Page 54 of The King's Man
God, nothing was further from the truth. But she’d given me my open door for the truth, and I’d slammed it shut in her face.
Curse me to hell. Who was the one losing their nerve now?
“No, Diadre… You’re wrong,” I said with as much conviction as I could muster.
“Wrong about what?”
I rolled onto my side and leaned up on my elbow, looking down at her in the dark. She had the furs pulled up to her chin.
“I don’t hate having you here,” I admitted, and ran a hand through my hair when she frowned. “I don’t hate it at all.”
Her eyes looked black in the dark, but there were tiny pinpoints of light. She turned her head to look at me. I didn’t know how much she could see in the dark, but I made myself hold her gaze.
My words still hung in the air when our eyes locked and my breath stopped. Something in my chestthrobbed.Couldn’t she feel that? Wasn’t she affected?
She gave no indication if she did.
And then, as I swallowed and gathered my tattered courage, those beautiful eyes of hers shone with unshed tears and my heart dropped.
“I’m afraid all the time, Jann,” she whispered.
God, I wanted to punch myself in the face for being harsh on her. “What do you need?” I asked as gently as I could. “What can I do?”
She gave a broken, wet little laugh and shook her head. “I need warmth and… and strength nearby so I cansleep.”
Oh God. “I’m warm. And strong,” I said my voice dropping because of the images conjured in my mind.
“I know,” she whispered, then covered her face with her hands. “But I feel… I feel like a child asking for it.”
“Then do not ask,” I said simply and did what I’d been wanting to do for days.
I slipped an arm under her neck, then laid back down and pulled her against me, manifesting my wings under her so that the one on that side curled around to cradle her and held her to me, a shield from eyes, from light, from… the world.
She still had her hands on her face, but when I rolled her towards me, she let herself be moved. She was stiff, and curled her knees up towards her chest. A little ball of fear and angst. But within the cocoon of my wing I let a hand play up and down her back, and she slowly relaxed.
I sighed, relieved to finally be touching her. And slowly her body loosened. She let her head rest against my shoulder, and one small hand unfurled, then rested on my chest like a small, frightened animal tentatively finding peace.
I rested my other hand over hers on my chest, feeling that sizzle between us where she touched me, and finally I could breathe.
There were no words. No explanations. No negotiation. I had told her I didn’t resent her presence, and she’d admitted she needed mine.
I relaxed, staring at the ceiling of tent, praying she could finally sleep.
And slowly, slowly, she drifted off.
I held her, and she found the warmth and safety she needed. Sheslept.It struck me that this was her trust. In this day, in this place, for her to lay alongside me and let herself rest, was the ultimate trust.
It was the most precious, lovely sensation I’d ever had—and she wasn’t even naked.
When her breathing had slowed and evened, and the tension was gone from her, I turned my head, my nose brushing her hair. I inhaled deeply, and that place in my chest that crackled when she touched me flared again.
Something deep within me pressed for release—the urge to own, to possess, toclaim.And though it was feral, and I gritted my teeth to fight it back, there was a thread within it. Something that fed my soul—aneedonly she could fulfill. Not just to have her body, I realized. But to haveher.
I yearned to see her smile. To watch her eyes land on me and light from within.
I ached to hear her laugh.
And to watch her skin heat, and her blood turn to fire. Not with fear, but with desire.
