FORTY-EIGHT
Layla and Quin made it to the resort without any interference, and following a few hugs from their family, they escaped to their cottage.
Layla went straight for the phone, calling home to let them know they were okay, and Quin sat on the sofa while pulling a joint and a bottle of booze from his satchel. He was still sore, both physically and emotionally, but he didn’t want weed and liquor. They were just holding him over until his antidote got off the phone. She chatted with Benzio for a few minutes, letting him tell her about his day and the local spring festival. Then she talked a bit more with her grandmas.
Toward the end of the conversation, she stood and stripped off her dress, and Quin tossed aside his joint while sitting up. Dipping his fingers into the top hem of her white, cotton underwear, he pulled her closer. Then he covered her ass with his palms while gliding his lips across her stomach.
She drew a choppy breath, trying to respond to something her grandma had said. “Not until tomorrow… Yeah… Um… I don’t think he feels like talking right now.”
Quin shook his head no then kissed his way to her hip, tugging down one side of her underwear so he could reach the ridge.
“We’ll call in the morning,” Layla promised, tickling his scalp with soft fingertips. “Love you guys. Bye.”
The receiver fell from her hand, and he blindly reached out, disconnecting the phone line from the base before wrapping his arm around her thighs. He picked her up as he stood, making her laugh as her body folded over his shoulder. Then he returned his lips to her hip while carrying her downstairs.
She giggled when he laid her on the bed, and though her happiness was music to his ears, he wasn’t in the mood to laugh along. He trailed kisses up her stomach and chest. Then he nuzzled her throat while sweeping the pad of his thumb over the bruises stretching across her waist.
Her vitals slowed as she slid a fingernail down his back, raising a trail of goose bumps. “I guess you really don’t feel like talking.”
He shivered, disrupting the soothing magic he’d been directing toward her bruises. “No.” Then he left her neck and found her eyes. “Unless there’s something you want to talk about.”
“Not necessarily, but I’m worried about you. I can tell you’re upset.”
“I’ve been better, but we don’t need to talk about it. This isn’t something words can fix. I just need… I need you. I need this right here. If you want to help me feel better, let me heal you and love you. That’s where I’ll find my peace of mind. I feel like I nearly lost you a dozen times today, and I need to convince myself we’re okay.”
“We’re better than okay, Quin. We’re stronger than ever. Separately and together.”
“You’re right, but I don’t like the separately part. I know it’s necessary. Sometimes, we have to fight our own battles, but when they’re over, once we’ve won and proven how strong we can be, I need this. No battles, no thinking or worrying or searching for strength. And, no, I don’t feel like talking about what happened today. I don’t need you to reassure me. I just need to take the time to appreciate that you’re still here with me.”
She pulled his right hand into view, examining the bruises on his knuckles. Then she kissed them better before returning his fingers to her stomach. “Can you make out with me while you heal?”
An unexpected smile strained his tense face, reminding him just how little he’d smiled that day and how good it felt to do so. “Probably not well.”
“What if I move your hand to where it needs to be?”
“That might help.”
“Let’s give it a shot.”
She laid her hand over his while taking the back of his neck. Then she pulled him into a kiss and directed his fingers to tender skin. He occasionally lost himself in her lips and forgot to heal, but he always got back on track, and neither of them were in a hurry.
Hours passed without them getting out of bed, and they hadn’t rushed toward sex. The kisses and caresses were enough, suspending them in a serene sea of emotional and physical bliss, and at times, they just lay there, legs entwined, his face buried in her breasts, head echoing with their shared pulse. The synchronized beats not only told the beautiful story of their past, they solidified their future, and he could have lain there all night listening.
Around midnight, she pushed him onto his back and wiggled down his body until her lips met his. “Happy birthday.”
Her hair fell around them like a curtain, tickling his cheeks, so he gathered it into one hand before sliding the other to her butt. “Indeed. I can’t think of a better way to kick it off.”
“Than getting a handful of my ass?”
He grinned as he squeezed and shook. “I’d definitely consider this a gift. Well… more like wrapping paper.”
“Shall I put a big bow on my booty and call it good?”
“I’d have fun unwrapping it.”
She laughed as she tucked her face in his neck. “I love you.”
“Now that’s all I really need for a happy birthday. This day used to be little more than a painful reminder that I’d lived another year without you.”
She sucked on his neck then kissed her way to his chest. “Now it can be a reminder of the ways I’m about to love you.”
And love him she did, for hours, every electrified touch burned into body, mind and soul. The shitty day they’d had no longer mattered. It would eventually drift into oblivion. But the night celebrating their success and survival, that he’d always remember.
~***~
Layla awoke late Sunday with her head on a pillow, her arms and legs tangled in blankets, and Quin lying about a foot away, wide awake and watching her. “Hey.”
“Hey back,” she returned, glancing at the space between them. “Why so far away?”
“I wanted to look at you.”
Her cheeks warmed as she pulled the sheet to her chin. “So you could see me drool?”
He smiled and reached out, running a thumb across the corner of her mouth. “Maybe a little. It’s cute.”
“Whatever,” she laughed, catching his hand. Then she wiped her slobber off his thumb while pulling him into a kiss. “How long have you been staring at me?”
“A while.”
“What were you thinking about all that time?”
“How much you’ve changed since the day I met you.”
“My appearance has changed?”
“Everything has changed. Your hair is longer, your face is thinner, your smile is bigger, and your eyes aren’t as naïve as they used to be.”
She tilted her head and bit her lip. “Am I still pretty?”
He swept back her hair and drifted his fingers from her temple to her lips, caressing the spot she’d bit. “You get prettier every day. Sometimes it’s hard not to let pride run away with me.”
“You’re proud of me?”
“Are you kidding? Yes, I’m proud. I have the most incredible woman in the world, an angel who can bring a city to its knees, but she loves me. I’m the man who helped make your smile bigger and your eyes wiser. It’s my kids who helped shape the beautiful body you have now. I was the guy who got to sweep you off your feet after you crushed a challenge that was nothing but fodder for legends until you came along. Hell yeah, I’m proud. I’m proud of you and everything you do, and I’m proud to be the man you love. I’m tempted to brag to everyone I come across, but I probably wouldn’t be your man if I showed you off like a trophy I’d won.”
“Probably not, but it’s nice to hear you kind of want to.”
He quietly laughed while slipping under the covers with her. “They wouldn’t understand anyway. They’ll never know what it’s like when we’re together like this, without the rest of the world in the way, and they can’t possibly understand how amazing you are just by looking. The outside is yummy, but the inside is better.”
She cracked a grin. “Naughty boy.”
He laughed and went for her throat. “I was talking about your heart.”
“Sure you were.”
“They both blow my mind. Together, they’re heaven on earth, a heaven no one else will ever know. And I’m more than okay with that.”
“Me, too.”
She kicked off the blankets and rolled on top of him, threatening to smother him with her breasts. Then she used them to play a gentle percussion on his cheeks while singing “Happy Birthday.” He wore a cheesy grin the whole time, his dimples as deep as she’d ever seen them, and she barely contained her laughter until the end, at which point it burst free.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and nuzzled deeper into her cleavage. “Beautiful. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. If you want me to be serious while I sing it, I will.”
“Nope. That was perfect.”
“I didn’t bake you a cake, but you can motorboat my boobs and make a wish.”
His laugh muffled into pillowy flesh. “I like the way you celebrate birthdays.” Then he accepted her offer and swiftly shook his face between her breasts.
She cracked up, unable to keep her weight off him, but he held her up by her ribs until he wrapped up his game and tucked her into his side. “That’s so much better than candles.”
“What did you wish for?”
“Nuh-uh. I can’t tell you.”
“Even though it was my boobs you wished upon?”
“Yep. I’ll let you know if it comes true.”
“Fine,” she conceded, feigning a pout, but then she stopped teasing and summoned two packages onto his stomach. “I know you asked our family not to send you gifts, but we got you something anyway.”
“I don’t need anything.”
“Then what did you wish for?”
His lips parted then stretched into a grin. “Nice try. Which one first.”
“It doesn’t matter. Here.” She handed him the bigger one. “This is from the coven and our kids.”
He played with her hair while using one hand to untie the bow and tear away the paper. Then he tossed aside the lid of the box and withdrew a scroll and a picture frame. The latter held a group photo of everyone back home. They stood on the porch of Layla’s house, and Benzio proudly held up a framed photo that she and Quin had recently sent them.
Layla blinked away tears as she searched the dearly missed faces. Then she glanced at Quin and noticed he was doing the same.
“Open the scroll,” she encouraged.
He floated the family photo to the nightstand and untied the white, silk ribbon on the sunshine-yellow parchment, unrolling it to four sets of footprints that formed hearts. The top three were similar in size while the bottom print was bigger, and each set capped a line in a short and sweet poem.
No matter how far apart
or how far he must roam
nestled deep in my heart
my daddy is home.
“It’s perfect,” Quin whispered, softly running a thumb over the print of a teeny toe. “This really emphasizes how much they’ve grown.”
Layla’s heart sighed as she traced the lines in Lilyana’s sole. “It’s depressing to think about how big they’ll be when we hold them again, but at the same time, it’s reassuring to know they can keep going without us. We made strong babies and left them with the best people in the world. Sometimes, that just has to be enough. It’s the only way to catch a break when we’re missing them so much it hurts.”
Quin swallowed while carefully rolling up the parchment, and after laying it aside, he wiped his face and kissed her head. “What did you get me?”
“It would be more accurate to say our family got it. I owe your parents big time for filling my order. It wasn’t an easy task.”
His forehead furrowed as he reached for the second package, which was much smaller than the first. “Now I’m really intrigued.”
He tugged on the bow and pulled open the paper to a jewelry box, which he opened to a thick, round amulet attached to a chain of braided leather and gold. Pulling the pendant free, he set aside the box and ran his thumb across the translucent, pale-green stone. Then he held it up to the light. Around two inches in diameter, the gem was hollowed out to create a vessel, which held a miniature garden.
“This is green sapphire,” he realized. “Tell me you didn’t buy this.”
“No. Why? Is it expensive?”
“Yes.”
“It was in that treasure chest with our armor.”
“Already hollowed out like this?”
“No. Caitrin did that part for me.”
“You had them add the garden?”
“Yes. That’s what was so difficult, hunting down the contents.” She curled her leg around his thigh while pointing out different aspects of the vessel. “The dirt is from our rose garden, the moss is from our family memorial, the sand is from Cannon Beach, the pebbles are from our cliff, and the wildflower is from the clearing where you showed me how magical life can be. The hard part came in locating those last two. The clearing wasn’t too bad, because I drove there, but your parents scoured the coast and sent me photos of every cliff they came across until we found the right one. Then Morrigan put it all together for me. I don’t know what kind of magical properties are attributed to sapphire, but I needed a hard stone, and it’s not meant to be magical. I just wanted to give you a piece of home. So what do you think?”
She looked up, finding warm eyes and a sentimental smile. “I think you’re extraordinary. And I’m a little jealous I didn’t come up with this idea.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. There are more memories packed into this stone than you’d find in a dozen photo albums, and they’re some of the best memories of my life.” He closed his hand around the sapphire, pulling it to his heart as he kissed her forehead. “I love it. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, but it’s just a taste of the real deal to hold you over until you get home.”
“We,” he corrected. “Until we get home.”
She smiled, hoping it looked more natural than it felt. “Right. We. That’s what I meant.”
His gaze stayed on hers, probably peering through her soul to detect her doubts, but he didn’t call her out.
Following another kiss to her forehead, he lifted the pendant for an extended look, his aura pulsing with beautiful colors that proved just how much he cherished it… both the amulet and the life they shared in Oregon.