My Taboo Harem!

The the mattress suddenly dipped from the opposite side.

Sienna’s eyes moved despite herself.

Phei had walked around and lowered himself beside her, one knee against the floor. The teasing had disappeared from his expression, leaving behind a softness that always seemed far more dangerous to her composure than his shameless smile.

He leaned forward and kissed her forehead.

His lips remained there for a quiet moment, warm against her skin, and something inside Sienna loosened in a way she did not understand. After everything they had shared, such a small gesture should not have affected her this deeply, yet somehow the tenderness of it reached somewhere the rest had never touched.

When he pulled away, his voice was gentle.

"Good night, my Wife."

Sienna looked at him longer than she intended.

He had called her goddess so many times that night that the title had almost become another form of teasing between them, but Wife slipped through her defenses with insulting ease. Perhaps it was the way he said it, softly enough that it no longer sounded like a title.

It sounded like something private between them.

"I’m going to step out for an hour or so," Phei added. "Maybe a little longer?"

The warmth beneath Sienna’s ribs faltered.

She gave a small nod before the reaction could reach her face.

She did not ask where he was going.

If he wanted her to know, he would tell her, and if he had decided to handle something alone, she trusted him enough to allow it.

That did not make her like the idea.

Phei raised a hand and brushed his fingers along her cheek before catching several loose strands of dark hair and tucking them behind her ear. Sienna’s eyes closed almost immediately, betraying her before she could decide whether such a small touch deserved a reaction. His knuckles lingered near her cheek, warm and slow, and a faint shiver travelled through her body when his fingertips traced the curve beside her ear.

Tenderness remained unfamiliar territory.

Sienna understood power, she understood death, betrayal, war, survival and the endless patience required to endure things capable of breaking ordinary souls. Yet Phei kept reaching her with absurdly simple things she had never prepared herself to defend against.

A hand brushing hair from her face.

A kiss on her forehead.

Being carried despite having the strength to walk.

The quiet way he looked at her without fear or reverence getting in the way of affection.

For one selfish moment, she wanted to ask him to stay.

She wanted him beside her, wanted his arms around her again and his chest beneath her cheek while sleep finally took her. The desire arrived with such irritating ease that Sienna almost frowned at herself. She had lived far too long to suddenly decide sleep required company, yet one shameless Young Dragon had somehow convinced a treacherous part of her that his heartbeat belonged somewhere near her pillow.

’Annoying Dragon.’

Whatever needed his attention clearly mattered, and she would not make him choose between his responsibilities and soothing her newfound attachment.

Sienna opened her eyes and found him still watching her.

Before thought could interfere, her hand slipped behind his neck and pulled him down without much as a thought.

Their lips met again...

...Phei made the faintest sound of surprise before relaxing into the kiss, one hand settling against her cheek. This time Sienna had not merely answer him; she kissed him because she wanted to, slowly at first, allowing herself to enjoy the softness of his mouth before the kiss deepened naturally.

She had become dangerously fond of his kisses.

There was no point denying it anymore.

His lips carried a warmth she had begun craving with embarrassing speed, and whenever he kissed her seriously, all the teasing disappeared from him. He became gentle in a way that made the rest of the world seem farther away. Sienna lingered until even she knew the kiss had become an answer to something she refused to say aloud.

She did not want him to leave.

When she finally released him, their faces remained close.

"Do not worry while you are gone," she murmured. "I will make sure everyone here remains safe."

Phei’s expression softened.

"And that annoying Jade Dragon is here as well," Sienna added quickly, because the previous sentence had sounded suspiciously affectionate. "So unless Dravenna suddenly discovers a talent for being useless, there is little to worry about."

Phei chuckled. "I’ll tell her you said that."

"I will deny it."

"She’ll believe me."

"Then I will deal with both of you."

"That sounds threatening."

"It was meant to."

Phei’s smile broadened.

Sienna settled more comfortably against the pillow while her hand remained loosely around his wrist. "Once Catrina returns with that strange girl, everyone who should be here will be inside the hotel. Go deal with whatever you need to deal with."

Catrina had left earlier to meet her father and mother before night fully settled over Paradise. Phei had offered to escort her, but she had refused, wanting to speak to her parents about him and about the relationship growing between them before Phei eventually stood before them himself.

He had understood.

Some conversations belonged to daughters first.

Phei glanced down at Sienna’s hand still curled around his wrist.

She followed his gaze and immediately began to loosen her fingers, but he caught her hand before she could withdraw. Sienna looked at him as he brought her knuckles to his lips and kissed them slowly, one after another.

Colour returned to her cheeks.

"Thank you, Sienna." he said.

She gave him the smallest nod.

Phei finally stood.

This time Sienna released him, although every step he took toward the door seemed strangely easy to notice.

She watched his back while pretending she was not doing exactly that. The pressure beneath her ribs returned when he reached the other side of the room, leaving her irritated with herself all over again.

’He’s leaving for an hour, perhaps a little longer.’

So there was no reason for the distance between the bed and the door to feel this significant, right?

His hand reached the handle.

Sienna stared at him.

Some quiet, childish part of her wanted one final look:

Turn around.

Phei paused; he looked back.

Their eyes met.

A smile appeared on Sienna’s face before she had time to control it, small and warm and entirely too honest.

Phei saw it.

Her composure returned with suspicious speed.

"What are you turning around for?" she asked. "Go already. I want to sleep. And do not forget to leave when you leave."

Phei stared at her for two heartbeats before laughter escaped him.

Sienna’s eyes narrowed. "What?"

"Nothing, Princess."

"There is clearly something."

"Nope."

"You are irritating."

"I know."

Phei opened the door, but before stepping through it, he looked back at her once more.

The amusement gradually left his face.

Sienna noticed immediately.

The warmth in his eyes settled into something so open that she almost wished he would return to teasing her, because she knew how to deal with embarrassment and irritation. This was harder.

"I love you."

The words were simple.

No ceremony surrounded them, and no grand promise followed.

He simply said them because he meant them... then he walked out.

The door closed quietly behind him.

Sienna remained against the pillows, staring at the place where he had disappeared.

Her fingers slowly rose to the center of her chest.

The warmth there had become impossible to ignore.

She had known the word love for longer than many nations had existed. She had watched people sacrifice kingdoms for it, betray families because of it, cross impossible distances in its name and spend entire lives mourning when it disappeared.

She understood devotion, obsession, possession and sacrifice well enough to recognize all the strange shapes affection could take.

What she had never understood was how gentle it could feel.

Three ordinary words had settled somewhere beneath her ribs and refused to leave.

I love you.

A small smile touched her lips.

The realization made her eyes narrow almost immediately.

Could he sense this through Dual-Nether Souls?

If he could, she was going to make him regret it.

The threat barely survived inside her thoughts before the smile returned.

Sienna slowly sank deeper beneath the covers, her gaze remaining on the closed door while the warmth inside her chest followed her toward sleep.

He would be gone for an hour.

Perhaps a little longer.

Then he would return.

’He promised!’

For some reason that thought made the room feel warmer.

Sienna closed her eyes and quietly repeated his words inside her mind once more, guarding them with the same possessive care she would have given something infinitely more precious than any treasure.

"I love you."

And for the first time in longer than she cared to remember, the Nether Goddess fell silent looking forward to someone coming back.

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