Page 146 of Bound
They needed to go.
Going was stupid.
She took a step back from him. Watched as he tried to pull himself back together with tightly closed lids. Hands balled into fists upon his knees.
She took another step back, a flicker of fear cutting through her previous enjoyment. It could be just a kiss, couldn’t it? Even if... for a moment... she’d wondered about what it would be like to have more.
“Braum?”
She didn’t like the way her voice was too high. Didn’t like how when his eyes opened, they were worried. She was fine. They were fine.
He was a good man, her Braum. Not scum. Not a cad.
Her mate.
Who cared if she just wanted to sleep. Or to kiss. Or to touch him just a little.
He stood. Held out his hand to her and she took it with a considerable relief that shamed her. “Shall we go?”
Merryweather chirped at them from the loft as they left, and after a few more promises, they would be back late, but they would be home again...
And maybe a cracked window so Merryweather could come and go as she pleased—which Braum watched with an eye that suggested he was adding yet another project to his list...
They left.
???
Wren could not recall being embraced so hard.
Da was careful of her.
Braum was so nervous of frightening her.
But his mother...
The instant they’d appeared, the cart and the hesper left at a stable so they could walk and twine through the decorated streets, Wren found herself surrounded by distinctly motherly arms.
She’d been afraid of this?
“Ma,” Braum began, his hand reaching out, but Wren waved him off.
“You’ve no idea how pleased I am you’re here,” she told Wren in a distinctly choked way that suggested she was near to tears. Which was all right, because Wren felt much the same. She pulled back, not quite releasing, but enough they could look at one another. Wren had not thought anything about Braum to be particularly feminine, yet looking at his mother, there was a prominent resemblance. The dark hair, the slant of the nose, the way their eyes crinkled when they smiled so brightly.
His father was not nearly so demonstrative, but she accepted the pat on her shoulder with a smile.
“Oh, we can hug now?” Kessa asked, pushing her father away so she could pull Wren close as well. “I’m so glad.”
Her mate did not make the attempt, too busy keeping his hands on the fledglings fluttering about his waist and shoulder, wrapped about ankles to keep them from flying off in opposite directions.
But he nodded to her, and that was more than enough. Particularly when Kessa was putting a packet of something warm into her hands and urging her to try one. It was a simple paper packet, presumably procured from one of the vendors. Nuts of some kind, spiced and toasted through, and really rather good.
She held it out to Braum, who took far more than the one she’d delicately picked off the top. “It’s Solstice, Wren,” Braum reminded her. “You’re supposed to be indulgent.”
She picked up three more and popped them in her mouth all at once.
???
She loved the glittering lights of the candles and lanterns. The ones higher still that were the moonstones that caught and amplified the firelight, even the moon itself. Not warm like the fires, but cool and ethereal, bouncing about the white stones of the towers between them.