back of his head, visibly embarrassed. “Sorry about that. I really thought you’d be better off without me.”

Mila squeezed him possessively. “Never.”

“Why did you go to see Judge Templeton in the first place, anyway?”

“To ask her to assign me to a different community service.”

“I thought you loved working on the case.”

“I did, but…” Mila left the sentence hanging.

“Then it was because of me.” An affirmation, not a question.

“Yes, because even when I thought it was all fake, it was unbearable to be near you feeling what I was feeling and not being able to…” When words failed Mila, she grabbed his hand and laced their fingers together

He flashed her a sheepish grin, raising an eyebrow suggestively, and finished the sentence for her. “Not being able to do everything that we just did.”

Mila blushed, and he teased her relentlessly, “Oh, Bennet, I find it so cute you choose to blush now.”

She stood up from the bed and playfully slapped his shoulder. “I didn’t choose to, and stop teasing me or I’ll really turn you into a toad.”

He made a mock-serious tone. “Mmm, I’m not sure toads have sexy hipbones though.”

She swatted him again. “You’re the worst.” Then she got serious. “Anyway, it wasn’t just the physical part—or the absence of it—that was unbearable.” She looked up at him. “It was, ridiculous as it may sound after only three days, not being allowed to tell you I love you.”

His eyes snatched hers and got so hexing intense. “I love you, too.”

“I know that now, but before… I was thinking this feeling so strong and all-consuming I had inside of me wasn’t real… or that it was wrong, or that I’d forced you into feeling something similar when you couldn’t stand me—”

Her speech was cut off by him cupping her cheek and hugging her close to his chest. He smelled delicious, like wind and snow and fabric softener and her favorite cologne.

“I’m sorry,” Riley apologized. “Mila Bennet, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I’ve been an idiot.”

“Yeah,” Mila agreed. “A rude, grumpy, sexy idiot. But you’re my idiot now, so stop moping and go make me dinner.”

She smiled up at him, teasing.

He kissed her forehead again and walked out of the bedroom. “You get away with ordering me around only because of all the sex.”

Mila sank back on the bed, still grinning like a total dork, and consoled herself by ogling his butt as he exited the room.

“Also heard that,” Riley called from the hallway.