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I sweptmy eyes across Espen’s room.
Honestly, I was a bit disappointed by the normalcy of the space. The floors and walls matched those in his bathroom and living area—and the rest of the castle—and his bed was a massive but simple mattress with heavy, thick white sheets and blankets. The pillows were too squishy for my taste, but then again, I wasn’t exactly your normal guest.
I’d expected Espen’s room to show some sort of fetish, or to give me something to hate about the man who seemed so perfect to me.
But he appeared to be just a man.
A good man, even.
And the simplicity of his sleeping space only made that certainty dig deeper into my mind, bones, and blood.
Espen returned a few times, never gone for more than two minutes at a time, and brought back more of my things with each trip.
My clothes, my knives, my toiletries, and my books. He hadn’t retrieved all of the books—we would need to move my entire shelf too to manage that—but he’d brought all of the romance ones.
Though I’d told Espen I was nowhere near ready to go to sleep, my eyes grew heavier with each of his trips to my room and back. His presence was calming, and his smell on his bed made me feel at ease. He probably would’ve rather had it make me feel lusty or something, but I much preferred the soft comfort of security. What could be sexier than feeling safe and loved?
I was probably only moments away from snoring when Espen finally locked the door in the living area, then came striding back in with a small silk pouch dangling from his fingers.
“I wondered if you hated the jewelry I chose for you. Now I know you just forgot about it,” he teased me lightly, setting the pouch on the nightstand beside me.
I frowned a bit, wrestling my eyes open.
The pouch; I had tucked it behind a book or something on a bookshelf, back on that first day.
“I didn’t know there was jewelry in it.” I reached for the pouch, but he picked it back up and held it out of my grasp.
“Sleep first, Akari. You need the rest.”
I rolled my exhausted eyes at him, but settled back against the pillow I’d gotten comfortable on. He was right; my body had made it clear that I needed to sleep.
“Do you want me to put pillows between us?” Espen murmured, smoothing a hand over my forehead as he tugged the blanket further up my chest. The robe seemed to have been discarded completely, but I wasn’t self-conscious of my nudity.
“No.” I frowned at the words, even as my eyes closed. “You make me feel safe.”
His hand smoothed over my forehead again, and he said in a low voice, “That makes me feel very, very lucky.”
I made a noncommittal noise, and he gave a soft chuckle.
His hand left my skin, and his footsteps were nearly silent as he walked around the bed.
My heartbeat picked up just slightly as the blankets moved a bit, and it sped up further when his side gently met mine.
The moment was a tense one.
Not because of awkwardness, or uncertainty.
It was tense because of the immense potential I felt blooming between us. It was tense because I could feel, in that moment, how incredible Espen and I could be together.
So I made the first move.
I rolled over, so my bare chest met his.
Stars, the feeling was incredible.
He let out a slow breath, and I felt him already hard against my thigh.
“Sorry.” He grunted a bit.
