Page 149 of Of Bargains & Betrayal

“Exactly.” I settled back against him. “What’s through that door?”

Jasper hesitated. “It’s my…workshop. And there is a connection to a vein of life source down there. Not a place to be wandering alone without a keen understanding of magic.”

“Ah. Noted. I just—” I couldn’t remember why I was standing in front of the rune-painted door anymore. “Never mind.”

“Couldn’t sleep?” Jasper seemed as eager as I was to switch the topic.

I turned in his hold and looped my arms around his neck. “My arm was numb, and I had to take a leak, both a terrible tragedy. I was having the best sleep of my life.”

His chuckle came as a warm puff against my skin. “That makes two of us. And if I recall, you were given a full day for respite, right?”

“Right…”

He pulled me back a couple of steps, a wry smile on his face. “Then I think that is many hours of the best sleep of our lives we have ahead of us.”

It looked like his love of sleep hadn’t changed either, but even that warm nostalgia couldn’t fight off a flicker of unease that kicked up in my stomach.

“Won’t someone wonder where you are?” I refused to give substance to who might wonder where he was. “Do high mages even get respite days?”

“So many questions so early,” he chided. They didn’t stop him from continuing to pull me back towards the bed, one resisted step at a time. “If you’re worried that…someone is going to interrupt us, you do not need to be. I have no pressing duties. No council meetings. No arcane obligations. And my quarters are warded.”

As if I weighed nothing, Jasper hauled me up, guiding my knees astride his hips as he sat on the end of the bed.

“Because of your workshop?”

“That’s one reason.”

I tilted my head at him. “And the other?”

“I despise unexpected visitors.”

Well, at least that hadn’t changed either.

“That’s all well and good,” I chuckled as I clasped his face between my hands. His pupil dilated as I held his gaze, swallowing up the moss-green, and his fingers pressed into my hips. “But if I only get to spend a day with you like this, I’d like to spend it awake.”

For my fragile heart’s sake, I hoped he didn’t want me to elaborate.

Fifteen years was a long time to make up for.

A lot of hurt to soothe. An even greater amount of lost trust to rebuild.

And, as he’d once put it, a lot of catching up to do.

None of that would happen in a day.

Or even a week, a month.

We’d be lucky if we ever even achieved some semblance of before, given how horrifically it had been decimated.

In a timeframe I refused to quantify, I’d be his king’s wife.

No matter how desperately I wanted to believe he’d be reasonable, would Maksym really see our hastily arranged agreement extended to his high mage? His right hand. His best friend. There was no realm of existence in which that would happen without conflict.

That meant I was going to have my heart broken again, and not because of the crushing weight of absence. It would get ripped to pieces over and over because of his presence, for the rest of my life.

I let out a shaky breath, and Jasper’s brows drew together.

“Then we’ll stay up. Whatever you want.” He ran a reassuring brush up my spine. “But you know I’m not going anywhere, right?”