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RAIKA
After Ivy left,I stayed in the training room a while longer. At first, I wanted to keep training with my darkfire, trying to control it, but Roman reminded me of a very important detail.
“Without Ivy here, if you lose control, there will be no one to make sure you don’t harm yourself or burn down the house.”
Of course, he was right.
So, to burn off my pent-up frustration, I hopped on the treadmill and ran for thirty minutes. At first, I almost gave up because of the pain in my hips and waist, but as my body warmed, the pain disappeared. I would probably regret it later.
With each step, my body relaxed and my frustration faded away. I was still upset with myself, with my luck in life to have my memories gone like this, but I didn’t feel like being reckless anymore.
Roman stayed there with me, doing some weightlifting exercises, but thankfully, he didn’t say anything else.
When I got off the treadmill, Roman halted in front of me. “Go take a shower and change. I have a surprise for you.”
I frowned. “What surprise?”
“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you. Now go. I’ll be waiting for you in the foyer.” He gently grabbed my shoulders and pushed me toward the stairs. But I didn’t move. “Come on. You’ll like it. I promise.”
I rolled my eyes, but did what he asked. I had to admit, the prospect of a good surprise did lighten my mood, and when I finally came downstairs after a nice, warm shower, and changing into clean clothes, I had a spring in my step.
I went down the stairs, but faltered halfway through.
Roman stood in the foyer in gray slacks and a white button-up shirt, the sleeves rolled to his elbows, showing off his forearms. He saw me coming and smiled at me.
I expected my heart to lurch, my breath to catch. It didn’t, but I couldn’t deny two things: he was caring in a way that made me feel like the most important woman in the world, and he was handsome.
If fate had chosen him to be my mate, I was probably a lucky girl.
He approached the end of the stairs and offered me his hand. “Let’s go, princess.”
I took his hand and let him help me with the last three steps. “And where are we going?”
He chuckled. “I’m not ruining the surprise.”
* * *
Roman took me to paradise.
Or almost.
The bookstore he drove us to was small and cozy and had that sweet smell of old books I loved so much—how did I remember that?—but the only flaw here was that all the books had a price and if I wanted them all, I would have to pay a small fortune.
“You can buy as many books as you want,” Roman assured me when we first arrived. “Your father is paying.”
I didn’t know which shelf or section to browse first. I grabbed one of the big mesh totes the bookstore offered and decided to walk throughtheshelves. I didn’t want to miss any hidden gem.
Roman followed me from a distance, an easy grin on his lips as he watched me go nuts over books.
My cheeks warmed at his attention.
Roman probably knew me better than anyone, seeing as he'd known me since I was a little girl, and we had been mated for years now. And yet … when I looked at him, I didn’t feel what I would have expected from a mating bond. At least, that was how I thought a mating bond should be. Every time mates looked at each other, their breaths caught, they lost all control, and couldn’t keep their hands to themselves. That was what I had read in fantasy books.
I halted. How did I rememberthat, when I couldn’t even remember the titles of books I had read before? I couldn’t even explain how I knew I loved books so much. I just … felt.
Honestly, this memory stuff was too much for my addled mind.
I continued my way through the bookstore, my finger brushing the spines of books I wasn’t even interested in. Books felt like one of the pieces of the puzzle that completed me and I needed to touch them.
