“Please present Freddie with the hands that will hold you up and hold you together, hold you steady and hold you strong,” the Addo says. Sean and Teagan raise their intertwined hands, holding them out to Freddie, but Addo is still the one who speaks. “Do you wish to be bound?”
Sean answers, “Yes sir,” and Teagan nods and whispers the tiniest streak of an, “I do.”
“Alrighty then,” Addo says as Freddie wraps one end of the rope around Sean’s wrist first. “In case you don’t know the drill, here’s how we do this. You are bound to Teagan for one week, and Sean is bound to you. This rope isn’t magical, it’s just a rope on a retractable line that coils into this box. There is only enough length for you two to get a few feet away from each other. The purpose behind the Ianua binding is to provide a period of time for a couple to learn as much as they can about one another. We believe that marriage is a sacred pairing and that the couple should know each other intimately. You will learn about one another’s habits, you will learn how to work with one another. At times, you will be embarrassed, you will be uncomfortable, you will fight and you will talk. If you choose to remain bound, you will know more about your mate than anyone else ever will. On the flip side, if you realize you made a doozy of a mistake, you can cut the rope at any time and walk away. The only caution to that is that if you do choose to walk away, just know that there aren’t any do-overs. The community will never consider binding the two of you again.
“So, if you are still bound at the end of that week, then the Ianua will recognize you as a married couple, and there will be dancing and food and cookies, probably,” the Addo leans off the bench, talking out of the corner of his mouth as if he’s beside them, “so don’t muff this up for me. I’m counting on both of you to not make me look like a horse’s bazoo. Those cookies are heaven.”
He straightens up and resumes, “One last thing. Sean, as we’ve discussed, if you choose to forfeit the biding, you will also forfeit your Addoship. And Teagan, if you choose to forfeit the binding yourself, you will return to your Cura and your family.” Addo dodges a glance at Dai’s sour face and whispers to Teagan, “Good luck if you decide to go that route, kiddo.”
She lets out a nervous giggle.
“So that’s it!” the Addo finishes. Freddie smiles and steps away from the couple. “Congratulations to the two of you, and Sean, feel free to kick everyone else out of your suite to make room for your new family.”
CHAPTER SIX
Garrett knocks on the door to my suite. He’s got a gym bag in his hand. My heart jumps up and spins in my chest as I imagine Garrett coming over to stay in my suite, in my room, in my bed, next to me. Then it sinks in and my palms start to sweat. I wipe them off on the back of my shirt as Garrett steps inside.
“I’m on my way to Milo’s room,” he says. My palms dry instantly, but the edges of my mouth dips into a frown. Garrett lifts a finger and traces my lower lip, pulling it into a grin with nothing more than his touch. “Last thing I want to do is hang with Milo. I wish I was staying with you.”
He drops his bag and slides his arms around my waist. My lips spring easily into a full blown smile.
“You could stay,” I say, as he rests his forehead on mine.
“Oh, do I wish that was true,” he smiles. My stomach squeezes with the idea of it. I mean, Garrett’s slept in a bed beside mine before, when we stayed in Nok’s little Veritas hide-out beneath the library. Of course, I was unconscious and briefly dead for most of it, since I was re-Impressioning with the Cornerstone in my palm, but Garrett had been there. He had laid on the bed beside mine, reading his book and waiting for me to wake up.
I think again of what it would be like to spend a whole night with Garrett while I am conscious. My palms get damp and the squirm in my stomach starts up again. I lace my fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck and close my eyes, laying my head against him. I breathe in all the lime and snow and water and wood smells that make up Garrett. He is every good smell in the world and my fingertips on his skin send pulses of electricity through me that heat my arms.
I inhale him until my lungs hurt. I remember how we were not allowed to touch when I first began training, because as my Vieo, Garrett should have drained my energy instead of recharging it like he does. Being able to touch him whenever I want is still mind-blowing and right now, all I can think of is touching him.
My mind wanders off to thoughts of Garrett in my bed, wearing only his pajama bottoms, and the tingles zip through me like bottle rockets. Garrett’s lips find mine and he moves closer, my chest pressed to his, as he deepens our kiss. My hands drop to his waist and I can feel the solid bands of muscle over his stomach. He lets out a tiny groan in the back of his throat and the bottle rockets explode a warehouse supply of glittery tingles that whiz through every inch of me.
“I would love to stay with you, but that would create a huge scandal,” Garrett says as he slowly pulls his head away from mine. His arms remain looped around me and his grip keeps me pressed against the length of his body, feeling the entire network of his muscles. “And I think my brother’s got ‘scandal’ totally covered right now.”
“I didn’t know Sean liked anything more than books,” I say.
“Well, he obviously liked Teagan. A lot,” Garrett laughs. “They dated about four months, but they knew each other before that. Well, as good as you can know somebody on the internet, when they live a continent away. She’s Vietnamese.”
Recalling how Teagan’s face looked so out of place among the rest of the second Cura that hung over the balcony ledge, I screw up my face when I ask him, “You sure about that?”
“Yeah. Her mom, Lorie, was transferred to the 2 Cura because she’d gotten pregnant with Teagan at sixteen.”
“I thought that wasn’t, uh, done.”
“No, but it does happen every once in a while,” Garrett says. “I guess Teagan’s biological father was a Contego from Lorie’s Cura, but he denied that he was the one who got Lorie pregnant, because his parents couldn’t stand Lorie. The story I got was that everyone knew he was the father and he was finally going take responsibility, when he died in a motorcycle accident. Lorie’s parents felt ostracized by the scandal, so they packed their daughter off to another Cura. Lorie met Dai there, and they ended up together.”
“But I thought we can only marry once.”
“You’ve been paying attention, Rebel,” Garrett teases me with a squeeze that blasts sparks through my veins. “It’s true. When we Impression, it changes a lot more than just your nerve system. You can only bind and marry once, and that person is the only one you can have children with. The binding rule comes from our community, but the conception part comes from how our bodies change when we are Impressioned. Like in Lorie’s case, if you conceive a child with someone, the two of you can’t have kids with anyone else. You can have sex with other partners, but neither of you will be able to conceive.”
I blush with him talking about sex and partners and conceiving. He sounds so comfortable saying all of it, but my entire face feels cherry bombed. Only one word is playing on automatic repeat in my head: Sex. Sex. Sex. And my face gets hotter each time I think it, like I’m strung up by my toes and hanging right over barbeque flames. Sex. Sex. Sex. I can feel every inch of Garrett’s body against mine. Sex. Sex. Sex. My cheeks are boiling and prickly and they could explode at any second. And I still can’t stop thinking it. Sex. Sex. Sex.
But Garrett just keeps talking. “The weird thing is that Dai and Lorie were never even bound. They could have, but they just stayed together and Dai raised Teagan as his own.”
There’s a weird pause, and I’m probably supposed to ask something or be interested in Teagan’s story more than sex sex sex. I rub my forehead, shielding my face from Garrett, and manage to ask a question.
“Where’s her mom?”
“Lorie died a few years ago. Brain aneurysm. Sean and Teagan met because Teagan was in Canada for her mom’s Wake. We happened to be visiting
family friends that lived in Lorie’s home town. Even though Lorie’s Memory ceremony had been done in Vietnam, Teagan had flown in, to meet her relatives on her mother’s side for the first time.
“Sean ran into her at a store. They literally bumped into each other and started talking. They kept in touch over the internet and Teagan even came to town to visit him for a few months last year. It seemed like everything was going good for them, but they ended up breaking up right before she went home. I still can’t believe she didn’t tell him she was pregnant. Would you ever do something like that?”
Cherry bomb. My brain runs right off track: Sex with Garrett, a baby with Garrett, pregnant with Garrett.
“No,” I say, rubbing my forehead with a visor-hand again. “At least he knows now. He’s a dad and you’re an uncle.”
“I am,” he says with a grin. “That’s wild. My mom’s going to kill Sean though.”
“She’s too busy with Brandon for now.”
“He’ll come around soon. That blast we gave him was nuclear. Your energy mixed with mine is like nitro. I could actually feel him healing right under my hands.”
“That’s amazing,” I giggle, relieved that we’re not talking about sex anymore and that my face is starting to return to normal. I am such a loser.
“Maybe my mom will go easier on him once she sees her granddaughter. Good thing the baby is cute,” Garrett says.
“She’s cute?” I can talk about how cute a baby is all day long.
“Unbelievably.”
“I can’t wait to see her,” I say as Garrett slides his hands down the sides of my ribs. The warmth that ricochets between the skin of my ribs and his palms, even though my shirt is layered in between, seems like it could heat the entire hotel. As long as we don’t talk about it, I’ll be okay. He continues down my body until he catches my hands and intertwines our fingers.
“Hard to say when that’ll happen,” he says, his voice deep. “Sean and Teagan just bound. Since they already had a baby, who knows…they might not come out at all until the week is up.”
“What happens,” I begin carefully, but my face has already gone to tomato soup. I can’t finish. I look down at Garrett’s chest and feel the rumble of his chuckle. One hand untangles from mine and appears under my chin, lifting my eyes to his.
“During binding? This,” he says, and he kisses me. It’s a slow, warm kiss that starts at my lips and seeps into my blood stream, speeding up my pulse, until I swear I can feel my own heartbeat throbbing against his lips. I move closer, pressing my body to his. I can feel the strength of his legs, the hard wall of his chest, the tensed muscles in his arms. His mouth moves against mine like a language. It’s crazy and lovely, how I can’t breathe, and I can almost believe, with my eyes closed, that gravity has finally given in and let us float.
Until someone hammers on the sliding glass door behind Garrett.
It’s Zane.
Of course.
Garrett reaches back, keeping me close, as he flips the latch. Zane bounces in with a grin.
“Interruptions are my strong point,” he says. “Figured I’d come find out about Brando, and good thing I did from the looks of it. I know being together amps up your energy, but let’s keep it to one surprise baby at a time, alright?”
I don’t think the blood vessels in my face can take any more of this today.
“Annnd…you’re not funny at all,” Robin says as she slips through the door behind Zane.
“Her training as an Emen is really working,” Zane laughs. Then to Robin, “I didn’t even see you coming.”
She shoves Zane out of her way with her shoulder.
“I wanted to hear about Brandon, but now we have to wait. Whatever you don’t want The Fury to know, you better zip it up now. Deeta’s dragging Milo this way.”
“Great,” Zane says, just as Zaneen appears at the doorway.
“I am great, thanks for saying,” she tells him, stepping inside. Zane farts.
“Actually, that was what I meant to say,” he tells his twin.
“It’s a good thing you were born a girl, or I’d beat you down,” Zaneen says. Zane’s about to fire off a reply as Deeta taps on the door.
“Yuck. Who farted?” she says. Milo’s right behind her. I notice how she reaches back and grabs his hand, and even though it startles him, he lets her. I also notice how Zaneen notices and how Robin notices both Deeta’s hand and how Zaneen’s noticing and how Milo’s eyes flick to me, and most of all, how Garrett’s hold around my waist pulls me a little tighter to his side. It’s an overload of noticing—too many chess pieces being played all at once.
“Hey Milo,” Garrett says tightly, “I guess I’m supposed to be staying with you, since Sean’s new family took over my room. You okay with that?”
“Sure,” Milo’s answer is just as tight. “If that’s what you’d like.”
Of course Garrett doesn’t answer that. He wouldn’t like, but that’s where Addo wants him, so that’s where he’s going to go. I’m a little surprised that Addo didn’t send him over to Zane and Robin’s couch instead, but maybe it’s because Zane and Robin are married. And it makes sense that Addo would want Garrett to keep a close eye on Milo.
“So. Teagan…” Robin says after a few more awkward seconds, but then she lets her conversation-starter evaporate into the silence. Garrett rubs his upper lip and I feel like I should say something, but have no idea what.
“I was hoping she was gone forever,” Zaneen grumbles. Milo gives her a sympathetic smile and Zaneen’s eyelids flutter a little lower. I can’t tell if it’s supposed to be a glare or if she’s flirting, because no matter what Zaneen does, she always looks like she’s flirting.
“Oh, she’s not that bad,” Deeta says. Milo frees his hand from Deeta’s by pulling out a chair for her, but he remains standing. Then, after a couple seconds, he drifts away, leaning on the wall beside the door as if ten feet away from Deeta is the only place to lean in the room. Deeta doesn’t notice right off because she’s too busy defending Teagan. “I think you’re all still upset because they wanted to spend time alone last time she was here.”
“Time alone? She wouldn’t let him hang out at all,” Zaneen says.
“Only because they wanted to be together.” Deeta’s eyes seem especially blue and I think it is the romantic idea of spending time with someone that makes her sparkle as she talks. Zaneen, however, throws a loose hand over her eyes, exasperated.
“They would’ve been together with us. She could’ve come. She was invited.”
“But it was the first time they really got to see each other.”
Zane, spinning an empty salt shaker at the table, adds, “Oh, they definitely saw every inch of each other.”
Someone taps on the glass door and Milo turns to flip the latch for Carducci. Deeta notices for the first time that Milo’s not beside her and frowns. She gets out of her seat and moves over beside Milo, leaning on the wall next to him.
Carducci is a fridge of a guy with a head full of thick, wild curls and even though I’ve only seen him once, he’s not a guy anybody could forget. I remember his newly-wed wife, Sasu, even more, because Zane called her a troll and I thought he was being mean until I met her. Sasu was a tiny girl and her little face looked exactly like one of those little troll dolls with the stand-up hair. But as Carducci ducks to come in through the sliding door, his wife isn’t with him.
“How’s it going,” he grumbles in way of a greeting. His eyes flash over the room quickly. “Sasu’s not here?”
“Nope,” Robin says. Carducci groans.
“I’ve been chasing her all over the place. She thinks this is some big family reunion.”
“I hope she’s not out there telling everybody our business,” Robin says. “But since Sasu’s never been a big blabbermouth, I would guess she’s probably just running away from you. I can’t blame her either. You guys Bound months ago. At some point, you gotta let the dang honeymoon be over and give the girl a break.�
�
“Thank you, Mama Robin,” Carducci grumbles.
“It kind of is a family reunion,” Deeta giggles, twisting her hair around a finger. But her bubbliness fades a little when she glances behind her and realizes Milo’s not there. He closed the door for Carducci and ended up on that wall, closer to Zaneen. Deeta’s eyes flit to him, still leaning at a distance, and then to Zaneen. Deeta’s grin struggles a little. “We get to meet everyone from all the different Curas and we are all family, in a way.”
Robin pauses from dragging her fingers through the ends of her hair. “No, Deets. We’re not.”
“Well, we’re all on the same team.”
“We can’t assume that.”
“The Totus was fine. Nobody did anything.” Deeta grumbles.
“It’s a good point,” Zane says and Robin shoots him a glare that could melt metal. “I’m just saying, babe, there weren’t any warning signs.”
“Frangere,” Robin says without even glancing at Milo. “And where is your Cura these days?”
Milo frowns, but says nothing. Garrett clears his throat.
“I guess I need to be Sean’s usual voice of reason, since he’s not here,” he says. “Sooner or later, we’re going to have to band together, if we want to make it through this Cusp.”
“Well, all I know is that I’ll do what I’m supposed to do,” Carducci says. He reaches back and slides open the door to the courtyard. “And tell my wife I’m looking for her, if you see her, would ya?”
***
With Milo in the room, I can tell that there’s not going to be anything but small talk. And from Robin, no talk at all. She goes back to inspecting the tips of her hair.
“So,” Zane starts. “How’s Brando?”
Robin clears her throat, but Garrett answers anyway.
“It looks like he’s got a broken elbow, wrist, and knee, and he had cuts and bruises all over, but I think we got it under control. It’s just going to take him a little bit to get back on his feet.”
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