A Vial of Life (A Shade of Vampire #21)(34)

It hit home for the first time that this was it—the final string that still attached me to my old, familiar life. In clearing out the last of my things, I truly would have moved on, into the next stage of my life. My life with Caleb.

Caleb eyed me, raising a brow. He set down the bags he’d picked up and approached me. He reached for my hair and tucked a strand behind my ear before sliding his hand down my jaw and tilting my chin up so I faced him. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing’s… wrong,” I said, my voice three tones deeper than usual. “It’s just that…” I broke off. I didn’t really know how to describe it. I wanted to move out, and I was over the moon to begin my new life with Caleb, but at the same time… it would be different. A permanent change to the only life I’d known. “What I’m feeling isn’t bad or good, it’s just… change.”

From the look in Caleb’s eyes, he understood. “I know what you’re feeling,” he said. “Change, however good, can be unsettling.”

“Did you feel it too, like when you proposed to me?”

He shook his said. “Not when I proposed to you, or when I married you. I felt it when you initially suggested that I come live in The Shade. I don’t need to remind you of how reluctant I was, even after realizing that the bond tying me to Annora’s island had broken.”

I nodded. At the time, he had given me a variety of excuses for his reluctance, like the bad terms that he and my father had left off on, and the general feeling that he just wouldn’t fit in. I guessed at the end of the day, it had been a fear of change.

Caleb still had an expression of mild concern as he looked me over. He dipped down and caught my lips between his, kissing them gently as his hands traced my waist. He raised his head and gazed down at me through his warm, chocolate-brown eyes. He didn’t say anything more, he just held my gaze, and my body close to him. And he couldn’t have done anything better in that moment. The strength of his arms around me felt like an anchor, and the confidence in his eyes warmed me inside, causing the uneasiness in my chest to lift. I might have felt homesick to be leaving my parents, but Caleb’s arms were the only home I needed.

I cleared my throat and returned his confident gaze. “I love you, Caleb,” I said, draping my arms around his neck. “And nothing thrills me more than the thought of starting a life together.”

I kissed him again. His arms tightened around me and he lifted me off the ground, kneading his lips passionately against mine. When he set me back down on my feet, he eyed the bags waiting for us and then my empty bed.

“What if you spent one last night here before we took the last of your stuff away?” he asked.

I bit down on my lower lip and looked over at my bed. It was slightly larger than a single bed, but it wasn’t large enough to be considered double. I couldn’t deny that the idea of sharing my last night in it with Caleb excited me. He hadn’t spent much time in my room because we had been staying in one of the mountain cabins. I didn’t know how long my parents would be gone. I took a guess that they’d sit in the Great Dome long into the night with the story they had to tell and the barrage of questions and discussion that would follow. I could just leave a “do not disturb” sign outside my bedroom door.

A coy smile curved my lips.

I looked deep into Caleb’s eyes and nodded. “I’d like that. A lot.”

We shifted the rest of the bags into one corner of the room, and since it was pushing late into the evening anyway, we took a long shower together and got ready for bed. Before we holed up in my bedroom, I took a piece of paper from the kitchen drawer and scribbled “do not disturb” onto it with bright red highlighter. I grabbed some tape and stuck it above my door knob before entering the room and closing the door behind me.

I smiled to see that Caleb had shifted the position of my bed. Rather than have it tucked away in one corner, he’d shifted it to the center of the room and placed a dozen lit candles around it. He must’ve rummaged around in the bags and found them. Although I’d accumulated a large collection of candles, mostly by way of gifts, the truth was I hardly ever got around to lighting them. I was glad that Caleb had taken it upon himself to find a good use for them.

I smiled even more to see Caleb already sitting on the mattress, leaning against the headboard. His bathrobe was slightly parted as it draped over his shoulders, revealing half of his muscled torso.

I doubted he knew how hot he looked leaning there casually, eyeing me steadily from across the room. If I’d been a human, I would’ve blushed a lot more as I crawled into bed.

I moved to lie on my side next to him, but he caught my arms and instead pulled me onto his lap, my back against his chest. He drew up his legs, allowing my lower back to slide down in between his thighs. His hands closed around my shoulders and glided down my arms before resting over my stomach.

I gazed around my bedroom. It looked so different with the bed shifted to its center and the candlelight dancing on the bare walls.

“So,” Caleb began softly, his thumbs brushing against my lower abdomen through my silk nightie. “This is your last night in your room. What would you like to do?”

“Hmmm,” I wondered, even as Caleb’s touch made my skin tingle. “I suppose we could just… lie here and stare at the candlelight flickering against the walls all night,” I suggested, trying to keep a deadpan expression.