Chapter 31 #2
"I told you you'd see this side of me." I cupped her face, brushing away a tear with my thumb. "I'd never hurt you, Riley. Never."
"I love you." She leaned down to kiss me, moving her hips in slow, deep rolls. "I love you so much."
"I love you too." The words came easier now than they ever had. "More than anything."
I kept my movements controlled, restrained, even as every instinct screamed to flip her over and drive into her hard and deep. But this wasn't about me. This was about her, about us, about the family we'd made together.
She rode me slowly, beautifully, chasing her pleasure. I watched every expression that crossed her face, memorizing this moment. The way the sunlight caught in her hair. The way her lips parted on breathless moans. The way her pregnant belly pressed between us, proof of what we'd created.
"Come for me," I urged, circling her clit with my thumb. "Let me feel you."
She shattered with a cry, clenching tight around me. The sensation pushed me over the edge, and I came hard, spilling deep inside her, my grip on her hips probably too tight, but I couldn't help it.
When we both came down, I sat up and gathered her against my chest, letting her rest against me. Her heart hammered against mine. Our breathing slowly evened out together.
"Stay right here," I murmured into her hair. "Just rest."
She nodded against my shoulder, already half-asleep in the warm afternoon sun.
I held her close, one hand protective over her belly, and let myself feel something I'd never thought possible.
Peace.
Our second stop was Iceland. I rented a glass cabin in the middle of a vast snowfield.
If the Maldives belonged to sunlight, then Iceland belonged to night and cold.
In the freezing night, I pulled her under the same thick wool blanket with me while we watched the aurora stream and dance across the black sky.
"Oh my God, this is incredible." She leaned back against me, head tilted up in open wonder.
My eyes never left her face. I swear, no spectacular sight in this world could compare to even a fraction of the light in her eyes.
"You're not watching the aurora. Why do you keep staring at me?" She caught my gaze and turned to face me.
Her cheeks were flushed from the cold, but her eyes were full of laughter.
"Because," I pulled her tighter into my arms and pressed a long kiss to her cold lips, "my aurora is right here."
She froze. Then her ears and entire face turned scarlet. She swatted me lightly in mock annoyance, but eventually settled back against me.
"Your hands are freezing." I frowned, catching her hands hidden under the blanket—they felt like ice.
I unbuttoned my coat and tucked them inside against my chest, feeling them gradually warm against my skin.
"Mmm... that's so nice." She sighed contentedly and burrowed deeper into my embrace.
Her cold nose nuzzled against my neck, and I tensed all over.
"Don't move, Riley." I had to hold her head still, voice rough.
She obviously understood the implication. She went rigid first, then burst out laughing. Her eyes, filled with aurora light, curved mischievously.
"Mr. Bykov," she deliberately leaned close to my ear, voice teasing, "I never knew you could be so... affected."
I bit the inside of my cheek. This wicked girl.
Later, we huddled by the fireplace drinking the sickeningly sweet hot chocolate she insisted on trying. Her feet stayed cold, so I pulled them into my hands and carefully massaged them.
"Matvey, I'd never seen the aurora before." She stared into the dancing flames, her smile tinged with bitterness. "The aurora—that's something only rich people get to see. When I was little in Cold Spring, Evelyn and I huddled in a drafty bed. We couldn't even afford to turn on the heat."
My hands paused in rubbing her feet.
"My childhood didn't have auroras either." My voice came out calmer than I expected, like I was telling someone else's story. "Just endless training and criticism. I never had time that was my own."
She pulled one newly warmed hand from under the blanket and gently cupped my face.
"But now you have time that's yours. You have love. You have real family." She said.
I turned my head and kissed her palm.
Then her belly moved gently. I pressed my hand against her abdomen. When I felt that healthy, strong kick against my palm, I panicked, completely at a loss.
"They're saying hello." She smiled and pressed my hand down firmer.
I just bent down and kissed her warm belly.
"Riley, I want to show you so much more than just the aurora."
She looked at me, eyes bright as if they'd captured the entire aurora inside them.
"Really?"
I jerked my chin toward outside the glass cabin.
She followed my gaze and immediately sat bolt upright in the blanket. A helicopter had landed at the edge of the snowfield at some point.
"When did you—" Her voice cracked.
"Just now, while you were watching the aurora."
She turned to glare at me, but the fake annoyance couldn't last two seconds before laughter broke through. She scrambled up, shoving her feet haphazardly into her boots.
"What are you waiting for?" She turned back to hurry me, face still flushed. "You said there's something better than the aurora."
I looked at her. Didn't move.
Nothing in this world was better than her in this moment. But I didn't say that out loud. I stood and took her coat from the rack, helping her bundle up myself.
I gripped her hand and helped her into the cabin. When the rotors spun overhead, the entire snowfield trembled. It shrank smaller and smaller below us until the night swallowed it completely.
We flew above the clouds for nearly an hour.
Our first landing was inside a cavern beneath a glacier. The ice walls were that almost-transparent blue that only comes from millennia of compression. Volcanic heat seeped up through the rock, pooling into dark red thermal springs at our feet. Blue and red tangled together in the same light.
"God..." She pressed against the ice wall, her white breath dispersing in the blue glow. "How can ice and fire exist together?"
"They always have." I stood behind her. "Most people just never get to see it."
She didn't catch my meaning, too busy reaching for the hanging ice overhead. I caught her outstretched hand and pulled her close—the rock was slippery. I wasn't taking chances.
When we emerged from the ice cave, we lifted off again. This time, the helicopter descended to the rim of a dormant volcano. We lowered down in a suspended basket, sinking gradually into that massive throat.
She gripped my hand the entire time, too nervous to let go.
"We're... going inside a volcano?"
"It's been asleep for almost five thousand years." I pulled her closer. "More docile than the babies in your belly."
She laughed despite herself, and some of her tension eased.
The deeper the basket sank, the darker it got, until the patterns scorched into the rock walls by ancient lava spread out wildly, like someone had melted an entire sunset and starfield into the stone.
She stared up, speechless for a long time.
By the time we rose back out of the volcano, night had deepened. She looked tired, resting quietly against my shoulder. The helicopter crossed ridge after snow-covered ridge according to my planned route, finally setting us down somewhere I hadn't told her about.
It was a snow valley cradled by mountains. At the bottom lay a hot spring that never froze, steam condensing into a thin veil in the subzero air. The aurora flowed overhead again, reflecting on the water's surface, even tinting the snow beneath us with shifting green.