AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Rose had looked steady enough when we’d all met up this morning, but her father’s betrayal was obviously weighing on her. Her smile was a little tight, her posture tensed. When I touched her arm and drew her closer to me, she relaxed a little, but not completely.
Well, why should she? The other guys and I were as much a part of the problem as part of the solution, weren’t we?
Rose tucked her head under my chin, snuggling closer for a second, and I let myself set aside those worries, just reveling in the soft warmth of her, breathing in the faintly sweet lilac scent of her hair. I kissed her forehead. “If there’s anything we can use on that computer, I’ll dig it out. You can be sure about that.”
“I know,” she said, and hugged me tighter. “My knight with shining code.”
I laughed. “No one’s ever put it that way before. I’ll try to live up to the title.”
Rose curled up on the couch next to me as I opened up her dad’s laptop. “I magicked my way through the password,” she said. “I’m not totally sure how to reactivate it so he doesn’t realize something’s wrong.”
“That’s fine. It should be easy enough to restore. You’ve just saved me one step.” I opened up a new window and started delving into the computer’s inner workings. Lines and lines of code, and not particularly shiny either. After a few minutes of running a baseline set of tests, I glanced over at Rose. “This could take a while, and it’s not going to look very exciting. If you wanted to just leave me to it, I’ll text you if I find anything.”
She gave me a look as if I’d made the most absurd suggestion in the world. “And go where? Back to the house with Mrs. Gainsley lurking around? No, thank you. Some unexciting time sounds good to me right now. Especially if I can spend it sitting here with you.”
She tipped her head against my shoulder and let her hand rest on my thigh where it wouldn’t get in the way of my typing. Her fingers didn’t fall too close to any, ah, sensitive areas, but suddenly it was a little harder to drag my attention back to the computer.
This wasn’t a good time to be getting horny. I was supposed to be saving all of our lives here.
And I could still feel the tension in her body even as she leaned into me. She knew how much depended on our success even better than I did.
I ran a deeper search, and my heart leapt. “Here’s some messages about your marriage… These ones are just him passing on word that the original reception date has been cancelled. Apologies and all that. Lots of condolences in return.”
Rose laughed, but the sound had an edge to it. “Imagine the condolences if they knew the truth.”
About her real consorts? My gut clenched.
I made myself go on, sorting through more emails and text messages along the same lines, but my uneasiness didn’t fade.
Fuck it. I should just say something. Last time I’d gotten all twisted up thinking I knew how Rose felt, it’d turned out I was totally wrong. We were partners now. I had to trust her, not jump to conclusions.
“Rose,” I said tentatively, “have you been having any… regrets about the consorting?”
She turned her head to look at me, her expression puzzled. “The consorting? You mean with you and the other guys?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I mean, just that—it got you out of the ceremony your stepmother was planning, but now you could be in even worse trouble. You could end up having to hide your magic for the rest of your life. If you’ve been thinking that maybe it would be better to sever the bonds, now that your spark is kindled, so you can look for a guy your people wouldn’t, you know, kill you over, I think we’d all understand.”
Rose’s eyes widened. “Kyler,” she said, sounding pained. She slid her fingers up my jaw and kissed me, so achingly sweet I didn’t know how to take it, only that I wished we didn’t have to stop. I pushed the computer onto the couch beside me and turned to face her. She ducked her head, her hand running down my chest.
“Why would you ask me that?” she said thickly.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Common sense? I can already see how hard it is for you. And—when I brought up that other ceremony, the soul-bound one, the idea that it would be permanent seemed to really bother you.”
She shook her head, raising it again. Tears glinted in her eyes. “Ky, I haven’t regretted committing myself to the four of you for a single second, not for what it’s meant for me. If we ever dissolve the consorting, it’ll be because you want your freedom back. I sprang it on you all so fast, and you hardly had time to really think about it, and now your lives are on the line… The last thing I’d want is for you to be tied to me even more than that.”
“Oh.” Her hesitation wasn’t for her sake, but for ours. The ache of my worries fell away. I pulled her to me, kissing her hard. At the pleased hum that crept from her throat, it took all my self-control not to tip her over on the couch and forget about the damned computer and all the rest.
I pulled back just far enough to speak, my face still close to hers. “I haven’t regretted it for one second either. This is exactly where I want to be, Rose. There’s no risk that wouldn’t be worth it.”
Her mouth twisted into a bittersweet smile. “Are you sure? This can’t be the kind of life you were expecting. What future were you imagining for yourself before I came along?”
“Nothing I can’t do now that you’re here,” I said. “You know what I’m into. I figured I’d keep doing my work and gaming and reading up on new things. Do you have any idea how much new research you’ve inspired?”
A laugh burst out of her at that. “Were you really in danger of running out?”
“You never know,” I said. “And—you know, I’ve always kind of dreamed about coming up with really useful code of my own. Programs that will help people in ways no one has thought of yet. And you, and the magic, and this whole world I’m aware of now… It’s opening up totally new ways of thinking that could take me way farther than I’d have gotten otherwise. I couldn’t have gottenthatinspiration anywhere else.”
“I’m sure you’d have come up with something brilliant anyway,” Rose said, but her voice had softened. “But what about when you’re not working? You must have thought you’d find a girlfriend—a wife—you could actually go out in public with, share a house with… All that usual stuff.”
