When Constellations Form (Light in the Dark 4)

“Xander!” She squirms in my arms before I toss her on the bed. I jump over her and kiss her, silencing her giggles.

She places her hands on my shoulders and tries to push me away. “That wasn’t nice.”

I grin. “You fucking love it and you know it.”

She smiles back and stops pushing on my shoulders, instead pulling me closer. She brushes her nose against mine. “You think you know me, huh?”

I nod, my hair brushing her forehead. “Oh, I know you.”

“What’s my favorite color?”

I snort. “Thea, I’m pretty sure all the lemurs in the world know your favorite color. It’s pink.”

She laughs, squirming beneath me. “What the hell? Why lemurs?”

I shrug. “It was the first thing that popped in my head.”

I have no real good defense. I know it was random. But that’s us.

I sit up and look around the room. All the furniture is in place, but boxes with our clothes and stuff litter the space, and I’m sure the whole house. Our bed is made, though, and I can’t thank Nova enough for doing that. I sure as hell know it wasn’t Jace. He doesn’t make his own bed.

But this is nice, especially since we’re both exhausted from the trip. Even now I can tell Thea is fighting not to fall back to sleep. I lean over and kiss her forehead.

“I’ll go bring our stuff in. You get a shower or go to bed, whatever you want.”

She nods, and

that’s how I know she really is exhausted. Normally Thea would insist on helping me, and I would then insist that she didn’t.

I hop off the bed and jog down the steps and out the front door—which we stupidly left wide open. I close it and lock up and choose to come in through the garage this time.

I set our bags inside the mudroom and shut the garage door. It whirs as it goes down.

The kitchen counters are covered in boxes and more boxes sit on the floor. I know it’s going to take forever to put all this stuff away and I’m not looking forward to it.

I carry our suitcases to the laundry room and set them inside. I would start our clothes to wash, but Thea is very particular about her clothes and prefers to do it herself.

I head upstairs and laugh when I enter the room. Thea’s already passed out asleep, her arms and legs stretched out across the bed, hogging the whole damn thing.

I shake my head. As much as I want to shower, a nap sounds pretty good right about now.

I move Thea so she’s lying with her head on a pillow, and then I cover her with the blanket that was draped across the bottom of the bed. I pull my phone from my pocket and send a text to Jace—letting him know we’re in, and asking if it’s not too much trouble if they can bring Prue home in the morning. He texts back almost immediately and says it isn’t a problem.

I yawn, looking enviously at Thea as she sleeps. I strip off my shirt and pants, leaving me in my boxers, and climb beneath the sheets. Thea stirs in her sleep, seeking me. I smile, pleased that even in her sleep she wants me.

Her hair tickles my nose when she gets fixed against me, but I don’t mind. I like being close to her.

I know we have an endless list of things to do in order to get the house ready, but for now, it’s going to have to wait.

Thea

I sleep through the whole afternoon and night. Sunlight is just beginning to filter in through the open windows when I wake up. Xander sleeps peacefully beside me, his arms wrapped around me. Somehow, I’ve ended up against him with my leg thrown over top of his above the covers. I smile when I notice he covered me with the blanket—I’d kicked it off at some point, though.

I slip from the bed and stretch my arms above my head.

I need a shower. Desperately.

The problem is all our shit is in boxes.