Page 41 of Legacy of Thorns
But the warmth and security of his handhold kept her in place.
“Daphne,” he breathed again, his face sinking toward hers.
Her breath hitched as his nose hovered beside hers, his eyes dropping closed and his breathing turning rough and pained. Her hands leaped to his chest to push him away, but instead they lingered there, flat against his jacket.
“Daphne,” Fin repeated, almost a groan. “Tell me you don’t want this, and I’ll stop.”
She said nothing—could say nothing—and his mouth crashed down over hers. His hands captured her waist, pulling her flat against him, and she sank into the kiss.
They had been dancing around their attraction for so long that the heat of it nearly consumed them, flaring white hot, trying to melt them down and meld them together. But as Daphne felt her heart pull toward him, closing the emotional distance between them as he had closed the physical one, she pulled herself back.
Gasping, she wrenched herself from his arms. He stood, staring at her, his breath coming in hard pants and his eyes wild.
“What is it?” he asked, voice rough. “Daphne, what’s wrong?”
“I…I don’t know,” she stammered.
“What don’t you know?” His voice turned gentle. “You still don’t know me? Or us? You don’t know about us?”
“I don’t knowme! I’m still not free.” The words felt torn from Daphne, and as soon as she’d spoken them, she turned and fled.
“Daphne!” Fin called after her, but she ignored him, fleeing for a quiet part of the woods where no one would find her.
Chapter 14
Finley
From euphoria to despair in the space of a moment.
Finley wanted to chase after Daphne, to hunt her down and make her understand that he already saw her as whole and valuable, just as she was. But he knew when he wasn’t welcome, and he wasn’t going to force his presence on her. That would only drive her away further.
But neither could he return to gathering spring greens. He paced back and forth among the trees, reliving the kiss and the expression on Daphne’s face as she pulled away from him. How could she look like that after a moment of such intense connection? Finley couldn’t remember the last time something in his life had felt as right as the presence of Daphne in his arms.
Eventually he was forced to return to the cabin. To his relief, Daphne was already there. She hadn’t fled from them completely, then.
But she was avoiding him—as much as was possible in the small confines of the cabin. He knew Nisha and Morrow could see it, but mercifully neither of them commented.
After Daphne rebuffed his first few attempts to talk to her, he stopped trying, reduced to watching her when she wasn’t looking. She looked tormented, and he longed to gather her intohis arms and smooth away the lines between her brows with his fingers.
She continued to avoid him the next morning, exchanging only the barest practicalities over breakfast. But they were scheduled to patrol together, and to his relief, she didn’t find an excuse to bow out of it.
Perhaps she was secure in the knowledge that Archie would tag along, as he always did. Finley merely hoped the hours spent together would bring back some of the former ease between them.
As they walked away from the cabin, Archie positioned himself between them, shooting Finley a glance—the first hint that he knew something was going on. But he said nothing, keeping up his usual stream of chatter. And for once, Finley was glad of Archie’s words to fill the space between him and Daphne.
Just as he’d hoped, as the first three hours ticked away, she gradually relaxed back into some semblance of her normal self. She laughed with Archie and even replied to Fin’s comments with her usual wry observations.
The suffocating band around Finley’s chest lightened.
“What about that man?” Archie cried in exaggerated alarm, pointing at a man approaching the village on the main road.
He was easily visible from their position in the trees and was equally clearly not a threat. Daphne sighed, but Finley could hear the amusement behind it, and he could have hugged his brother in thanks.
“I think that one is even older than the last one you pointed out,” she said with a small gurgle. “He must be past seventy, and I think he might collapse if he wasn’t leaning half his weight on that horse he’s leading. If he’s an example of your attackers, I’m going to have to question why you’re running at all.”
“It isn’t for my sake,” Archie told her earnestly, placing a hand on his chest. “But Fin here is a lot weaker than he looks,and it’s my duty as his brother to keep him from any and all threats. Even the…er, weak-looking ones.”
“Yes, after all, he might be a master in unarmed combat,” Finley said in a straight voice. “And then where would we be?”
