Page 10 of Unrivaled
I let myself be guided until I was half lying on top of her.She shivered, but she wasn’t cold.Her breath came in quick, short gasps.
I hadn’t exactlyletThomas take me earlier that day.But I sure hadn’t gone into that fight intending harm.
Next time, mayhap I would.
I pressed a kiss to her jaw, and another shudder went through her.Her arms had found their way around me.It was a knack of hers I’d enjoyed often.
Are you well?I didn’t ask, because in the darkness speech seemed inappropriate.She’d had a stampeding day and had ridden it out with grace.I knewwhyshe was here and quivering.I just didn’t know what I could do to make it better except be here too.
I breathed the smell of her in, her hair tickling my face.She turned into me, rubbing against my cheek like a cat, and my body responded to that touch as if we’d had years of learning one another’s preferences.I shifted, trying to hide my arousal, but her hands turned to vices and I submitted gladly, pressing myself closer as her gasps slowed and her breathing deepened.Wasn’t it strange that I loved hearing her breath quicken when we moved together, but I loved just as much to hear it settle?
The thought sat uncomfortably somewhere behind my ribs as I felt her softening beneath me.Her hands gentled and she rubbed against me again, sleepily now, tucking her nose in close to my neck so I could track every calming breath.I rested my chin on her hair so it didn’t tickle me constantly.
“Sleep well, Embers,” I murmured.
She made a contented noise at the back of her throat, shifted her hips just a little, and the last of the tension bled from her.
I wanted to stay like that, half atop her, her breaths lifting me up and then lowering me gently.I wanted to stay like that, helping hold her together when she was shaking apart.I wanted to remember every moment of that heavy contentment, the warmth in my chest and the wonder of being able to soothe her.But sleep claimed me too.
* * *
Mayhap it was the late hour she slept to, or mayhap it was from sleeping together, but Audrey’s eyes were clear and smile lingered on her lips the next morning.
As had become our routine, I joined in with her training sessions with Isolde, adding some sword-specific exercises.We focused on the physically demanding options to maximize the short time we had, and I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t enjoy watching Audrey practicing lunges.
Thomas was waiting in the common room when I went back down to prepare for the day.His eyes raked over me with fatherly disappointment.The flash of rage that swept through me was exactly what I’d expected.
I breathed it out and paused in front of him.“Don’t look at her like that,” I said, keeping my voice down so it didn’t carry to where she was dressing upstairs.“She’s had decades of that from the Butcher, Thomas.She doesn’t need it from you too.”
He caught my arm in his hand, shadows under his eyes.I locked down hard the urge to snap out my captured elbow, drive it into his jaw, and win free.Strength flooded my system.I stood, shoulder to shoulder, trapped by my own desire for peace rather than his hand on me.
“What do you think will happen when the Duke hears she’s taking the coin from his drinking buddies?”Thomas asked, quietly.“They’re going to get his attention quick-smart, boy.”
The derogatoryboyset my teeth on edge, but I refused to acknowledge it.Keeping my voice calm, I said, “If you think she’s overlooked that, you don’t know her.Take your hand off me, Tom.”
He did, and the area he’d grabbed felt like it was being stabbed by thousands of needles as the sensation returned.
I held all my rage in my chest, felt it pulsing in my limbs and locking my muscles tight.Things I could say and do rushed through my mind, but none of them were smart, and none of them were helpful.With my heart beating too heavily, I walked out of that room.
Kadan, my first and best friend, would’ve been proud of me for walking away from that paternal bullshit.
I suspected he would’ve been proud of me for removing it forcibly, too.
With impatient hands, I pulled my bedding into place again, disguising that it had held two people and not just one, then tugged on the gambeson that was my day-to-day armor before pulling on the tabard that was Audrey’s in my mind, declaring my allegiance for all to see.
That woman owns me,I thought, and the heat of that knowledge tangled up with the rage in my chest.Until my heart no longer beats.That’s what I’d sworn—willingly.
But it wasn’t Audrey’s sigil.
It was her father’s.
By the time I’d done all the buckles Thomas was back out in the entryway.I heard the noise of him settling into his post.
He thought he knew so much, and yet he’d hurt her,multiple times,while she was vulnerable.
Audrey’s head poked into my room, her hair perfectly arranged, the dress a sensible deep brown with nonsensical but delightful ribbons she’d already tangled around her fingers.
She’d passed by Thomas to get to me, but her smile was testament to how Isolde and I had limited his harm.My shield wasn’t my only method of protection.
