Exile in the Water Kingdom (The Elemental Phases Book 3) (47 page)

“In
some Houses, Matches don’t sleep in the same room.”

Gion
looked around sharply at that pointed remark.

Ty
stood in the doorway of the King’s Chamber, a frown on her face.  It was night,
and things had grown quiet, but he still felt tense.

Restless.

“The
Light Phases usually have separate beds, if I remember my cultural history
classes correctly.  Which I
do
.”  She continued, strolling inside. 
“But, they’re just too paranoid to sleep with someone else in the room, I
think.”

“Do
they even
have
rooms in the Light Kingdom?”  Gion arched a brow, not
knowing where she was going with this, but willing to play along.  “Don’t they
live in caves and swing from trees over there?”

Ty
twirled the belt of her white robe, Gypsy Rose Lee style and ignored that. 
“The Magnet Kingdom has separate beds for Matches, a lot of the time.  That, I
think, is just their general uptightness, though.”

“Well,
Air Phases sleep next to their Matches.”  Gion said flatly, just in case she
had any ideas to the contrary.

“So
do Water Phases.”  Ty tilted her head.  “Interesting that
my
Match, born
an Air Phase and the new King of the Water House, is in here all by himself,
then.”

God,
he loved it when she called him her Match.  “I thought you might want time
alone to adjust to everything.  To me.”  That was the real reason he’d been
avoiding her for the past hour or so.  What the hell could she be thinking of
him, now?  “You have to be traumatized by what happened, Ty.  You were attacked
twice today.”

“Nope.
 I feel fine.  I always feel safe with you.”  Ty shut the door behind her and
engaged the lock.  “I usually barricade my door at night, you know.  Sometimes I
even push the dresser in front of it and just wait for morning to come.”

Gion
glanced over at the armoire standing on the wall beside her.  Air powers blew
it sideways, blocking the door.  “Better?”  He’d nail the damn thing shut if it
she wanted.

“Thank
you.”  Ty smiled at him in total adoration.  “I don’t need to do that anymore,
though.  Even with all the barriers down, I’m not worried when I’m with you.” 
She edged closer to him.  “What do you think happened to the barriers, anyway? 
Parald didn’t have the Liberty Tablet, so he’s not responsible.  Who did this?”

“Someone
new must have come to town with their own agenda.  And if it were anyone we
were gonna
like
, they wouldn’t be hiding.”

Ty
sighed.  “I thought with Parald dead, things would be… normal, again.  That’s
never going to happen, obviously.  But, I…”  She trailed off.  “Remember when
you told me that you wanted me to share things with you?  That that was the
best way for me to deal with my panic attacks?”

“Yes.” 
Gion wanted to hear every thought in Ty’s head.  Not just because it would help
her heal, but because he just wanted her to talk to him about anything and
everything.

“Well,
when I saw Parald, again, I was scared.  I didn’t want to be, but I was.”

“That
was my fault.  I screwed up.”

“No,
you didn’t.  Just let me finish, okay?”  She took a deep breath.  “I was scared
and then I was angry.  I was
so angry
, Gion.  I hated him.  I hated him
so much for what he did to us.  He took you away from me.  On my ninety-third
birthday, I should have Phazed with
you
.  My parents never got to meet
you, because of Parald.  We could have had a baby, by now.  We lost three years
for
nothing
.  He stole that.”

Gion
didn’t say anything, because there was nothing he could offer that wasn’t another
useless apology.

“He
was evil.  He would have raped me.  In a way, he
did
rape Randa.  She
wasn’t willing.  Not really.  Neither was Isaacs.  Parald apparently forced him
to witness all kinds of things.  He used his power to humiliate and to subjugate
and he
enjoyed
it.”

“I
know.”

“He
even ruined my first kiss.  That should have been with you.”

Gion
flinched.  “Angel…”

Ty
kept going.  “He hurt people.  He released the Fall and killed my family.  He
tried to execute you.  He enslaved the entire Air House.  He almost ended the
world.  I
hated
him, Gion.  I helped to kill him and I’m not sorry.”

“Why
would you be?”

“Do
you see me differently?  Do you love me less because I’m capable of helping to
kill someone…?”

“No!” 
Gion interrupted unequivocally.  “Jesus, Ty. 
No
.  How can you even ask
that?”

“You
ask
me
that all the time.  You say that you’re a murderer and that I
shouldn’t love you.  What are you doing in here, if not avoiding me because
you’re blaming yourself for something?”

“I
screwed up and you almost died!”

“That’s
not what happened and you know it.”  Ty scoffed.  “You’re such a control
freak.  Everything isn’t because of you, Gion.  Sometimes
other
people
screw-up, all by themselves.”

He
turned away from her, again, and decided to disregard that.  “How does your
head feel?”

“My
head feels fine.  Don’t change the subject.”  She crossed her arms over her
chest.  “Even if you did screw-up --Which you
haven’t-
- But, even if you
did…
so what?  I’m alive and you’re alive and we’re a Match.  You’re
supposed to be with me.  Especially at night.  I can’t sleep.  I get scared and
lonely and you need to fix that.  It’s your job.”

That
got his gaze slipping back to her.  “I can’t sleep, either.  All night, every
night I just… wait.”

“I’ve
waited, too.  For
you
, Gion.  I didn’t even know who I was waiting for,
but I still waited for you.  I’m tired of waiting.”

Gion’s
chest tightened.  “So am I.”

“You
love me, no matter what?”

“Of
course, I do.”

“And
I love you, no matter what.  So, can we just be happy?  Hasn’t he taken enough
from us?  All the things that have gone wrong, all the injustice and confusion…
And we’re
together
.  Regardless of what else happens, I have you and I’m
so happy.  Can’t that be enough for you, too?”

For
some reason, Gion thought of Chason.  The man’s crazed tears for his Match and
Gion’s own anguish when Ty had been missing.

Things
could have been so much worse.

Nothing
was screwed-up.  Not really.  He had Ty.  That was all that mattered.  She was right. 
Absolutely right.

“Yes.” 
He moved away from the window and started for her.

Ty
blinked as if she was expecting more of an argument.  “Yes?”

“Yes,
it’s more than enough.  You’re
everything
to me, Ty and I still can’t
believe you’d let me into your life.”  Another woman might have just accepted
any Match that Gaia stuck her with, but Ty, of the Water House would have
renounced someone she didn’t love.  She
chose
Gion.  Ty was right.  That
made their relationship so much better.  “Thank you for having me as your
Match.”

“Thank
you for wanting me, even when I
wasn’t
your Match.  And we’re still
having that Binding Ceremony, by the way.  I expect great things from your
vows.”

“Angels
will weep.  I guarantee it.”  Gion assured her.  “Let me preview on some key
themes, right now.  You never have to be lonely or scared at night.  Since,
we’re the King and Queen of the Water House, this is
our
room.  So, get
into bed, because you’re sleeping next to me from now on.”

Ty
looked around the King’s Chamber and slowly nodded.  “I’d like for this to be
our room.  But, I’m not ready to go to sleep, yet.”

Gion’s
body leapt to attention.  “Ummm… are you sure that you’re up for more than
that, right now?”

“I’m
pretty sure.”  Ty dropped the rope and smirked at him.  “How about you?”

She
was wearing a white dress.

The
white
dress.

The
one she’d been wearing the first time he’d ever seen her.

The
one that had starred in thousands of his very, very graphic fantasies.

Gion’s
eyes swept over her, the blood pooling out of his head and heading south.

Ty’s
mouth curved.  “Just something that I found in the back of my closet.  Nice
that it still fits, hmmm?”  She did a little twirl.  “A tiny bit tight across
the chest, but otherwise perfect.  Be honest.  Do you think my breasts have
gotten bigger since I was eighty-four?”

“I
think that you’re playing with fire.”  Gion stalked closer to her.  “Come here,
Tritone.”

“Noooo…
I don’t trust that gleam in your eye.”  She backed away from him, grinning
innocently.  “Why, I’m wearing this pretty dress just for you, but you look
like you’re going to tear it.”

“I’m
about to rip it right off of your body.”  Gion agreed.  “Come here.”

“If
you ruin the dress, how can I wear it for you, again?”  Ty came up against the
floor to ceiling window overlooking the waterfall.  “Think about it logically.”

Gion
moved directly in front of her, boxing her in.  “Take it off for me, then.”

“But,
I can’t.”  Ty’s lashes fluttered down with impish modesty.  “I don’t have
anything on under it.”

Gion
did what he’d wanted to do eleven years before and gripped the edge of the
strapless neckline.  “Nothing?”

“You
can’t wear anything under this dress, silly.  The lines show.”

Gion
let out a long breath.  “It’s a really good thing that I didn’t know that at
the concert.”  His thumb brushed against the softness of her skin.  “If I had,
I wouldn’t have been able to walk away.”  He tugged the neckline down so Ty’s
breasts were exposed, popping out over the lacy top.  God, she was beautiful. 
“I could never walk away from you, Ty.”

“If
you try it, I’ll hunt you down.”  Ty promised.  Her head fell back against the
glass as Gion began massaging her nipples.  “Your mine and I’m keeping you.”

“I’m
yours.”  He’d belonged to Ty since the first second he saw her.

She
smiled, cat like, her tongue touching the corner of her mouth.  “Some
compliments would be nice, right about now.”  She teased, arching into his
palms.

“Well,”
Gion watched his hands squeezing her flesh, reveling in the fact that Ty let
him touch her, “you’re much prettier than my last Match.”

Ty
snickered at that.  “Liar.  Randa’s stunning and you know it.”

Gion
couldn’t have picked Randa out of a lineup, but he remembered exactly what Ty
had been wearing every time he’d ever seen her.  That pretty much summed up the
truth of the matter, as far as he was concerned.

“I
prefer redheads.”  He hitched her up against the glass wall so her breasts were
at mouth level.

“Oh
God.”  She whimpered as he bit down on her nipple.  “I love it when you do
that.”

“Thank
Gaia, because I plan on doing it a lot.”  He switched to her other breast. 
“Tell me another one of those fantasies.”

“Well,
I can be eighty-four, obviously, ravished on the balcony of the music hall.” 
Her fingers twisted in his hair.  “Trying not to cry in pleasure out as you
take me, because everyone inside will hear.  It’s dangerous and I don’t care. 
I want you so badly.”

Gion’s
mouth curved against her skin, liking that story.  He slid Ty down so he could
kiss her, his mouth slanting across hers.  “You think I’m the kind of Phase
who’d take advantage of an innocent girl?”  He asked when they finally came up
for air.  “I’m a good man.”

“Oh,
you
are
.  And you tried to resist me.”  Ty assured him breathlessly. 
“You know how wrong it is and that we should wait.  But, I’m determined and
shameless.”

“Tart.” 
Gion agreed and nipped her neck.

Ty
giggled.  “So, I lure you outside, while everyone else is listening to the
music.  And I move your hand right where I want it.”  She found his wrist and
pulled it forward, so it touched the inside of her thigh.  “And I say ‘please,
Gion.’  I’m naked under the dress, hot and needing you.  Are you going to say
no and leave me aching?”

He
swallowed and inched his palm up to stroke the core of her.  “Have I ever said
no to you about anything?”

“Why
would you?  I’m always right.”  Ty’s eyes widened and not just from his
fingers.  A new idea struck her.  “Hey!  I guess you’ll perform a concert for
my family if I ask you to, then, won’t you?”

Gion
hesitated, seeing that she’d just trapped him.

Ty’s
eyebrows rose sweetly, even as her cheeks grew flushed and her eyes went darker
at his caress.  “For our Binding Day, dear.”