Chapter 40

ChapterForty

Thea spent a long time waiting for him to make the next move. She’d been waiting for him because she knew how important this was for Alistair. Clearly, showing his feelings had taken a toll on him, and then having to pull himself away from her had been even more difficult. She didn’t need to push him.

But the damn man had been waiting for a week now, and she wanted to get this over with. No more longing stares as they walked past each other. No more tantalizing moments where she wondered if he was finally going to make his move.

Instead, all she’d gotten was a week of frustration and angst. She wanted him to touch her, damn it! She wanted to kiss him, to linger together where they had never been given that opportunity as children.

Didn’t he feel the same?

Most likely, only honor and all that ridiculous nonsense went on in his head.

“If you bang those pots any harder, I think you’ll shatter the metal,” Nora called out with a laugh.

“Maybe if they were broken, I would get a little attention from the master of the house,” she muttered under her breath before calling out, “Sorry!”

Nora walked over to her and put her hands on her hips. “Dear girl. You are distracted today.”

“There’s a lot on my mind, Nora. I apologize, it’s just...” Thea blew a hair away from her face and mirrored Nora’s pose. “Well, if I could focus on something other than what’s going on, then that would be better for everyone involved.”

“Why don’t you head into the garden? There’s plenty there for you to do and I don’t need you denting all the pots when I have to use them tonight.”

The garden?

There was a garden?

Thea couldn’t stop her jaw from dropping open. “There’s a garden here? Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

“Well, we didn’t know you’d be interested? Besides, no one has taken care of it for years. The whole thing is just weeds and dead plants.” Nora shrugged. “If I had more time, I might have spent some afternoons getting the gardens in tiptop shape, but as you can see...”

“You’re busy.”

“Very.” Nora flapped a towel at her. “And you’re too angry to be in my kitchen. Go on with you. You’ll spoil the meat!”

She didn’t need to be told twice. Thea threw off her apron and fled from the heat of the kitchens and the shadows that still lingered there. Instead, she rushed up the stairs to find this mystery garden that Nora had spoken of.

“Garden,” she muttered. “If I were a garden, where would I be?”

Outside, obviously. But the house was on a very small plot. The entire building took up most of that plot, which meant the garden had to be attached to the house in some way except...

There were markings on the floor. At first, she thought they were dirt smudges, but then she realized they were painted there. Gold dust clung to the edges, and an arrow pointed down a section of the house she’d rarely visited. Those were Balthazar’s old quarters, so she’d never even thought to poke around in there.

“So the old man had a garden,” she said as she followed the glittering arrows. “Leave it to him to need his own personal stock of poisonous plants.”

And she had no question that the place was full of poison. Why wouldn’t it be? There was so much here that it would be easier to put into a spell if he had access to it always. Balthazar was a rich man, not a foolish one.

The golden arrows led to a single door down the hallway full of darkness. The door was the oldest she’d seen in the building, with peeling paint and old runes that had been scratched off with a knife. Likely to protect the rest of the house.

Thea rested her hand on the wood and took a deep breath. This felt important. Like something wonderful and magical was about to be revealed. She pushed the door open and felt her soul take flight.

The garden had been hidden inside the interior of the home. A glass greenhouse stood before her with green vines hanging from every joint that held the panes in place. Sunlight beamed through the glass and cast tiny rainbows all over the ground. And there, in the center, stood Alistair.

He wore a simple pair of black slacks and a white shirt that he’d rolled up at the sleeves. Black suspenders were loose at his shoulders, one halfway off his arm already. He’d unbuttoned his shirt and revealed for the very first time that his freckles actually trailed down his neck and onto his chest.

He held a glass of wine in one hand and stood on top of a lovely blanket that had been sewn in patches. There wasn’t a picnic or food, just a bottle of wine, an extra glass, and the man she loved waiting for her.

“What’s all this?” she asked with a slight laugh.

“I promised you a better way of proving that I’m worth your attention.” He gestured with the wine and gave her a crooked half smile. “This was the best I could come up with.”

“It’s a good start.”

Thea stepped toward him, only to have him meet her halfway. He reached for her hands and gathered them up to his chest. “I have something to show you.”

“Oh?”

Alistair reached into his pocket and pulled out a thin, green ribbon. It seemed quite old and strangely familiar. Although, she wouldn’t quite place where she knew it from.

“This was the ribbon attached to the first letter you sent me,” he murmured. “I’ve had it for years now, and it’s always brought me good luck.”

“You kept it?”

“Of course, I did. Just like I kept every letter you sent me, every gift you gave me, and every memory of you close to my heart.” He looked up through that floppy hair of his and smiled. A real smile. “I love you, Thea. More than I ever thought possible to love anything. I know there are plenty of reasons for us not to love each other. But no matter how far my heart wandered, I’ve always found myself coming back to you.”

Her heart squeezed in her chest. She’d always felt the same but hadn’t dared to dream that he would as well. Some part of her, the part that had held back from this and them, snapped.

Thea reached for him and drew him to her lips. She kissed him like she’d dreamt ever since she was a child. With every ounce of who she was and every bit of her love pouring into him in a hungry meeting of lips, teeth, and tongue.

“I love you,” she whispered against him. “I have loved you since before we met and for lifetimes beyond that. I will love you until the stars tumble from the sky and the last god dies. You are part of me, Alistair. I won’t ever let you go again.”

As though those were magic words, he surged up to meet her. He wrapped one arm around her waist and the other behind her back, binding her to him in one great lunge. He swallowed the sounds of her whimpers until she lost herself in the feeling of him.

They sank onto the blanket together, although she couldn’t guess which one of them had moved first. All she knew was that he drew her into his arms and the warmth of his body. Alistair raked his hands through her hair, the billowing darkness shrouding her shoulders with his movements.

“Do you remember all those times we met in the meadows?” he whispered as he broke away from her kiss. He pressed a kiss to her throat, right over her rapidly beating pulse. “Those were the most precious memories to me. Being outside with you, in your element, with all of nature to see us. That’s why I wanted to bring you here.”

She was delirious. Surely he wasn’t saying such sweet things?

But then she felt his fingers at the ties of her dress and realized, yes, he was saying that. They were here, and she wasn’t dreaming.

Fingers tangling in his shirt, she unbuttoned the rest of the buttons. The chest she revealed made her gasp. She’d known he was a thin man, but she hadn’t expected him to be muscular as well. The flat planes of his pecs were dotted with freckles, and a fine dusting of nearly blonde hair disappeared into the waistband of his pants. She could see his ribs, a little more than she wished, but he was so lovely. So perfectly built for her.

He caught the back of her neck with another searing kiss that melted her against that chest. The warmth of his skin startled her. He heated the icy tips of her fingers, spreading heat to the very core of her.

“Move up for me,” he whispered against her lips.

She shifted so he could draw off her bodice, revealing nothing but a shift underneath. However, she was tired of waiting. Thea decided all of this had been a long time coming, and she refused to be satisfied with a slow pace.

Standing quickly, she stepped out of her skirts and sank back onto their blanket in their semblance of wildness in this cursed city. She pushed him onto his back, following him down until she was stretched out on top of him, perched with her elbows on his chest.

When he moved, she stopped with a slight touch on the tip of his nose. Thea took her time, letting her eyes feast on his form. She touched him as she’d wanted to for years. Skating her hands down his chest, letting her fingers trail over the ridges of his abs. She felt the power of his ribs rising and falling with each breath. Even that bulge in his pants simultaneously terrified her and excited her at the same time.

They had waited years for this. She refused to be some fainting woman who turned her head to the side and endured. Not today.

His fingers trailed up her thighs, drawing the skirt of her shift up higher and higher. His eyes watched hers the entire time as though gauging to see if she wanted this.

Thea refused to let him doubt himself for a minute. She leaned down and pressed a kiss right over his heart. “I’ve been wanting this for a very long time, Alistair. Don’t stop now.”

Apparently, that’s what he needed to hear. His hands fisted at her sides, then loosened to guide her onto her back. He moved on top of her, naturally fitting between her legs with a slight groan so wonderful to hear out of his mouth. “Thea,” he whispered.

“I know,” she said, smoothing her hands up his back even as she lifted her hips for him. “I know.”

His lips trailed down her throat, down to her chest. She gasped as his mouth closed over the tips of her breasts, and spikes of pleasure flooded through her body, even through the fabric. She had no idea what he was doing to her, but.. but... Oh, how was a woman supposed to think through this?

Thea arched into his touch as he subjected her to the same treatment that she had given him, although his hands were much bolder. She shivered as he cupped her breasts. Quaked when he palmed the globes of her bottom, kneading the flesh there until she let out a little sigh. And then she had to hold in a groan as his fingers found that spot between her legs that she’d only touched herself.

“Thea,” he whispered. “You’re perfect.”

And then he sank a finger into her and she saw stars. Alistair played her body with the talent of a violinist on stage. He watched her with rapt attention, noticing all the tiny movements she made when she enjoyed what he was doing.

A deep thrum started in her belly, a tensing coil she couldn’t quite catch no matter how hard she tried. She gripped the blanket fabric in tight fists, dangerously on the edge of a miraculous burst of stars. No other person had gotten her there before, and she’d been quite certain it wasn’t possible. Until him.

“Thea.” His voice was a siren calling her to a night of her own demise. She couldn’t care less.

Thea opened her eyes and looked up at him, panting and half mad with desire.

He knelt between her legs, his shirt already off and the light playing over the muscular caps of his shoulders. His hands were at the belt of his pants, and she almost couldn’t stand it.

“I want it to be together,” he said, his voice deeper than she’d ever heard it. “Can you handle that?”

She bit her lip and nodded. The image of him, the knowledge of what was going to come... her mind whirled with the possibilities, but none of those imagined moments could ever compare to him pressing against the notch between her legs. Simultaneously too big and perfect for everything that she had in mind. His breaths puffed against her collarbone, and then he kissed her.

His tongue surged into her mouth at the same time as he pressed forward and sank deep. A quiet sound escaped her lips, her stomach clenching. Perhaps around him as well, because he let out a groan that rocked through her.

“Thea,” he said. “By the gods, you’re perfect.”

She cupped the back of his neck and held on as he eased deeper and deeper into her until she had no idea where he began, and she ended. Their lips pressed in a never-ending kiss as he found a pace that satisfied them both. He built that coiling pressure inside her again, but this time it was new. Different. So powerful she thought it might explode out of her at any moment.

Alistair wrenched himself free from their kiss, breathing hard and eyes shut, as though the feeling of her was too much. He touched their foreheads together and groaned, “I love you.”

Somehow he changed the angle, and it was too much. Not enough. Wait, no, it was definitely enough.

Thea arched into him with a soft sound of surprise, her eyes snapping open, although she wasn’t really looking at anything. She came with him, together, as it always should have been. And in the glimmering rainbows cast through glass, she realized that life had never had enough color until he had come into her life.

She’d seen a thousand flowers, made hundreds of bouquets, and never once realized there was a color to this feeling.

It was him. He was her hidden color, her rainbow, her love.

Their breathing slowed, and Alistair pressed his lips to her shoulder, neck, cheek, and over each eyelid. “Stay with me,” he said. “Please.”

“I have a better idea.” She smoothed that unruly hair back from his face and smiled. “Why don’t you move back into your old bedroom with me? I don’t want to sleep in the master. I want to sleep with you. In comfort.”

He grinned, a real, whole smile that seemed so frequent these days. “I’d like that.”