A/N: Hey ya'll! Although this is a short chapter, I wanted it to be a stand alone and so, voila! Happy reading xx
After having woken me in the early hours of twilight with the torturously sweet ministrations of his tongue on my body, only to guide the both of us into another bout of prolonged lovemaking, Arjun is now holding me tucked close against his side; his arm wrapped around my shoulders, almost as if he doesn't wish for even a hairsbreadth of distance to remain between the two of us.
Breathing in his fragrance - a smell that now brings the word, 'Home,' to my mind - I continue to use my index finger to swirl circles around my husband's navel. After tonight I've forgotten what it feels like to not have a permanent ball of warmth radiating within the pit of my stomach, and a smile of pure contentment resting at the corners of my mouth.
"I should try to evoke such reactions from you on a daily basis, Princess," Arjun says. "If this is the result," he adds, his smiling lips brushing against the top of my head. I don't need to look at him to conjure a picture of his satisfied expression in my mind.
"Wish for me to build a harem on our grounds?" My husband asks, his tone full of mirth. Instinctively, my palm lands against his belly in a gesture of protest.
"If I've understood my matrimonial vows correctly, dear husband," I say, "I'm supposed to follow in your footsteps through every possible scenario." Without waiting for an answer from Arjun, I finish my thought. "So do keep in mind that if you do so, in this situation like all the others, I will follow your example religiously."
"Oh no, Princess, that won't do at all." Arjun protests, with more zeal than I thought he was capable of possessing after our night's activities.
"Then it's settled." Sighing, I drag my palm up across the length of Arjun's chest, only to rest it right above his heart. My eyes shut on their own volition as my breathing aligns with his.
"Thank you for loving me enough to forgive me, Princess." Arjun whispers, his voice so low that I'm ready to believe he's conversing with himself. "It takes strength to forgive and I'll never let you fall weak again by breaking your trust in me." I don't interrupt Arjun because I know that these words must flow out from his tongue for his heart to feel lighter and at ease.
"I'll never let you regret your decision," my husband continues, "And I will never stop proving to you every day just how right your decision is this time around." A few seconds pass by in which I assume Arjun has fallen asleep before his whispered words surround me once again.
"You've become an imperative part of my life, Princess." Arjun confesses, his arm pressing me further against him. "Heck, you've become my whole goddamn life." My husband's raw words are followed by a breathless chuckle, almost as if this thought knocks the very breath out of him. "And I don't know when this happened, or how. All that I'm aware of is that it's happened now, and it is what it is. I can't change it even if I tried; even if I wanted to."
"Princess, you have bound me to yourself in ways that I cannot even begin to describe," Arjun continues, his words tumbling out in an honest heap. "There is no other you. And I don't want to change any of this, not really, Princess. But I'm also scared. I'm terrified actually of the inevitable loss - the pain - that comes with love; the price that lovers have to pay. I won't be able to survive it."
"I can't survive without my life," Arjun says, his tone resolute, almost as if his words are set in stone. I can tell that he absolutely blindly believes all that he is telling me right now. "For I won't be a man living, then, just a man who's existing."
"You don't have to worry, Arjun." I assure my husband, turning my head to the side. "Because I'm not leaving you and going anywhere." Tilting my chin up, I press my lips against the corner of Arjun's mouth. Tucking my head back into the crook of his arm, I shut my eyes once more.
Arjun's words do not bother me because I know that nothing and no one in this world - no deity, no force - can make me leave this man, my husband.
"I hope so, Princess." Arjun murmurs as sleep cascades over me in waves. "I really do." A low hum echoes in the confines of my throat - my energy completely spent to offer Arjun a spoken answer - before I slip into a dreamless slumber.