The rest of the night, Sadie planned our joint wedding.
According to her the House of Malum estate was perfect. She’d already decided we were having it at the pond, and it would be a five-hundred-person wedding.
I nodded in agreement while I mentally planned how to sabotage her—our—big day. No way was I letting people stomp around the estate.
It was our quiet home.
Our sanctuary.
However, I did not break it to her that we were having a small wedding because she was already acting like a bridezilla.
I’d wait a little.
Other than that, the night was perfect.
Sadie cried when she saw a miniature pony, and the next day, Cobra had to throw her over his shoulder to get her to leave.
She promised to return for dinner.
Three hours later she came back, and we ate a delicious cheese board underneath my favorite tree.
That night, after she’d left—again, by force, I blinked with surprise when I entered the bedroom.
A tiny baby bird with tufts of fluffy red-and-gold feathers was lying on my pillow. He was no longer just smoke.
“Horse,” I whispered, afraid to move and ruin the illusion.
He cawed with delight and flapped his wings at his name as he hopped across the bed toward me.
I sobbed and held his fluffy feathered body against my cheeks.
He smelled like fire and ice.
Somehow, against the most unimaginable of odds, we’d both risen from the ashes. The phoenix and the woman who was emotionally dependent on him were reunited.
Together again.
The next morning, the sun rose a little brighter.
We both rose with it.
Chapter 68
Aran
THE ART OF SEDUCTION
Wile （verb）： to lure or as if by a magic spell, entice.
Like most great things in the world, it started with enchanted wine and a simple game of truth or dare.
The night was warm and comforting.
It was the first day when none of us had any sort of panic attack. No one had woken up screaming in the middle of the night.
It felt like a milestone.
The babbling brook gurgled, and in the distance, an owl hooted.
A speaker vibrated and pulsed turquoise in the grass as it played enchanted low-fi music.
The darkness was dreamy.
All six of us sat in a circle under the night sky, holding our breath with anticipation as we spun one of our empty wine bottles on the blanket.
A single scarlet flame hovered in the air above our heads and cast us all in warm shadows.
The bottle landed on John.
Scorpius grinned wickedly. “Truth or dare?”
John narrowed his eyes, then he stuck his chin in the air and said, “Dare.”
Scorpius’s wicked expression became downright evil.
“I dare you”—he enunciated each word carefully—“to seduce Arabella, right now.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Orion whispered, eyes wide with alarm as he stared at me.
Scorpius tipped one of the wine bottles to his lips, and red spilled down his tattooed throat. He licked his cherry-red lips slowly and said, “You don’t have to.” He smirked. “It was just a suggestion.”
John looked at me, and I winked.
He flashed his dimples, eyes glossy with intoxication as he crawled across the blanket toward me.
The low-fi music flowed around us.
Warm air blew on a comforting breeze.
“Hey, beautiful,” John whispered when he got close to me. He reached out and grabbed my head in both his callused hands, then he pulled our lips together.
He tasted like sandalwood and tenderness.
The man who’d held me up in a merciless ocean for hours kissed me like he was drowning and I was oxygen.
He groaned into my lips.
His kisses became fiercer, and he pushed me back so he was straddling me. Hardness rubbed against my aching core, and I lifted my hips to increase the friction.
“Who’s your best friend now?” he whispered roughly into my ear as his callused thumb stroked the delicate pulse points of my neck.
“Still Sadie,” I gasped out.
He reached under my flowy shirt and cupped my heavy breasts. I flushed all over, and he moaned gutturally as he pinched my nipples and sucked the delicate skin on my neck. He whispered, “You’re lying to yourself.”
My hips arched.
The fire in my lower stomach was like nothing I’d ever experienced before; without any pain to dampen it, I was dripping and breathless with need.
It seemed surreal that something could feel so good.
My head spun.
Stars twinkled above.
A heady warmth strummed inside my heart as jewels vibrated on my wrist and neck. I wore little pink bows and a tiara as I sprawled wantonly beneath my mate.