Author's note: Thank you so much for reading! And thank you for taking the time to review and tell me you love this. I really love writing it, so seeing how many of you are enjoying it makes it that much sweeter! And thank you for the love over on Tumblr. If you'd like, check out booksrockmyface for updates and see random snippets because sometimes I post them in the middle of writing when I know I won't be publishing for a while. I also sometimes put up random thoughts I get while in the middle of writing.

One reader asked about another one shot of them in the future with their kids (if you haven't read those, then I suggest you do). I'll probably write more on those when this is done. Especially something that would lead up to what we see with Jill and Eddie in Build Your World Around Me. This (probably) only has a few more chapters. Like about five.

Happy reading!

Chapter Twenty-Eight

"I'm going to miss you." I sighed as Adrian and I undressed each other.

"I'll only be gone a few days."

"Why can't she come here for a weekend? I want to show off the house."

He kissed me. "Because her mother's not ready for that. She's going to be graduating soon."

I spread my hands out on his bare chest. "I don't like it when you go to Court. You come back a different person for a few days."

He placed his hands on the sides of my face. "If you get too nervous being here alone, go to your parents' house. You're dad's gone for a while to God knows where and you won't have to deal with his shit."

"It's not so much that I'm nervous. It's just that I want you here with me."

He pulled me down onto the bed. "It'll just be a couple days. I'll come back as much the same as possible."

I sighed and pressed a kiss to his mouth. "I love you."

"I love you, too." He slipped his hand down my back. "We only have a little over an hour."

"So we need to take advantage of it." I kissed him again and then started moving my mouth across his jaw and down his neck. I sucked hard where his neck met his shoulder.

He groaned and tightened his arms around me. He sighed my name.

I wrapped my hand around his growing erection and started slowly moving it over him. I kissed across his shoulder and then back. I nibbled at his skin.

He was a little more vocal this time than he had been in the past. He said my name like a prayer. I kissed my way back up his body. I felt the tightening of all his muscles under my mouth.

He rolled me onto my back and thrust into my hand until he met his release. The warmth spilled onto my stomach. He kissed me over and over, murmuring against my lips how much he loved me.

My arms wrapped around him, pulling him on top of me. We kissed lazily for a long time.

He lifted his head and looked down at me. "Can I try something new? Would you be up for that?"

"What is it?"

He kissed me again. "Will you trust me?"

"Yes." I was confused about what he wanted to try. I went through my limited knowledge as he moved his mouth down my body.

I watched him as he gently kissed my hip. When he draped my legs over his shoulders, I finally got it.

Adrian smiled up at me. "Tell me to stop if you don't like it."

I nodded. I could feel myself growing ready for him. I ached. "Please."

He pressed his mouth into me and I gasped at the new sensation of his tongue flicking out over me. It was such a different feeling than his fingers. He pressed his mouth more into me and I felt his fangs brushing against me.

I put my hands over my face, embarrassed by the way I felt at the feeling of those teeth. "Oh, my god." I whined.

He moved his mouth away.

"No, don't stop yet." I grabbed the back of his head and pulled him back. I tangled my fingers in his hair.

I felt him chuckle into me as he continued.

The tension had reached its peak. This was familiar. I could feel the rope wanting to break free. I moaned and relaxed into the feelings my body was accustomed to. I had the sensation of falling and I let out a loud groan that ended in a whine. And then I was panting into the mattress. "Oh." I sighed.

He kissed his way back up my body and then pressed his mouth to mine. He stretched out beside me and I felt his hands moving lazily over my body. I stared at the ceiling, trying to come back to myself.

"Are you okay?" He asked softly.

"I think so." I turned my head. "That was something else entirely."

He laughed and kissed my shoulder. "I really do hate leaving you."

"It's something we need to get used to. Jill isn't leaving Court, especially not any time soon. And you and I are pretty well stuck here. We own a house."

"If you would give up your job, we could have a second house near Court and spend time both places."

"I like my job. You've just paid through the nose to buy this house. And we've got our wedding to think about. One of us should have a more steady income. I know you love your painting, but you haven't taken any commissions in a while."

"I'm working on one. My own. That painting of you. No one else matters right now." He kissed me. "Let's shower."

I followed him into the bathroom. I watched for a few moments as he turned on the water and then stepped inside. He picked up the soap and started washing himself. He smirked and watched me watch him.

I stepped in and reached to take the soap from him.

He jerked away playfully. "Let me."

I sighed, "I'm not helpless."

"I know you're not. But I really like your body. Let me touch you. It's the last time I'll get to do it for a few days."

I stepped closer and slipped my hands over the slick lines of his body. He washed me as I reminded myself of what his skin and the muscles underneath felt like under my hands in a completely nonsexual way.

His skin was smooth. There were no blemishes, unlike my own. His torso was covered in a thin layer of dark hair that thickened below his navel. He was slim in the way all Moroi are. I looked up and noticed flecks of paint in his hair.

I pushed him under the spray and wet his hair. I washed away the paint as he simply held me. "So I don't get to see it at all?" I asked as the last of the soap washed away.

"If you want to go take a look while I'm gone, you can. But it's not very good right now." He kissed me. "But I really wish you'd wait."

"We both have a lot of waiting then." I commented wryly as I rinsed my own hair.

He rested his hands on my hips. "That's for sure."

I pulled him down for a kiss. "I need to get you to the airport, sweetheart."

He groaned and rested his forehead against mine.

"Yeah, I know."

"Just a few days. Let's keep telling ourselves that."

"Okay." I brushed my lips across his and then stepped out of the shower.

I felt him hungrily watching me as I dried off. He stepped out and wrapped his arms around me. "Why is this so hard? I've done this before."

"Because our relationship is different now. A lot has changed. In a year or so, you're going to be chomping at the bit to take a break from me and go see your best friend. But now…" I caressed his cheek. "I'll miss you. But you'll be back soon enough."

He stepped away and wrapped a towel around his waist. "I will be."

I put my stings away in my apartment before I made my way to see Jill. She met me at her front door. She wrapped her arms around me and rested her head on my shoulder. I took away the darkness. It wasn't as horrible as it had been in the past. Life was so much better now for both of us. And we both knew how to manage the stresses of being bonded.

When I pulled away, Jill was smiling. "Thank you. Lissa wants to see us."

"Of course she does. I can't even take a few minutes to catch up with you."

"We can a little on the way." She called over her shoulder. "Hey, Eddie?"

The guardian walked into the front hall. He held out his hand for me to shake.

"Hey, how's it going?"

"Pretty good. I was charged with escorting you both to the palace." He explained.

"Lucky you." I teased.

Jill slipped her hand into his. "More like lucky me. He's always working."

"That's right, you started helping out at the school, didn't you?" I asked. We headed out.

"Yeah. I still have to take my turn with other duties." He was vigilant during the walk. His eyes were constantly moving. He kept his hand in Jill's.

"Is that what you want to do, though?"

"I don't know. Maybe. It's nice to help the next generation of guardians." He smiled a moment at his girlfriend. "And I'm still in charge of keeping her safe, so I get to go out whenever she does."

"That's good."

We made it to the palace and were escorted inside. I bowed low to Lissa. "Good evening, your majesty."

She smiled. "Hello, Adrian."

We exchanged the necessary pleasantries. I asked about her children and her husband. All were well.

"I understand that you bought a house." She said when we were done with the niceties.

I chuckled and took a seat across from her. "I did. We did. My beautiful fiancée and I are now living together."

"Congratulations. Jill says it's pretty nice."

I looked sideways at my friend. "So you've been spying?"

She giggled. "I do it sometimes."

I shook my head. "It's very nice. We're very excited. And moving forward with the wedding plans."

"Did you bring the invitations?" Jill asked.

I draped my arm over the back of the couch. "I did. I know you wanted to see the options. Give your opinion. Be a complete girl about it."

"I want to see too." Rose said from the corner of the room.

"For someone who pretty much refuses to ever be married, you sure do like to get in the middle of other people's plans." Jill pointed out.

"I just don't need to be married to Dimitri. We know what our relationship is." She sat down. "So?"

"They're in my bag, which is already in my apartment."

"Then let's take a field trip." Rose suggested. "Lissa hasn't left the palace today and I think she needs to get out among her people more often. Mostly so that I can leave."

"You can leave whenever you want. I need to be near Chris."

She sighed. "You need more Lissa time. Your life has become about your people and your kids. And you need it to be just a tiny bit about you every once in a while. And you know you're curious."

She smiled. "You're right. And going out for an hour wouldn't be so bad." She looked to me. "As long as it's okay with you."

I shrugged. I really would prefer to go to my apartment alone and go to bed, but I was visiting a world with the complete opposite schedule. And Lissa and Rose were my friends and I valued their opinion almost as much as I did Jill's. And then of course there was Eddie who would probably give me the guy opinion that I needed.

We were stopped several times as people walking through the streets stopped to shake Lissa's hand or berate her for something that they didn't agree with. She welcomed both. She wanted people to know that they could come to her with their problems and she would help work on a compromise.

Once inside my apartment, I retrieved the invitations from my bag in my bedroom. Being in this apartment after almost a month of living in our house was weird. I felt cramped. I sent Sydney a text mentioning it.

"This house is so much bigger when I'm alone." She replied.

I put down a couple of invitations on the coffee table in front of everyone. They were simple. One was a cream and had traditional scrolling, loopy script. The other was more of a true white and had slightly fewer loops.

Rose picked them each up and felt of them. "I like the way this one feels." She said of the brighter one. "But I don't like the type."

"I don't know." Jill said. "Overall, this one has a very clean look."

"Clean?" I asked.

"Yeah." She held it out. "You know, like it's pure white. The type has no frills. I like it." She picked up the other one. "I love this one, though. The color is just right. And it's a nice mixture of the classic and the modern. Like Sydney's dress and your tux."

"You keep finding ways to tease me with that dress." I took the invitation from her. "We were kind of leaning toward this one."

Lissa held out her hand to me and examined the card. "I like it." She said after a while. "Mine had to be so fancy. It's nice to see something so pared down."

"And what does the other man in the room say?" Jill asked, grinning across the room at her guardian.

"They're both pretty." He said, taking them both as they passed them to him. "I guess the writing is better on this one."

"The cream one?" I asked.

"I don't see the difference in the whites."

Rose snorted. "Of course not." She snatched them up and held them against the wall. "This one looks brighter." She pointed. "You see?"

He shook his head. "Not really."

Jill grumbled. "Remind me to leave you out of this debate when our time comes."

He turned red. "That's not a done deal yet."

Rose laughed at her friend. "This is one of the many reasons I don't want to have to go through this. Dimitri's almost as hopeless as you."

I sent a text to Sydney as we continued to talk. "They agree with us."

"Good. We'll order them."

"I miss you."

"I miss you, too. This bed is huge without you here."

"I'll be home soon, honey."

Jill asked, "Everything okay?"

"Yeah. I think Sydney's a little nervous being alone in the house. She won't come right out and say it, though."

"Have you considered warding your new house?" Lissa asked.

"The thought crossed my mind, but I don't know how my fiancée would feel about that."

"I think it would be smart. You never know what you could encounter."

"I can say something if you want me to." Jill said. "Because I'd feel better about you both if there were wards up."

I looked down at my phone. "Not soon enough." Her reply read.

"I'll talk to her when I get back. Now that you guys have said something about it, I'm worried about her safety without me there."

"She can take care of herself." Jill said. "She has a talent for it."

I nodded. We never really told anyone about her magical ability, but I suspected they knew. We sometimes spoke of it vaguely when it came up around others. Mostly we kept it secret. Even all this time later, she was uncomfortable with what she could do. And she didn't like relying on that when there were other things she could do.

Thankfully, everyone left a short time later. Except for Jill. She always seemed to linger when I came to visit. The spare bedroom was her bedroom. I suspected she sometimes snuck in when she and her mom were at odds. I never asked because I felt she would stop out of embarrassment. I wanted her to always feel welcome.

She put her feet up in the coffee table and started flipping through the channels. "Can we have some popcorn?"

"Sure." I stood and stretched. A yawn escaped me. "I might go to bed soon." I put a bag of popcorn in the microwave.

She turned and stared over the back of the couch. "It's okay if I stay, isn't it?"

"As long as your mom doesn't care, Jailbait. Mi casa es su casa." I kissed the top of her head.

"I never really liked that nickname." She smiled, "But I guess since I can see your every thought, you get a pass."

I laughed. "Not my every thought. I put some away."

She grinned. "I know how to break through your defenses."

"There's not a lot I want to keep from you, actually. You being able to see helps me confide in you. I never did that before."

"I know." She gave me a sweet smile. "Can you maybe put aside the big brother attitude for a bit so I can talk to you about Eddie? Sydney said I could talk to her, but I don't ever have a lot of privacy to make a phone call."

"Of course." I poured our popcorn into a bowl and sat down beside her. "Okay, gush." I relaxed against the couch as she started talking about the man she was falling in love with.