Page 53 of Stolen

I flung my arms around his neck and spoke in his ear. “You don’t get to tell me how I feel,” I said, softening my words by stroking his nape. “You told me once that I could never lie to you. Remember? Use those superior warrior’s senses now and know I’m telling the truth. You didn’t hurt me, Varick of Lar Keiren, and you didn’t take anything I wasn’t willing to give. You saved my life. You don’t owe me an apology. I owe you my gratitude.”

He made a choked, negative sound. “You owe me nothing. You saved both of us.”

“Then we’re even,” I whispered, placing a soft kiss under his ear.

Slowly, strong arms came around me. He hesitated, and then he squeezed me against him. He buried his face in my neck and wept. We held each other, our hearts beating fiercely between us. His big body shook with sobs so wrenching they tore at my soul. Tears filled my eyes, and I let them go, weeping with him as we stood in the quiet hut with the crackle of the fire behind us.

And when he quieted at last, I took a risk and spoke again, my voice pitched as low as I could make it. “You are a worthy male,” I said, knowing how significant the words were to a vampire from the warrior class. “The worthiest I have ever known. What happened to you on that beach doesn’t make you any less of a warrior. Quite the opposite. It wasn’t your fault, Varick, and it does not diminish you.”

He moved a hand to the back of my head. I let him hold me that way, my cheek pressed to his heart. He rested his chin on the top of my head. After a minute, his big chest expanded under me in a deep sigh.

“I love you,” he said in my head, and I stopped breathing. “You don’t have to say it back. But I wanted you to know.”

I lifted my head. “I love you, too.” I touched his cheek, and he captured my hand and pressed it against his beard. I wasn’t sure when it had happened, my falling in love with him. Maybe when he’d begged Midian to hurt him instead of me. Maybe when he’d held my hands in the Middling and told me he trusted me. But I didn’t need to know the precise moment. And anyway, maybe there wasn’t one. We’d gone through a trial by fire together and emerged as tempered steel. I knew the tragic past that had shaped Varick. Despite all the damage done to it, his heart was pure.

And he’d just offered it to me.

Yes, I loved him. How could I not?

“We’ll start over,” he said, “you and I.”

I nodded and spoke through a throat choked with tears. “I’d like that.”

Chapter Nineteen

VARICK

I helped Given wash her hair.

“There’s a lot of it,” I grunted. No wonder ladies needed help with this sort of thing. I was all thumbs trying to rinse soap from the tangled mass. “Let me know if I’m hurting you.”

“You’re not.” She sat patiently while I tugged and rinsed and did my best to separate the tangles. I’d searched the hut for a comb and came up empty-handed. Considering the place was probably used for hunting, it didn’t surprise me. After a minute, I sat back on my heels. “I think I got all the soap out.”

She offered me a shy smile over one bare, damp shoulder. “Thank you. I can take it from here.”

I stood and promptly smashed my head against the ceiling. “Fuck,” I muttered, ducking and going to the hearth. Sitting on the bed was out of the question, since it would give her zero privacy. She didn’t want me to leave her, so I stood facing the fire with a hand braced on the hot stones. Behind me came the sounds of splashing as she finished her bath.

Eventually, we needed to talk about what happened when we left this place. But I was reluctant to speak of it just now, and I knew she felt the same. We were both too raw, our newfound safety too fragile.

And she needed more rest. The blood and meat had done her good, but there were still shadows under her eyes. Snow had fallen steadily for the past few hours, and we had no horses. I couldn’t march her through the drifts without at least another day of rest.

Eventually, I noticed the splashing behind me had stopped. I turned just enough to catch her eye, and I kept my gaze firmly on her face. “All done?”

“Yes.”

I went to the cabinet. “There are no towels, but I found another sheet.” I snapped it out and held it up. The tub was tiny, and I’d seen every bit of her while I washed her hair, but I was still stunned anew as she stood. Water ran down her perfect breasts and flat stomach. Bare, creamy skin glistened in the firelight. She was so fucking beautiful, and I’d been hard as a rock since I knelt behind her and watched her tits bob in the water. A water droplet clung to one pink nipple, and I realized I stood with the towel spread in my arms and my gaze riveted on the dainty, puckered point. As I stared, it tightened further.

I lifted my head and found her watching me, her cheeks flushed and her eyes darkened to midnight blue. Unmistakable lust gleamed there. Her lips parted, and the tips of her fangs peeked out.

Just like that, it was over. I reached for her, and she reached for me, and suddenly I had an armful of warm, wet female. The sheet fluttered to the floor and water sloshed everywhere as I picked her up and carried her to the bed. She clutched at my shoulders as I lay her down, my lips finding hers.

The connection between us flared instantly—that sizzling arc of recognition that had drawn us to each other from the start firing to life. As we kissed, it crackled over my tongue and forked a white-hot path down to my dick. It was still dangerous, but I didn’t care anymore. We needed to be dangerous if we had any hope of fighting what we’d left behind in Eldenvalla.

I moaned into her mouth and settled my hips firmly between hers. When she opened under me, I growled, hooked an arm under her knee, and shoved her leg up. I thrust against her center, but it wasn’t enough. I wanted her hot, bare pussy wrapped around my cock.

She was just as unsatisfied, her fingers pulling at my hair as she wrapped her other leg around my waist and trapped me against her. She rolled her hips, grinding wantonly over the fabric that covered my straining bulge. Her kiss was as wild as the rest of her. She held nothing back, biting at my bottom lip and thrusting her tongue greedily against mine.

I let her have her way for a moment, and then I jerked my head from her hands and pinned her wrists to the pillow on either side of her head. “I’m in charge,” I rasped.

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