Complete and utter bliss.
Sebastian rolled to his side, his chest heaving. Kara lay beside him, dazed and thoroughly satisfied. There was not one coherent thought left in her mind.
When she could move again, she reached for his hand.
“Kara, are you alright?” He gazed at her with that particular intensity. “I wasn’t too rough? I didn’t–”
“Sebastian Thorne,” she interrupted, grinning despite her breathlessness, “if you’re about to apologize for that, I might have to reconsider this whole Soulbond thing.”
He huffed a surprised laugh. But his eyes still searched hers. “I just – it was your first–”
“I’m aware. And I’d like to register my formal complaint that I waited twenty-five years for that.” She stared up at the ceiling. “What on Arcanthys was I doing?”
He laughed properly this time, the tension draining from his shoulders. “So... that was okay?”
“So much more than okay.” She leaned over and kissed him softly. “Perfect, actually.”
His answering smile was brilliant, relieved. “Good.” He fell quiet for a moment. “It’s never been like that before.”
She looked at him.
“For me,” he said. “Never.”
That’s what did it. Not anything else they’d done that night.That’swhat made her blush.
“And I plan on doing that again,” he added. “Frequently.”
“I’m counting on it,” she laughed. “Although–”
“What?”
“The innkeeper’s daughter in Port Cerula will be devastated.”
“Kara–”
“I’m justsaying–”
He pulled her close as she laughed, wrapping an arm around her waist. She snuggled into him. There was no place Kara would ever rather be. No safer place in all of Vallenna. Golden light still glowed on their skin where they touched, the bond settling, weaving itself permanently into place. It hummed between them, and across it she felt his joy, hispeace, sparking inside her.
“You know, if people knew,” Kara began.
“Knew what?”
“How good Soulbond sex is. Everyone would be doing it.”
“To be fair,” he said, “not all of that was the Soulbond.”
She looked up at him. The smirk was back in full force. For one moment, she was lying in the arms of the arrogant, insufferable soldier she met in the alleyway.
Kara didn’t mind. But she had to keep up appearances.
She rolled her eyes dramatically. “Sebastian.”
His expression turned smug. “You said perfect.”
She opened her mouth. Closed it again.
“...Fine,” she said. “It was perfect.”
