My head falls back onto the pillows, my entire body shivering.

I can barely breathe, barely move. I’m gasping for air, and my muscles have melted into sweet, sugary syrup. Residual, breath-stealing waves of pleasure roll up my body like flames, making my toes curl and my fingertips dig into the hard, sweat-glazed muscle of Aiden’s back. The scalding heat in my cheeks isn’t going down at all, even as I start to work some air back into my lungs.

I let out the kind of soft, dazed laugh that comes from pure pleasure.

Aiden had dropped his forehead onto my collarbone, was panting hard against my chest. But at this sound, he lifts his head to look down at me.

He went for a long run on the river tonight, before he came back here to me. I think he knew he was going to break something if he didn’t. He must have burned off a lot of energy, but still, he caused that same shower of radiant light that he did the other night at my apartment.

It fills his entire bedroom. The gold-tinted air is glittering softly. It's like gold dust and powdered diamonds started gently snowing down, then stopped where they were, floating, untouched by gravity.

The brilliance of it all collects and shines in Aiden’s blue eyes, which are hazy and love-drunk, his pupils blown out.

The sight of those unspeakably beautiful eyes gazing down into mine, with that expression - if it was me who had to control my energy, right now it would be explosions and smoke and supernovas until Ketterbridge was a scorch mark on the map.

My eyes manage to break away from his, but only to take in the rest of him. His chest is still rising and falling hard with his heavy breaths, the powerful muscles of his arms flexed to keep him propped up on his elbows over me. My cheeks burn an even deeper shade of red when I realize that I left a bite mark on one of his biceps, which I don’t even remember doing.

His bronze skin is gleaming with sweat, just like mine. His chestnut hair tousled and fucked up by my grasping hands, his lips darkened from the pressure of so many kisses. His body is burning hot against me.

Without intending to, I tighten my thighs around him, and his breath hitches.

He drops his head and kisses me, slowly and deeply, easing my lips apart with his, dipping his tongue into my mouth. I let out a short, helpless little sound as I kiss him back. Part stuttering moan, part exhale. I shiver when I feel a twitch of response from his body, even right now, just after. Heat rolls through me all over again, like Aiden is breathing fire into my mouth.

He kisses me until every thought has left my head, until all I can do is tangle my fingers in the chestnut softness of his hair and drink him in - then slowly breaks it off, gives my lip a soft bite.

“I love you,” I sigh into his mouth.

Aiden smiles, deepening the lines at the corners of his eyes. He doesn’t answer, only gently smacks his forehead into mine, then leaves it there. I can feel the thudding of his heartbeat against mine. One of my favorite feelings in the world.

When Aiden starts to lift his head again, I tighten my grasp on his hair, keep him where he is. I press my forehead harder against his, and he gives up any resistance pretty much instantly.

We lay like that, locked together. I know that he's listening to us, but I sense that he's also hyper-aware of the feeling of us. The slightest stumble of my heartbeat, the smallest movement of my fingers in his hair, the tiniest change in my breath - somehow I just know that none of it goes unnoticed or unregistered by Aiden.

I whimper softly again when he finally eases our bodies apart and rolls off of me. I turn my head to look at him, and he puts his head on the pillow, watching me, his bronze body spread out across the sheets. The air is still frosted with glimmering magic brightness, and it falls like firelight over him, forming velvet shadows beneath every graceful form that makes him up.

“I love you, too,” he says, catching me by surprise.

I hadn’t realized that this was one of Aiden's thinking silences, that he was working his way towards saying something. I thought he just knew that the answer was so obvious that it didn’t need to be said. He does know that, I’m sure, but - I guess he wanted to say it, anyways.

His voice is still all rough and husky and inarticulate. My heart is running close to its speed limit.

I lean over and kiss that spot on his bicep that I bit too hard. Or maybe not too hard at all, because Aiden notices it there and only now seems to realize what happened. His intimate smile spreads into a big, dumb grin that startles a laugh out of me.

I press my burning face into his arm, but he takes me by the chin and makes me look at him.

My shamefaced expression falls away the instant our eyes connect. I feel it happen, but I don’t know what face I’m making now. Whatever it is, it draws a reaction from Aiden. An immediate answering spark flares behind his gaze, and he shifts his head closer to me on the pillow. Gently drags his nose back and forth over mine, until it tickles and I laugh again.

Aiden closes his eyes, smiling, listening.

When we've recovered enough to move again, Aiden reaches for the little towel he forgot to bring with him on his run. He gently drags it over both of us, first me, then himself. Even the soft press of his fingers through the fabric does something to me, and I find myself watching him intently the whole time, holding my breath.

He sets it aside, then rolls onto his stomach with a quiet, contented sigh. I inch closer to him, then tuck one of my thighs over his legs, place my palm on his back.

I can see him smiling into the pillow.

I feel the firm warmth of his body, take deep breaths of vetiver. I press my toes into his calves and run my fingertips along the faint turquoise lines of the veins in his upturned wrist. I tickle the back of his neck just a tiny bit. He shakes out his hair, lifts his head, and glares at me, immediately making me laugh again.

Aiden's glowering expression drops away instantly. Just like that, he has us rolled over, and he’s between my legs again. My breath catches as I look up into his eyes. Two huge pupils with the slimmest rings of luminous blue.

His gaze roams my body, then stops at the small, blossoming bruises where he had been gripping my hips. He props himself up on one hand and reaches down to trace his fingertips over them, sending a shiver through my body.

He lifts his gaze to mine again, blue eyes concerned.

“Was I that rough with you?” he murmurs, his deep voice like a gentle rumble of thunder.

"Mmm." I loop my arms around his neck, sink my hands into his hair, let out a happy sigh. “Yeah, you were.”

That soft, huffing laugh kisses my ears, and my toes curl. I release my handfuls of his chestnut hair and spread my fingers over those two divots of muscle at his hips, stroking them, then sinking in some of the hard pressure he likes. We’re pressed tightly together, but he’s raised up enough for me to do that.

Aiden closes his eyes, swallowing. Almost imperceptibly, he pushes himself against my hand - and then abruptly climbs off of me. He rolls onto his back again and stretches out. Takes a deep breath, runs a hand through his hair.

Trying to calm down, I realize. He doesn’t want to get worked up again, because he thinks I’ve probably had enough of him for one night.

Cute of him, to be so very wrong.

I roll onto my side and slowly slide my hand down his sternum, my eyes on his profile. He swallows again. I see the subtle movement of his adam’s apple beneath the stubble.

“You didn’t break anything,” I tell him, my teasing fingers starting to roam.

He closes his eyes. "I - I went for a run.”

“Yeah, but sometimes, even when you-”

“A really long run.”

I smile to myself, burrowing my face into Aiden’s neck. My breath melts into his skin. He's holding so rigidly still that I'm not sure he's breathing at all.

I let my fingers find the dark trail of body hair that leads down from his stomach. I could see it disappearing into his jogging shorts when he lifted his shirt to wipe his face off after he got back. I meant to pay some loving attention to it when he got out of the shower, but I got distracted by everything else.

I have time now, though, so I give it a deep scratch with my fingernails, and Aiden melts into the bedding. I feel the goosebumps spread over him, and I press myself up against his side. I slowly let my fingers go lower, lower, then draw them back up his body again, like I'm just giving him a massage.

Aiden bites his lip, starts to hastily roll over onto his stomach. Before he can, I sit up and straddle him, pinning him where he is. He falls flat on his back, staring up at me, a deep blush gathering in his cheeks.

“Hey,” he begins desperately, his voice growing rough again, “If you, um-”

“You’re getting better at this kind of light.” I tip forward and start placing slow, nibbling kisses all over his chest. His muscles are tensed up, and he’s gripping the bedsheets in tight handfuls. I pretend not to notice. “Good news for our new place, huh? Less broken glass. Although, if we take one of the places we saw today, I doubt anyone would even notice some broken glass. That would be far from the biggest problem. With any of them, really.”

“I, um.” He shakes his head, trying to focus. “Yeah, I - I…”

I break into a tiny smirk as he helplessly trails off. Aiden sees it, and suddenly surges upright. The movement throws my balance, brings me all the way down onto his lap. A gasp escapes my mouth.

“Little demon,” Aiden growls into my ear, then bites it. “You - know - exactly - what you’re doing-”

Each word he speaks is punctuated with a fierce and fiery kiss on my throat, his stubble tickling me. I burst into moaning, gasping laughter, unable to stop myself.

As soon as Aiden hears it, he lets out a breathless sound of his own. A deep, stuttering, half-broken exhale. I feel the rush of it against my skin.

Aiden lifts his head, stares at me with wide blue eyes. Then he leans forward very slowly, drags the tip of his nose over the tip of mine, and kisses me.

My heart does a clumsy stumble, then stands still.

I’ve been getting loving, sexy kisses all night. But this one feels like it has nothing to do with sex, and everything to do with love.

I place my palms on the hard lines of Aiden’s jaw. His huge, warm hands slide up my back, but he doesn’t move me. He holds me firmly in place, our bodies fused together, and silently pours poetry into my mouth.

When Aiden draws back, the radiant glow in the air has grown even more brilliant. Richer, more deeply golden. Real sunlight would be a dim, pale imitation against this brightness my Heliomancer makes.

Even so, it can’t hold my attention long. All of my focus is taken up by Aiden. By how he’s looking into my eyes, right now. That protective, passionate, adoring blue gaze.

He leans up, puts his mouth to my throat again. His hands begin to move me, slowly and teasingly rocking me against him.

I had almost forgotten what we were doing, how worked up we'd gotten each other. And Aiden is adding to that feeling every second, growing breathless as he touches me, as he licks his way up my throat. Heat and desire and friction have been building between us in powerful, mounting waves.

I remember all at once. It hits me like lightning, a powerful surge of electricity and pleasure through my every vein.

I shudder, then melt into Aiden, fighting back a moan. He catches me and rolls onto his knees, and we fall back into each other’s arms, my favorite place in the world for the two of us to be.

~~~~

“Hey,” Aiden murmurs, sometime later. “What were you saying, before? About our new place?”

I try to lift my head to look at him, but I’m too tired to do even that, now. All I can do is lay melted over Aiden’s side, my hair wet from the shower, my head nestled in the crook of his neck.

“Someth - I don’t know. I forgot. I so forgot.”

A deep, rumbling laugh into my hair, which he’s got his fingers wound through. “Good. Wanted to make you forget about every apartment we saw today, to tell you the truth.”

I smile into his neck. “Well, nice work on that.”

We both laugh, and Aiden pulls me a little closer. We’re all languid and slow-moving, now, half in a dream. Our mingled breaths are deep and slow.

“I’ll keep looking,” Aiden says softly. “I’ll find us something good.”

The hope he’d given back to me earlier swells and rises, but I try to catch it before it can take flight.

"I have total faith in you," I tell him, very honestly. "But, you know - this is a small town, with limited real estate. It may just be beyond your control-"

"No. I'm gonna find the right place."

“Aiden, seriously." I finally manage to sit up and look at him. "I didn't mean to put all this pressure on you to find us a perfect place. We could always just live in my apartment for a while, until a better option is available. It - might be a bit tight in there, but - the point is-”

Aiden presses a finger over my lips. “I will find us a place, Jamie. I'm gonna do that for you. For us.”

He says it in that very firm voice, the one there’s absolutely no arguing with.

~~~~

I’m blissfully exhausted, but for a long time after Aiden falls asleep, I lay awake, looking at him.

Eventually I slip out of the bed, pull on Aiden’s sweater and my boxers, then head for the sliding glass door. I have thoughts on my mind, and I want to make sure that my judgment isn’t clouded by having Aiden in my sightline.

I go out on the porch and sit down on the steps, gazing out at the darkness of the spring night.

I’ve left Aiden’s arms, but sometimes I feel the lingering presence of his hands on me, even when he isn’t there. In a gentle breeze stirring my hair or touching my cheek. In the warmth of my bedsheets. In the softness of a sweater that I borrowed from him, like the one I'm wearing right now.

It smells like him. I taste him on every breath, and it feeds a warm flame in my heart that protects me from the cold night air.

I sit there in silence, lost in my thoughts.

Aiden said that he doesn’t care where we live, so long as we’re living together. I just wanna come home to you, he said.

The more I think about it, the more I'm coming to understand exactly what Aiden means.

I thought it was of critical importance that we find someplace perfect, someplace with all the features that we wanted. But none of that shit really matters, because - I’ll be living with him. With my Companion Plant. My Aiden. Honestly, how could I ask for more?

We’ve already been so happy together in our current, very small, imperfect places. Tonight alone, I’ve been so unbelievably happy here. And I know that Aiden has, too.

If he finds us a beautiful place to live, that’s just extra icing on the cake.

I go back inside and fit myself around Aiden again. He lets out a soft breath in his sleep, rolls over, and draws me up against him. His embrace feels like safety, comfort, love, warmth.

I lay my head on his chest, smiling to myself. I drift off to sleep so easily, unworried about the apartment.

As long as Aiden’s arms are around me, I’m home.