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May 4 - May 6, 2024
“You know, the word please has never shrunken a man’s testicles.”
“He’s the man of my dreams.” I stare up into Tarian’s beautiful face, wishing he existed in more than these fantasies, but odds are, this version that I’ve crafted is nothing like the true version of the Atlantean mob boss. Odds are the true version won’t remember the girl with the slumber rune. “My Nick.”
“When one finds one’s soulmate, one doesn’t wait. Isn’t that right, Mr. Bloom?” The word soulmate clears his gaze of suspicion as effectively as compulsion. “I suppose you’re right.” “You suppose?” Although her eyelids are still twitchy, Calanthe’s tone is smooth. “You didn’t even wait a full month before you asked Mom to marry you.” “But she, sweet pea, made me wait on her answer for two years.” Although he doesn’t question his daughter’s decision to marry me out loud, it infuses the air. “Life’s too short to wait for certain things, Dad.” She stares up at me, her jewel eyes drawing me so
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I pick up her dress and rise, then turn it right side out. The shallow furrow between her brows tells me that she didn’t anticipate that. “Arms up.” Even though the last thing I want is to wrap her back up, not only is her mother still part of this dream, but also, the tears on her cheeks have barely dried. Her soft skin pebbles as she slowly unknots and raises her arms. I don’t rush cloaking her curves, sensing this may be the last time I get to touch her in this dream. “I never thought dressing a woman could prove as arousing as undressing one.”
“This perfect man of yours is no figment of your imagination.” She grimaces. “All those things I said…” “Will live rent-free in my heart and dick for the rest of time.” My terrible line does nothing to suppress her blush, so I tip her chin higher. “I bloody loved your confidence and honesty, and can only hope you won’t shy away from showing me both in the real world.” She swallows. “I don’t want any falsities or pretenses between us.” I caress her blazing jawline, wishing my touch could quell her anxiety. “Understood?” “Yes,” she gasps, as though the word was bottled up deep inside and had to
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“Calamity, once I’ve figured out what’s wrong with my magic, you can bet your stunning ass my hands will be all over it and the rest of you.” Heat doesn’t just envelop me; it sears me from the inside out. He pulls his shoulders back as he readjusts his shirt and does up a few buttons. “You’ll be begging me to stop.” “Never.”
“Do you think it’ll feel the same in the real world?” I ask. “If what will feel the same?” “This attraction.” “No.” “Oh.” My hands slip off the table’s edge, and I avert my gaze, choosing to concentrate on a dent in the wood. The one I made the day of Dad’s funeral when I took my anger and pain out on the shop, stabbing the tabletop with my stem cutters over and over. It was Bryn who’d pried them out of my fingers; Bryn who’d sat me down on the floor; Bryn who’d dug tiny bottles of vodka out of her giant purse. At my cocked brow, she’d said, “Swiped them from the hotel room I shared with that
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“People care about you, you big oaf. I care, lord only knows why. And don’t say it’s because of the brand, because your magic is always there, and you don’t always inspire love.” Shock ripples over the taut planes of his face. Crap. “I mean, affection.” I avert my gaze as my cheeks warm.
“What do I inspire?” I ask. He raises his hand to my jaw and cups it with such reverence that my pulse threatens to derail. “You inspire my heart to beat, Calamity Darling.” He traces the outline of my mouth. “To keep beating.” To trap all those precious beats, I press my palm against his chest, my cheek into his long fingers, and my mouth to his.
“There will never be anyone else for me. I sensed it before, but now it’s far more than a feeling—it’s a conviction. You’ve burrowed yourself so fucking deep inside me that pieces of your soul have merged with mine.” I trace every letter on her spine, reminding her of their presence, of their meaning. “I’m not saying that you have to stay with me—I may be an asshole, but I would never take that choice away from you—but I am saying that I am irrevocably and entirely yours.”
“Because the first time I make love to you, I want it to be in the real world.” It’s not the only reason. Chiefly, I want her mind—our minds—to be unencumbered by anything other than us and that won’t happen until I’m free.
“Do you love me?” “More than—more than life itself.” “Then come back to me.”
When Saul and Catalina’s voices leak from the ceiling speakers, Calanthe nestles into my side. “Didn’t think you wanted to get rid of me so fast.” It takes me a second to compute her inference. When I do, I release her hand and wrap both my arms around her. “I never want to be rid of you.” I pull her flush against me and kiss the crown of her head. “Never,” I repeat, praying the feeling is mutual.
“Are you saying that unless I die, the rune is mine to keep?” I don’t nod. I don’t speak. “It gives till death do us part a whole new meaning, doesn’t it?” My Adam’s apple bobs, which erodes her joy. Before she can ask the reason for my distress, I fit my mouth to hers and fold her into my embrace, my heart clamoring, I’m still yours. Forever yours.
“Yet Dorian, Malachi, Ines, Electra, and Calanthe still came to my rescue.” I step closer to him. “A mortal girl, but not my own fucking uncle. Then again, why am I still expecting anything of my family?”
“Because of your lie, I didn’t dare touch anyone for months, Saul. Fucking months. And when I did touch someone”—I gesture to Calanthe—“I was certain she’d die because of me.”
“I’ll give you runes tomorrow.” “I don’t want just any runes, Tarian! I want your rune. I want to be yours. I want our dreams back.” My manic grip slackens around his arm. “I want your triplets.” His mouth curves as he gathers me against him. “You don’t need my rune to be mine. All you need is my love, and you have that for all of eternity. If that is, in fact, what you truly desire.” “Why in the world would you think I’d want anything else?” “Because I’m a deeply flawed and fucked up man.” I roll my hot eyes and palm his neck. “You have no flaws.”
“I’m going to miss sharing our dreams.” “You get to share my life now. Although, I’m not sure that’s much of a gift.” I kiss him. “I can’t wait.” “You’re truly not frightened?” “Of you?” I grin. “If it turns you on, I can act terrified.” I palm my mouth and squeak, “Tarian, you beast! Please don’t torture me.” He pops my ass. “I meant about touching me?” “No, Tarian. I’m not afraid.”
“It’s a surprise.” “I don’t like surprises.” “Of course you don’t.” I press my smile against his hard lips until they soften. “But you’ll like this one, my beast.”
“This isn’t a dream, darling; it’s our reality. Now and forever.”
“My friend”—he gestures toward Dorian—“is arranging for you to tour the land of your ancestors with a real estate agent until you find your dream house.” Mrs. Fiona’s jaw slackens as though fashioned from old rubber instead of bone. “Why?” “Because I’d like to thank you for your kindness toward the Blooms.” “By makin’ me tour houses?” “By buying you one.” Tarian’s fingers begin to stroke. Her alarmed gaze drops to my hip, to the hand I placed over Tarian’s. “A whole house?” “Usually, people prefer whole houses to halved ones,” he deadpans, which makes a smile warp the tense line of my lips.
“Mom, I’d like you to meet Tarian.” I crane my face to look up at him. “My…” “Your…?” She prompts. “Her Nick,” Tarian says, startling a rogue tear clinging to my lashes.
“Because the way that man looks at you reminded me of your father. Of the way he used to—” Her voice catches. “Of the way he used to look at me.” Heat simmers on my lash line, blurring her features. “I wish he was here, Mom. I wish he could’ve met Tarian.”
“When did you graduate from college?” “Two years ago,” I say. Her frown deepens. “So odd. It feels like…yesterday.” “I know. The last two years have been rough on you.” She inhales raggedly. “Yeah. I’m sorry, baby. When your father died, I just…checked out.” My chest trembles. “But I’m back now.”
“She would’ve remembered the feeling. She would’ve known something was amiss.” Lisa sets down the pastry she’d come to fetch when I waylaid her. “When you find that person who makes your heart beat harder and faster and longer than anything in the world, you hold onto them. You cherish them. You never, under any circumstances, cast them away. And if you ever separate, you make that decision together.”
“You made my fucking heart beat, Calamity. It will probably stop again if you ever try to leave me.” Her dimples make an appearance. “I’d sure hope so, ’cause I’d really hate for it to beat for anyone else.”
“I love you, my beast,”
“I adore you, my beauty.”
“I’m ready to spend the rest of my immortal days with you.”
From this day forward, you will thrive in my son’s soil in slumber and in wakefulness. Forever his. Forever mine.
Your souls chose each other, Tarian.
“Forever hers. Forever mine.”
