Episode 84 The Honeymoon Suite
The Honeymoon Suite
That is the most massive bed Cerian has ever seen. They wouldn’t roll off it, though they might get tangled in the sheer fabric draping from the ceiling.
His eyes travel the rest of this honeymoon suite as Arisanna stands silently at his side.
Everything is plush, from the lounging sofas near the hearth to the chairs at a table. The curtains flanking the biggest window he’s ever encountered are a deep red velvet to match the scarlet satin covering the enormous bed.
And what a view it is, looking straight toward the Wildthorne Woods and Lostariel. Homesickness pinches his gut at the sight before he looks away.
All the paintings on the walls depict romantic scenes and couples embracing in various stages of dress, though the images aren’t graphic. Romance rather than titillation seems to be the goal.
As his eyes alight on what appears to be an enormous bathtub in one corner of the room, he frowns. “Why is the bathtub not in the water closet? And why is it so large? Are all human bathtubs that size? You could fit two people in there with room to spare.”
Arisanna clears her throat. “I believe that’s the entire point of its existence. That’s why it’s in the main room.”
He studies it again as her words sink in and his hands tingle.
Whistling wind. That came on fast. He’s been controlling his fire better today, but clearly this honeymoon suite is accomplishing its goal, which seems to be to encourage the newly bound to copulate.
In this hidden-away room no one speaks of, apparently.
Humans are bizarre sometimes.
“So...here we are,” Arisanna says as she twists her hands in front of her.
Is she nervous? After last night and all the romantic moments they shared today, it seems like an odd response from her.
“Are you all right?” he asks.
“I’m...”
She doesn’t finish. Is she trying to hide the truth again?
“When I ask if you’re all right, it’s because I wish to know the truth,” he says softly, and she looks down at her hands.
“I’m sorry. I just...feel ridiculous. I gave you everything last night. Let you wrap your vines around me and kissed you so many times today. And it was wonderful. Amazing. You’re amazing. But this room. It feels like so much pressure to...to make something happen.”
He waits until she looks his way as he gathers his thoughts in response. When she lifts her eyes to his, he sets down his knapsack and apples and trails his fingers along her cheek.
“There’s no pressure between us, Arisanna. Forget everything you think you should be doing and just sit with me. All right? It’s little more than a room.”
Relief fills her eyes. “It’s not that I don’t—”
“I know. You’re stuck in your head again.” He offers her what is hopefully a reassuring smile and holds out his hand. “Let’s sit, all right?”
“I thought I was supposed to be relieving the overwhelm behind your eyes,” she whispers as she takes his hand and lets him lead her to a chair near the large window.
“You do that simply by existing when I need you most.”
Every day, it gets easier to talk when he’s with her, though he still stumbles over his words at times. She loves him regardless.
Should he offer her the other chair? Or invite her to sit with him? What would she desire?
Before he can decide, she whispers, “Don’t let go.”
So he doesn’t. He lowers himself to the velvet-lined, overstuffed chair and draws her onto his lap, where she curls up against him without hesitating.
And he just holds her. Rubs her back. Plays with her hair.
“How do you know?” she says against him.
“Know what?”
“Know how to comfort me like this? You do the things that soothe me, and I don’t remember ever telling you to do them.”
“I watch you. Listen to the sounds you make. I want to learn you. Everything about you.”
“Is that...is that how you knew what to do last night?” she whispers.
He takes a moment to gather his words as she rests against him. There’s no reason to hide what he was thinking last night. What he was doing.
“I didn’t know,” he eventually says. “But I listened for your breath catching. And felt your heart racing. You said my name a lot when...when I got it right.”
“You got it right a lot.” Her voice is so quiet he can barely hear her, but her words warm something inside him anyway.
She nestles closer to him, and he plays with her hair some more.
“I can’t believe they were planning to put my mother in this suite,” Arisanna murmurs. “Can you imagine?”
“It must be their nicest room. But I admit she seems unlikely to have appreciated it.” He doesn’t even try to hide his smile as he leans his cheek against Arisanna’s hair. “Tharios and Viala might never have emerged.”
Arisanna laughs. “I thought my face was going to catch fire when she said what she did right there at the dinner table in front of everyone.”
“The Lothlesi are very uninhibited. Though I’ve only met a few. Tharios has been to New Valderi, though.”
“Why is it called New Valderi? Is there an old Valderi?”
“I believe so. Far from here, on another continent. But the Lothlesi people left it behind and settled here more than a thousand years ago. I’m not sure even Tharios knows why, or if he does, he’s never told me. The Lothlesi may speak freely about the joining, but they do not speak of the past.”
Arisanna lifts her head to see his face. “The joining?”
“You seem to prefer the term ‘bonding.’” When he leans in to kiss her, she kisses him back. Thank the fates. Sitting and talking was clearly the correct solution for her apprehension.
Not that he’s doing any of this with an ulterior motive in mind. He just wants to be with her in whatever way makes her happy. Her happiness is an elixir, intoxicating at times.
“You aren’t catching fire,” she whispers against his lips, and he laughs.
“As long as I don’t look at that tub. Or think about you too much. My plants are eager, though. I keep pulling them back.”
Hopefully, it was all right to confess that. She said he could tell her anything. Did she mean it?
She tucks a tendril of hair behind his ear, and he groans at her touch.
“I love you,” she whispers. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
She runs her finger along the less sensitive upper edge of his ear, and he leans into her hand as he struggles against his magic.
“For the gentleness. Both with my heart and...and everything else.” She kisses him again, leaving her fingers on his ear, and he slides his eyes closed as his magic grows more insistent.
“I taste your magic, my elven prince.”
“It wants you.”
“Do you think it counts when it happens in the heartlanding?” Her voice is small, and he opens his eyes to meet her gaze.
“Counts?”
“My mother said—”
“Whistling wind, Arisanna. I heard everything she said. No more expectations. What you and I do when we’re alone together matters to no one else. Not even your mother.”
For a moment, they stare at each other. All those words sort of erupted from him. He could have said it differently. More gently. It’s just so hard to witness the unbearable weight Arisanna carries trying to live up to all these expectations.
“Forgive me,” he eventually says. “I—”
But she kisses him before he can finish, which is just as well since he has no idea what to say.
“It doesn’t matter,” she breathes against him.
“No.”
“We can do what we want when we want.”
“Yes.”
“And it counts because it was real to us.”
“No more talk of counting or not counting. We’re not keeping score. And it was real. Everything that happened between us last night was real.”
“As real as the vine wrapping around my leg.” She leans her forehead against his, her hands on his ears.
“Forgive me. You’re just so hard to resist. I’m trying.” He pulls back on the vine, but she grabs it.
That...is a startling sensation.
“Stop trying,” she says.
Wherever this is leading, he has no intention of refusing an invitation to let his plant magic wander over her.
His fire magic, though. That might become a problem.
But not yet.
She releases his vine and pulls him back into a kiss as she trails her fingers over the tips of his ears and down to the sensitive underside, and he lets his plant magic go.
It’s all he can do to hold his fire magic in check as she straddles him and kisses him and plays with his ears. His vines wander, along with his hands, until he can’t take the heat building within him at every shared touch, both hers and his.
“You’re hot,” she whispers. “Your...your magic is hot. And you. You and your magic.” Her words end in a whispered hiss of his name, and he’d smile if he weren’t busy trying not to set anything on fire.
One of his vines grows toward the tub, and he doesn’t call it back. Arisanna doesn’t seem to notice when the water starts flowing.
But he’s going to need it soon, whether she joins him or not.
She tugs at his shirt, and he shrugs out of it as she pulls it over his head.
He definitely will be needing that water soon. Whistling wind. She has more faith in his ability to control his fire than is warranted.
“Arisanna,” he whispers against her lips as his palms tingle. “I’m going to burn you soon.”
“I know. But I can’t move. Your vines are holding me down.”
His eyes snap open as heat of a different sort fills him. Somehow, he managed to lash her to the chair after she took off his shirt. That was unintentional.
He forces his vines to release her, but she seems in no hurry to move.
“I need to cool down,” he murmurs.
She gazes into his eyes for a moment before climbing off his lap and tugging his arm until he follows her. His heart races faster when she leads him to the tub.
“You turned on the water already,” she breathes.
“My plants were eager.”
She shoves him down on the edge of the tub, and he tries not to look as shocked as he feels as she pulls off his boots.
They’re not following his lead now. He dips his hands in the water behind him to cool them before he catches fire at the thought.
She eyes him for a moment. What is she thinking?
Whatever it is, the answer is yes if it involves her and water.
Perhaps he should tell her that. The way she did at the hot springs.
“Yes,” he whispers. “To whatever question you’re asking, my answer is yes.”
A hint of relief flits across her face right before she rests her hands on his chest and shoves him backward into the water.