Page 14 of Married to the Manticore

I pressed my nose to her hair, inhaling deeply. Beneath the scent of our lovemaking, beneath the desert dust and the herbs she had worked with that day, was her essential fragrance—something that reminded me of rain on hot stones, of green things growing in unlikely places.

“When I agreed to the cohabitation program,” I murmured against her temple, “I thought I was offering sanctuary to a human in need of protection.”

She made a soft sound of inquiry, too content to form words.

“I didn’t realize it would be you who saved me,” I continued, the admission easier in the darkness, in the privacy of our nest. “From solitude. From the belief that my nature made me unworthy of genuine connection.”

Her hand came up to rest over my heart. “We saved each other,” she corrected sleepily.

As her breathing evened out in sleep, I tightened my hold on her, my most precious possession, my most unexpected gift. I breathed her in once more, letting her scent anchor me to this moment, this perfect peace.

“Mine,” I vowed silently to the desert night, to whatever powers might be listening. “Forever.”

And for the first time in my life, I felt the certainty that forever might be possible—one day at a time, one choice at a time, building something neither of us could have imagined alone.