IR Ever After Part 6

Riley looks down at Ingrid to find her glowing even brighter, as though this has turbocharged her. Riley swallows and turns, getting Ingrid through the door without bumping into anything.

“OK,” she gasps. “That’s it, right?” Before she can go on, she sees the fiery, adoring way that Ingrid gazes up at her. OK. The pain is considerable. Riley’s arms burn and something is wrong with her back, but Ingrid looks too happy. She has to take her all the way to the bed.

It’s an Olympic effort, but Riley gets Ingrid over there and manages to set her down gently instead of dumping her. That’s the best she can do. She’s mad that the honeymoon suite is so big; that took a lot of steps.

“Oh god.” Riley sits gingerly, then lies back with a sigh. “OK. I’m OK. Love you, baby.” She gazes at the ceiling, feeling all these little twitches from the small of her back. She takes slow breaths.

Ingrid peers down at her, cheeks pink. She wears the expression of a girl looking into a freshly opened box of fine chocolates. Ingrid swoops in and kisses Riley, pressing hard. That goes on for a moment, and then Ingrid does her silent telepathy thing. Her English isn’t bad, but she hates using it almost as much as Riley hates trying to speak Swedish. Consequently, they each do a lot of communicating with their eyes and facial expressions.

Ingrid excitedly tells Riley to keep still and rest.

Riley looks at the ceiling, listening to Ingrid bringing the bags in and closing the door before vanishing into the bathroom. A fan hums in there, but it’s quiet. The room is lovely, although Riley’s become a bit desensitized to nice hotel rooms. The view of the night skyline is beautiful. She’s not paying attention to any of that. She dozes off within a minute. It’s been a long day.

She wakes up to find Ingrid on the bed, seated next to her, leaning over to watch her sleep. Her hair tickles Riley’s face. This has happened once or twice before, so Riley’s able to stop herself from yelling in surprise or sitting bolt upright and bashing their skulls together, two things that have happened several times in the past. The view helps her freeze. Ingrid has put on a sheer babydoll over what looks like serious lingerie.

“Hi,” Riley says. “You look beautiful.”

Ingrid looks pleased. A little hesitantly, she plucks at Riley’s hoodie. Then gets a better grip, as though to take it off. While there’s so much that Riley doesn’t understand about Ingrid, Ingrid seems to know exactly who she married. She knows that it doesn’t take much to get Riley going, and she’s turned it up to eleven with this look. The negligee is low cut, and that generous, creamy cleavage alone is enough to drive Riley wild. Ingrid knows it.

“Nope,” Riley says tiredly, grabbing Ingrid’s wrist to stop her. “Nope. Nope.”

Ingrid looks taken aback and alarmed.

Riley sighs. She’s so tired. But there’s no way that this isn’t happening.

She smiles up at Ingrid.

“I brought cute undies too,” she says. “Let me put them on.”