"Don't have one."
"Where are you from?"
"Golden Kingdom."
"Myself too. Were you born in Rinnia?"
“Don’t know.”
Once Onyx has finished solidifying his position as the only person on the planet less talkative than me, we continue our business. He remains silent, and I can tell that meetings are his worst nightmare.
"Hello everyone! Sorry I'm late!" Comes the most cheerful voice I’ve heard in weeks, and I swear my heart fucking stops. By the slack-jawed, drooling expressions on everyone except Onyx's face, I know it is her at the doorway behind me.
I turn my head, seeing her eyes shining with delight and looking at absolutely no one except me. Her hair spills loose and glossy to her hips, her skin a light brown. She looks happy and healthy, and it is a relief. Warmth floods my chest.She's mine, and she only has eyes for me.She winks at me before saying a quick hello to everyone in the room. She knows a few of them already from her adventures to every corner of the earth, and cheerily introduces herself to the others.
"A woman? I'm surprised," says my Head of Scouting, and she gives him a bright smile.
"Most people are. It's good to meet you."
“It’s a pleasure to meet you too, Commander," he says, all eyes for her.Fuck this guy. I have other people who can take his job. I add making sure he has nothing to do with Renna to my mental to-do list.
Fuck. No. She wouldn’t like that. I have to find some compromise between my need for control and her need for freedom. I don’t want to put her in a cage.
Another lord introduces himself, slipping in a comment about how he didn't expect her to be so beautiful. Both Onyx and I shoot him a look so dangerous that he shuts up for a full hour. She sits at the other side of the table, too fucking far away. She's even more beautiful than when I last saw her, and she's a breath of fresh air in this room of old men.
By the time we are done, she has somehow won over everyone in this room, an intoxicating cocktail of intelligence and charm that has them all lining up to talk to her on their way out. She perches on the edge of the table opposite me. "I'll meet you back there, O."
"Really?" He says, clearly not happy she wants to be alone with me.
"I won't be long."
Onyx huffs his disapproval but leaves—not before shooting me the most fiery of glares. Renna grins at me across the table. "Do you not get bored of them all sucking up to you?"
"I got bored of it eight hundred years ago," I say, my eyes drinking in every sweet detail of her. She holds my gaze for a few silent seconds before laughing with genuine joy. In true Renna fashion, she jumps a supernatural distance over the four-foot table, catapulting herself across the wood and into my arms, almost sending us flying off the chair. And just like that, the heavy weight that has burdened my shoulders for five months disappears.
"I missed you so much!" She says, laughing into my chest as we wobble on the chair.
"Longest fucking five months of my life," I whisper, holding her close. With a deep breath, her body melts into mine, like she’s needed this as much as I have. To go without each other for so long is a curse inflicted on us by our jobs, but I’d endure years without her to have this sweet reward at the end.
As my teeth gently tug her lower lip, the atmosphere between us switches, the air temperature rising. In the time it takes me to blink, her quick fingers have unbuttoned my shirt, pushing it off my shoulders. I’m smiling as I kiss her because the nagging question at the back of my mind about whether or not she still wants me as much as I want her has been answered.
This woman will be the death of me, and I’ll embrace it when it comes.
Fire is the only thing I’m scared of in this world, yet when she floods every corner of my being with it, it feels divine. It feels like one day, I may yet be stronger than my past. I run my finger along the gold emerald necklace at her neck, possibly my biggest expenditure of the year. "You still wear it.”
"Haven't taken it off since that night," she replies, letting out a breathy moan as my finger circles her clit. I’ve missed this. I’ve missedher. The air between us is almost crackling with electricity, a strange spell in the air that seems to only be produced when I am near her. She is breathing my broken body back to life and she isn’t even trying.
Rapture. She has me completely enraptured.
A thought hits me. I need to show her my downstairs bedroom. Maybe not now, Rexxan.
“I’ve been so excited to see you,” she whispers, burying her head in my neck between quiet moans.
"Eia cerelanié," I whisper, in her native tongue.You make me whole.She does. She is a pleasure far too great for a sinner like me, but I take everything she gives me all the same.
* * *
Renna is backin my bed, and all is right in the world.
