Page 134 of Promise

It was thrilling and reckless, and I loved him so much I blurted it out.

He stilled inside me. He’d wanted to make our relationship more public for a while, but I’d held fast to keeping him to myself. Keeping us to us.

“I love you, too, Forever,” he breathed against my mouth, showing me how he felt by finishing what we’d started.

When we went downstairs, my brother asked where we’d been.

“Kissing,” I said to the room. “I’m in love with Dart.”

Dad and Mom weren’t as shocked as I expected.

They were just happy for me.

I am happy for me.

“We can’t start this now,” Dart continues, rocking his forehead against mine.

“Later, then,” I whisper.

“Later,” he says.

“Promise?” I tease, pulling back to look him in the eye.

“Promise.”

38

[Trinity]

“Is she asleep already?” I ask Dart later that night.

“She is.” After an incredibly long day, he apparently had the magic touch, soothing Mirabelle with a bottle and a song.

He steps up behind me.

I just finished a shower and have only a towel wrapped around me. Another towel in my hands for my hair. Dart takes the towel from my hand and gently rubs the soft terry material over my short strands. The length is slowly growing out again.

I close my eyes as he massages the towel over my head and then tosses it on the bed, using his hands to continue what he’s started. A tender squeeze against the back of my neck. A firm scrub at my scalp with his fingertips, combing his fingers through the short, damp length.

“Feels nice,” I whimper.

He moves his hands to my shoulders, digging his thumbs into the back of them, before moving down my arms. He kisses the side of my neck.

“You feel nice,” he whispers just below my ear.

My skin pebbles.

He travels his hands back up my arms, returning to massage my shoulders and neck. Then he cups my chin and turns only my head, bringing our mouths together. We kiss softly. The touch tender.

When he pulls back, he says, “It was a good day.”

“It was,” I agree. “A special day.”

“Every day is,” he says, turning me so I face him. “Because you and me are together.”

“Forever,” I whisper.

“Exactly.” He runs his nose along mine, his new way to tease me. He brings his lips whisper close to mine as well but doesn’t kiss me.