“Why, m’lady, you look beautiful.”
I feel my cheeks redden in response. “Thanks, Indiana,” I tease, making him narrow his eyes at me. I don’t want him, or any of them, to think just because I’m dressed nice, means I would be all formal and delicate now. I’m the same woman I was before I went to sleep.
“I was worried when you didn’t wake up this morning.”
“Yeah, I guess I needed a bit of recovery time from everything,” I explain.
He leads me to the table where my two mates and Silver are, and they all stand when they see me. Ryker hurries over and grabs my hand, kissing it before guiding me to a seat between him and Braxton. As I sit, Braxton grabs my other hand and brings it up to kiss my knuckles before placing it against my thigh, making me smile.
I glance around at the four sets of eyes trained on me. “What’s going on, guys? I feel like I’m missing something here, you’re all being rather intense.”
“Don’t worry, Red, it’s nothing bad. We were just wondering… well, I was wondering if you’d like to go on a date with me?” That was not what I had expected at all, but everything has been so crazy since I got to this realm, I haven’t had the chance to slow down at all. Ria had already been here for over a year, I’m sure she would be fine a little longer without me.
I smile widely at Ryker. “I’d love to.”
“Great!” he exclaims, jumping to his feet. “Let’s go.”
“Oh, now?” I ask, letting him pull me up as I let go of Brax. I turn to glance at him as Ryker starts leading me away.
“Don’t worry, we’ll get our turn, Baby,” Braxton says before winking at me.Good lord, who taught him to wink?I offer a quick wave to the other two, feeling bad for leaving them right after getting there. But as Ryker pulls me into the street with an exuberant smile on his face, I can feel his joy radiating from him.
“Where are we going, birdman?” I ask, hurrying alongside him as we walk down the street, hand in hand.
“While you were sleeping, I found out a bit more about this village. Turns out it’s bigger than we originally thought and there is a little market around the corner. Every Saturday, it turns into a little fair with some games and dancing. I thought you might enjoy spending a few hours there with me before I pass you off to Braxton for his date with you, then I’ll meet back up with you for dinner. How does that sound?”
“Ryker, it all sounds perfect!” I exclaim excitedly. I’ve been on a lot of dates in my life, but almost always with men who seemed barely interested in me and we only did fun things if I planned them. I love that he’s planned this for me.I love him. Have I really not told him yet?
I pull him to a stop and turn to face him, grabbing his other hand, and placing both his palms against my chest, over my heart. I look up into his beautiful bright blue eyes that hold a small amount of concern as I speak with as much emotion as I can. “Ryker, I need you to know how much I care for you. You found me as soon as I started this journey and I can’t imagine ever continuing without you, I love you.”
His face lights up as he grabs my cheeks and kisses me. I weave my arms around his neck and he slowly dips me backwardsin what must be the most romantic kiss of my life. When he finally pulls me back up, I can’t help but whisper, “Wow.”
“Penny, you’re the light of my life, I love you, too.” He kisses me softly once more before taking my hand and pulling me down the street. “Now, let’s go have some fun!”
The fair is, in fact, the most fun I’ve ever had on a date. Ryker pulls me from stall to stall, and his enthusiasm is contagious. We start trying to point out the strangest things we can find to each other. We play a ring toss game and one that was similar to basketball but with something that’s the size of a baseball. We laugh as we run from game to game, trying everything. The only sad part is when we come across a stall selling what I guess is their equivalent of puppies. They look like a cross between a dog and a tiger and are the most adorable things I’ve ever seen. But I know with our unknown journey, we couldn’t take a puppy with us. Ryker promised we’d get a dog after we found Ria and knew where we were going to live, and the fact that he talks about our future together warms my heart.
I ask if we can sit for a minute, needing a moment to rest my feet from all our running around. Ryker finds us a snack, which seems to be some sort of chicken kabob, and we find a bench to sit on, turning to face each other as we chat.
“You know, this has been, hands down, the best date of my life,” I tell him, before biting into a piece of chicken.
“Yeah? Better than our first one? Or our second?” He teases.
“Hmm. I think once we got engaged, I would stop calling each day a date. But our first date was pretty amazing. Meeting you—I’ll never forget that day, Ryker, I mean it.” I place my free hand on his between us. “I know what would have happened if you didn’t get on that skyreacher behind me.”
He swallows, frowning as he bites a piece of his food, chewing it down before responding. “I hate thinking about it, Pen. It scares me to think how close you were to… well, you know. And it wasn’t just the one time. I think you’ve made my heart stop beating at least four separate times since I met you.”
Fuck.I wasn’t doing a great job of keeping myself out of trouble, was I? I’ve always been impulsive. I love adventure and the rush of adrenaline you get when doing something exciting. I feel guilty for making him worry so much and search for a topic to change the direction of our conversation. “Tell me more about you, how old you are, where you’re from and your job and stuff. You’ve told me a bit, but I want to know everything.”
“Well, I’m twenty-eight, I grew up in Maplewick, it’s a village at the base of the mountain we met on.” I nod in understanding. “As a child, I was always playing with stray animals, and there was an older man in town who had a skyreacher. He taught me everything about it and I took a liking to it. When I was old enough, he took me on as an apprentice and soon I became pretty well known for training the best skyreachers. Mine are always the most loyal and well treated.” He speaks proudly, and it makes me love him even more.
“But, you’ve just given that up to… follow me across the country?”
“Country?”
“Oh, you don’t use that word. Well, what is Dyconia? A territory or…”
“Oh, I see, it’s a kingdom.”
“Right, a kingdom. Wait, does that mean there is a king that rules over Dyconia?” I ask curiously.
