Chapter 22
Luke knew he’d picked Sabrina up and carried her to bed at some point, and that vague plans of sleeping had turned into something else entirely, but he didn’t know when exactly they’d gone to bed, much less to sleep.
He still woke up early out of habit, and found Sabrina tucked up against him, petite and perfect.
If he could stay right there forever, he thought, he would be happy for the rest of his life.
Okay, his rabbit said somewhat smugly. It clearly felt it had won. Well, that was hard to argue with, since Luke had done everything it wanted him to.
He chuckled very quietly. I don't think we actually can stay here forever. We'll get hungry, if nothing else.
The rabbit went Hmmm, but couldn't come up with a way around that one. That's okay, it decided. You're with your mate now. You can move around if you need to.
Thanks, Luke replied, amused. All of his habits told him to get out of bed, so after a few reluctant minutes, he did, because it was much easier to break a habit than build one.
Sabrina was still sleeping when he got out of the shower, so he went to the kitchen to see what he could wrassle up for breakfast.
There were actually plenty of perfectly reasonable options, from eggs to oatmeal to something as simple as toast. The problem was Luke wanted to make something fancy for his mate on their first official morning together.
And the other problem was he didn't actually know if Sabrina would appreciate that.
She liked coffee in the morning, and ate the hotel buffet breakfasts, but that wasn't a normal day of a normal week for her.
She might not eat breakfast at all. After arguing with himself a while, he made himself a bowl of oatmeal and had coffee brewing when Sabrina wobbled out of the bedroom.
She was simultaneously the most adorable and sexiest thing he'd ever seen.
She'd pulled a silky pink robe that barely came to the tops of her thighs on, and it fell off one shoulder as she fumbled her way through tying the belt in a big bow.
Her hair was a wonderful blonde tangle, and her eyes were sleepy and soft and smiling. "Coffee?"
"Coffee." Luke poured her a cup and she sat on the couch, still smiling sleepily, to close her eyes and wrap her hands around it, breathing in its scent but apparently in no rush to drink.
She tucked her legs up after a moment, and tugged the robe's short hem down an inch or two.
It slid back to where it had been, and she mumbled at it without trying to fix it again.
Luke didn't mind at all, especially as he sat on the other end of the couch and watched her, smiling himself.
He could just see the curve of her bottom beneath the robe's hem, as well as the curve of her breast inside its closure.
"What's the name for curvy architecture? "
"Hmm?" Sabrina's eyes opened halfway, then slipped shut again as she sipped the coffee. "Hobbiton."
"What?"
She giggled sleepily onto her coffee. "Hobbits like curves. Go watch Lord of the Rings again and look at all their buildings. They're lovely and curved. Art Nouveau. Otherwise, there are lots of architects who specialize in curves, but they're not household names. Why?"
"I was admiring the curves in front of me."
Sabrina actually opened her eyes at that, glanced at him, at herself, and shook with another quiet laugh.
"You'll want Niemeyer for that. Known for being particularly inspired by the female form.
Or Zaha Hadid. They called her the Queen of Curves.
" Her eyes closed again and she sipped the coffee before lifting it a little. "Thank you for this."
"You're welcome. Are you a breakfast person?"
"Mmm." She sighed, enjoying her coffee a little while longer before saying, "Not usually. I might grab a pastry on hungry days, but I usually only eat breakfast on the weekends. And even then it's usually brunch. You?"
"I eat all the breakfast," Luke announced almost regretfully, and Sabrina giggled again.
"Of course you do. You're ten feet tall. Well, don't let my habits dictate yours. If I get hungry I can steal a corner of your toast and be fine."
"That's hardly any food at all!"
She opened her eyes again, actually looking awake this time.
Awake, and amused. "I'm much smaller than you are, and I don't change into a rabbit, which I sort of assume burns a lot of energy.
You're going to have to do the shopping for us.
Because even if I could guess how much food to buy for you, I wouldn't be able to carry it all home! "
Luke's heart did an absurd flip and thump. "Shopping for us?"
"Well." Sabrina turned toward him and stretched her legs in his direction.
The robe twisted with her, riding even farther up her thighs, and he couldn't stop his gaze from following it as he vividly recalled what it hid.
She tugged the robe's shoulder back up, though it fell down again and she muttered at it before wiggling her toes.
"Sure, for us. You've just told me that we're meant to be together, right?
You've got magic telling you, and I…" She smiled at him, her eyes dark and happy.
"Well, it feels right to me, too. So we could go through all the little steps, but why not just jump in?
I have this apartment for a few more months, so… why not? Unless you don't want to?"
"No! No, I would love to. I can't think of anything I'd rather do than—" Luke hesitated, then slid his hand along her ankle to squeeze her leg gently. "Than be here for you. Than be here with you. If you're up for it, so am I."
Her gaze darted to his hand and then rose to meet his, a little smile on her lips. "Mmmhmmm. I bet you are."
Heat rushed along Luke's jaw and dropped to spread through his body, increasing along the way. "That wasn't what I meant, but now that you mention it…what time do you have to be at work?"
Sabrina purred, "Not yet," and set her coffee cup aside before Luke tugged her ankles, drawing her toward himself, and did his very best to give her good reasons to hurry home again after work.
Between work, moving in together, and dealing with his family's glee over him finding his fated mate, the next few days sped by in a blur, punctuated by stand-out moments of joy.
Most of them were incredibly simple: finding out how much Sabrina liked cinnamon-and-sugar toast, or discovering that his favorite movie was in her top ten, too.
Evenings of trying to figure out whether they should go to bed at the same time or accept their schedules were just very different ended in laughter and lust and, gradually, with Sabrina getting more sleep, which she begrudgingly admitted was probably good for her.
"I'm not getting up at five to hit the gym with you, though," she warned, and Luke rubbed his hands together like an old-timey villain.
"My cunning plan is working! In time, you shall succumb to my unnatural desires!"
"The worst part is I'm afraid that's true," Sabrina admitted, but even a couple of weeks wasn't enough to change her schedule that much.
He started leaving coffee to brew for her when he left, and in return got happy sleepy photos of her every morning with her coffee cup.
They usually met for lunch, either at Kate's or the brewpub, which was run by a guy named Steve, who was a bear shifter almost as big as Luke himself.
One afternoon he ended up helping Steve lift kegs while Sabrina and Steve's mate, Charlee, sat aside and whistled and applauded appreciatively before dissolving into giggles.
The train station was getting back on schedule faster than Luke had imagined, while the investigation proved that whoever had set the accelerant had done so long enough before the fire started that the wood and other building materials were soaked completely through.
Noah's part in helping to save not just the station, but Virtue itself came out, and the kid took his new level of celebrity like it was just another part of the day.
"I was not that cool at eleven," Luke told Sabrina, who laughed.
"Me either. His parents must have really level heads on their shoulders, to be raising a kid like that. I wish they could find the arsonist, though. Even with the security team there at night, I still keep worrying."
"It's your project," Luke said, drawing her into his arms. "I'd be concerned if you weren't worried.
But it doesn't seem like it's anybody in town.
They've interviewed everybody, and the railroad's detractors half a dozen times.
Everybody's got alibis or absolutely nothing in their history that suggests violence, or buying the materials to set that fire.
Maybe it was just some jackass kid trying to cause trouble on his way through. "
"Because Virtue is on everybody's path through upstate New York," Sabrina said wryly.
"It will be once the train is running." He kissed her hair and curled her close. "It'll be all right. Do you need to be on site early tomorrow?"
Sabrina groaned and leaned in. "'Need' is a funny word here.
I'm just the architect. Most of my job is done, unless we run into some kind of design flaw that I should have already anticipated and fixed.
But the company's approach is hands-on, so I'm meant to be around without micromanaging.
Right now I'm afraid all I'm doing is driving Tiffany nuts. "
"Are you actually, or are you just afraid you are?"
"Mostly just afraid I am. I hope! She says I'm not." Sabrina tilted her head up to wrinkle her nose at him, as if he needed a reminder of how cute she was. "And I'm trying not to ask every five minutes to avoid having that drive her nuts."
"In that case, why don't we take the morning off and go recreate our fake date hiking photos for real?
There's signal in the mountains here, so if they call with a design emergency—oof!
" He tried to sound as injured as possible as she bonked her shoulder against him.
"What? Are you saying there aren't design emergencies? "
"I'm saying you're teasing me," Sabrina murmured contentedly.
Luke grinned. "Maybe. But really, it might be good to get away from the project for a few hours."
"And you don't know how many more mountain hikes you'll get to take on a whim," Sabrina said more quietly. "I hate to ask you to come to the city, Luke. The great outdoors around here seems much more your vibe."
"Hey." Luke set her back, feeling serious.
"Again, my job can be done anywhere. And I travel for it, so I'm not just going to be sitting around your apartment waiting for you to come home.
Your job is much more fixed than mine. I know they're okay with at least some remote work, but I don't want to take you out of the thick of it in your home office.
You're building a hell of a career here, Ms. Not-Quite-Thirty-Four-With-Your-Own-Lead-Project. And if I understand star architects—"
Sabrina laughed, but he went on, meaning every word. "—then you'll be traveling as as you become more in-demand. If nothing else, that's easier from the city."
"You're not wrong, but…"
"No but." Luke dipped his head to kiss her. "We've got another few weeks in Virtue, and then we'll head for the city until you're so well-established that people will come to small-town New York just for the privilege of talking to you in person. How's that sound?"
"Great," Sabrina admitted with a faint blush. "Unlikely, maybe, but great."
"Not unlikely at all."
"But what about kids?" Sabrina blurted.
Luke stepped back, eyes wide, then took her hands and led her to the couch. "This is a sit-down conversation," he said firmly, and she did, flushed and worried-looking before he asked, "Are kids on your agenda?"
"Yes? In an 'I always thought I'd have them' way? But also…it depends so much on what you want, Luke."
"I would love kids," he said as gently as he could over the sound of his own pounding heart. "But you're worried about whether I'd want to be the stay at home parent, because that's never been part of your plan. Right?"
She nodded, lips pressed together in a thin line, and he was tempted to lean over and kiss that line into its usual fullness.
But that didn't seem right, just then. She didn't need to be teased into certainty.
She needed to really believe him. Luke lifted her hands and kissed the knuckles instead, then lowered them, his thumbs brushing over the kisses he'd left.
"Again, my job can be done anywhere. Even from a home gym while the kids are napping.
" He grinned a little. "And it'd probably be a real eye-opener to a lot of my followers, especially the dudes, about how exhausting 'just' parenting is.
I get what you need," he said more softly.
"If you want kids and need a partner who's willing to step up, I'm your guy. "
Sabrina sniffled and threw herself forward into his arms, face buried in his neck. "How are you so perfect?"
Luke, closing his arms around her gently, chuckled. "Magic. Fate wouldn't have brought us together if we couldn't be what the other needed."
"I obviously never thought magic was real," Sabrina whispered. "But honestly, even if you didn't turn into a rabbit, I'd still be pretty sure you were magic, at this point."
"We'll make it work," Luke promised in a murmur. "And that's magic all by itself."