Eventually, she heard someone come into her room.
"Aria?" she heard Lex yell.
Warmth rushed through her. It had only been a week, but she had missed him. Just hearing the sound of his voice made her smile.
"I'm in here!" she yelled, setting the book on the floor.
After a few minutes, he opened the door and leaned against the door frame.
"Hey," he said, smiling at her.
"Hey"
"Miss me?" he asked, smirking at her.
"Not really," she said, "It was kind of nice, actually. I had the whole bed to myself. You weren't there to hog the blanket."
"Ouch," he said, smiling at her as he took his clothes off. "Mind if I join?"
"Of course not."
She slid forward, giving him room to get in behind her. After he was in, she leaned back onto him while he brought his arms around her waist.
"I missed you," he said, placing his chin on her shoulder. "I have no idea why," he said as he slowly ran his hands up from her stomach to her chest. "Well, actually, I can think of a few reasons."
"Wow. Always so charming," she said, rolling her eyes but smiling all the same.
"I'm all about the fairytale," he said, placing a small kiss on her neck.
"I can tell," she said, turning her head to finally kiss him. "How was your trip?"
"Good," he said, leaning back into the tub. "Quite a few people are coming to help. Not just yet, though. They'll be here in about two weeks when the weather warms up a little."
"That's great, Lex."
"Yeah, it is."
She leaned back into him, and they spent a few minutes in comfortable silence, relishing in the presence of one another.
But then his hands slid a little further down, and the kisses on her neck became longer and wetter.
When she had enough of the teasing, she turned around and climbed into his lap. He kept a hand in her hair the way he'd learned she liked. She kissed his neck and moaned into his ear the way she knew drove him a little crazy.
Afterward, he lathered her hair with the soap that smelled like lavender. The one she knew was his favorite. When they were finally clean, they left the room in search of warm clothing.
"There's a meteor shower tonight," Aria said, putting one of his soft shirts on. "A few people are going out to watch it. Do you want to go?"
"Yeah," Lex said, "Sure."
"So," Aria began, turning to look for a pair of pants. "Some of the women have stopped taking that tea. You know the one to help prevent pregnancy," she said, finding it a little hard to look at him, "Since we've begun to build the new village and they've accepted that they're safe and staying here."
"Yeah?" he said from the other side of the room. She could feel his eyes on her.
"Should...I mean....you said you wanted kids, right?" she asked, finally turning to face him.
"I did. And I do. Do you?"
"Well, yeah."
He walked over and grabbed her hand, leading her to the couch they kept in their room.
He sat down and pulled her into his lap.
"So what are you saying?" he asked.
"Should I do it, too? Stop taking it?"
"It's your body, Aria. You can do with it what you want."
"Wow, thanks. Great advice. You really cleared that up," she said, rolling her eyes but smiling at him.
"What I mean is...of course I want kids," he said, placing his hands on her hips. "But we have our whole lives ahead of us. There's still so much we haven't done. So much we haven't talked about. There are so many things I don't know about you. I want to get to know you. So far, our marriage has mostly consisted of us being mad at one another. Or trying to fix the problems between our people. I want to do normal things with you while it's still just...just you and me."
"I want that, too. All of it," she said, smiling at him again. He made her smile when she was happy, when she was sad, when she was angry. He made her smile when she didn't want to. He made her smile when the dark parts of her mind took over and made her think about all the bad things she'd done.
"I mean, I don't even know your favorite color. I think I should know my wife's favorite color, don't you?"
"I do," she said.
"And? What is it?"
She thought about it for a few minutes before answering.
"Green"
"Why green?"
"It reminds me of the Earth. What's yours?"
He looked at her for a few minutes, thinking about his options.
"Brown," he said.
She blushed. "Why brown?"
"Oh my god, are you blushing? Don't flatter yourself," he said, shoving her off of him and onto the couch.
"What? No! How am I flattering myself?" she said, trying not to laugh.
"You're blushing. You think brown is my favorite color because of your eyes."
"No!" she laughed, "That's not what I was thinking!"
"Right," he said, rolling his eyes and poking her in the stomach.
She crawled back into his lap.
"Okay, but if it's not because of my eyes, why brown?"
"It reminds me of Autumn, I guess. It's my favorite season; it was my mother’s too."
She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned into him, breathing his scent in and feeling the warmth of his body.
"And your eyes."
She smiled, even though he couldn't see it.
Chapter 56
Eventually, they heard a knock on the door.
Aria got up to answer it. Grace and Mara stood on the other side and told her it was time to go.
She and Lex got ready and followed the two girls out of the palace.
Martinez, Brent, Peter, and Adrian waited for them outside.
"This will be so lame," Adrian said as they hiked into the woods. Grace had said they would be going to a good vantage point not far from the palace.
"Says the guy who had the idea to watch it from outside the palace," Martinez said.
They laughed and joked and picked on one another until they reached the
