Page 82 of Ties of Dust

Flora let her eyes drift closed again, assessing her own strength. The constant, nagging pain aside, she was enormously improved compared to when she’d collapsed against Cassius. Sleep had worked wonders.

“Have you slept?” she asked him.

“I’m not sure.” His deep voice created vibrations in his chest, against which one of Flora’s palms seemed to be pressed flat. His jacket had ripped open at the front, and his tunic underneath it was in ruffled disorder. “I don’t know if I can discern actual dreams from this living nightmare.”

Startled, Flora raised her eyes to him at last. There was a small window high above, and a shaft of silvery moonlight slanted through it, crossing Cassius’s face. She drew in a sharp breath. She’d never seen such a haunted look on anyone. It cut her to the heart.

“Are you all right?”

“Me?” Cassius spoke in disbelief.

“Yes, you.” Flora straightened a little, her hand creeping up from his chest of its own accord, until it rested against his throat. “Are you in a great deal of pain?”

His eyes blazed with anger, but it didn’t seem to be directed at her.

“You know how much pain I’m in,” he said, his voice choked. “It’s half of what you’re feeling, and I deserve no sympathy.”

“Cassius…”

He cut her off. “No, I’m not all right. I’m despicable. I deserve everything I’m feeling. I will never forgive myself for what I’ve put you through.”

“Cassius, don’t speak that way,” she said, distressed. She sat up, half turning in his lap to face him, both hands flat against his jaw now. “You are not to blame for any of this. Be angry, but direct your anger to the traitors who’ve put us here. Not to yourself.”

“Perhaps they would have succeeded without my contribution,” Cassius said bitterly. “But we’ll never know, because my pride made our capture the easiest task imaginable. And my inability to control my reactions where you’re concerned put you squarely in the target. Sir Keavling knew he could use you to get to me, and you’re the one who paid the price.”

“You paid the price as well,” Flora reminded him, running two fingers over a bruise that spread over his cheekbone. “Don’t add guilt to what you’re already suffering. Sir Keavling is the one who deserves your anger.”

“There’s plenty to go around,” Cassius reassured her. His arms tightened, and she didn’t resist as he pressed her—gently but firmly—against him. “I’m angry at you as well, you know.”

“Me?” She pulled back enough to raise her face and search his eyes. They looked anguished, not angry. “I know I was a fool to let myself be so easily taken back at the castle…”

“No.” The word was forcefully said. “You can’t think I’d blame you for that. I’m angry with you for what you said before.”

She stared at him, confused but also fascinated by the passion rising in his voice.

“I’m angry with you for the sacrilege of saying that how I feel about you is some trick of the tether. How could you think that, Flora? How could you think this isn’t real?”

“Cassius, I…” She trailed off, her mouth suddenly dry.

“It’s the most real thing I’ve ever experienced.” One of his hands had moved up her back all the way to her head, his palm warm against her scalp as his fingers splayed through her hair. “Youare the most real thing in the world. Do you think I don’t know my own mind?” His voice was thick with passion. “It’s madness to suggest that the tether made me fall in love with you. You did that, Flora. You. There’s nothing and no one in my heart but you.”

In…love?

For a heartbeat, the words hung in the air between them, their eyes locked in the darkness. Then Flora raised an unsteady hand, tracing the lines of his face with her fingertips.

“You’ve invaded every corner of my heart.”

Her whisper fell into the charged silence. Abruptly, Cassius seized her fingers with his free hand, interrupting their exploration of his face to press his lips to them with a tenderness bordering on reverence. She raised her face in an invitation, and he drew her head gently closer. When his lips touched hers, every ache, every fear, every memory of the terrible ordeal they’d just suffered fled before the glorious feel of him.

Flora twisted her free hand through the fabric of his tunic, clinging on desperately as she returned his kiss.Cassius was right—the tether couldn’t manufacture what had happened to her heart. She’d never dreamed she could let anyone in as far as she’d let Cassius in, and yet she didn’t feel vulnerable. In fact, his touch, his kiss, his arms enfolding her, made her feel complete.

The embrace was no quick peck—neither was in a hurry to draw back. But even so, Cassius kissed her gently, carefully, his hand cradling her head with such sensitivity that she knew he couldn’t forget what she’d suffered, even in the midst of this moment. A moment they’d both craved, but Flora had never let herself believe would come.

…made me fall in love with you…

The words danced blissfully across Flora’s memory as her lips moved against Cassius’s. His hold might be gentle, but he wasn’t tentative. He held her with the same confidence with which he did everything. She was his, and if he hadn’t known it before she kissed him back, he could have no doubt of it now.

And somehow, against every expectation, he was hers as well.

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