Page 14 of Unrivaled
Instead, I eased out of her and settled her onto the bed.She moved, liquid with contentment once again, humming in pleasure.I found her lips and pressed a kiss to them, but it wasn’t enough.When she wrapped her arms around me and tugged me down it felt like coming home.
I stayed with that feeling, though a small part of me wanted to run.I stayed there and held her as our breathing settled and bodies cooled.One of my arms, half-trapped beneath me to keep me from crushing her, went to sleep and I thought she had, too.
When I settled back, though, her eyes fluttered open.I could drown every single sorrow in her whiskey gaze and never fear the next morning.I knew it in my soul, but I didn’t know quite how to communicate that or what it meant to me.So, I eased her undergarment back into place, tugging it down over her breasts and sliding it over her ribs as I smoothed the leather.She lay, content, watching me.The warmth in my belly spread, until it filled every limb from the tip of my toes to the ends of my fingers.
I swallowed around the tears in my throat.She wasn’t smiling, but I could see the quiet, enduring happiness in her eyes, too.
She’d probably figured it out already.
I eased the softness of her breasts into the right positions under the leather, as I’d seen her do, then set about re-lacing the garment.My hands didn’t shake when I held her hips, but they shook now, trying to thread the lacing through the eye hooks.
“It’s fine,” she told me, her voice thick with sleepy contentment.
“I know.”But it was something small I could do.It was something I wanted to do.
She didn’t protest, and I returned every lace to where it had been when she’d revealed the garment earlier.It felt right.
When I sat back and looked down at her, expecting she’d be on the edge of sleep, I met her gaze.She was both wide awake and deathly serious.
I knew the expression.I knew she was worrying about my oath and pressuring me where I didn’t want to be pressured.
My heart ached.I leant forward to press a gentle kiss to her lips.“Thank you,” I said, hoping she’d hear, “for bringing me home.”
She swallowed audibly, tears swimming in her eyes.“No more words.Please.”
I held myself off her despite the weight of reality that I felt crushing down upon us.I understood that fear.But before I could figure out how to breathe whilst carrying the weight of it, she’d wrapped her arms around me and pulled me in close.Breathing came second.I buried my face in her neck and lost myself in her.
CHAPTERSIX
AUDREY
They seemed impervious to the plague, unfortunately.I’ve reports from La’Angi that we were hit hard but the city is still functional.I have every faith that upon my return, it will be as it was.War is good for business.—in a letter from General Victor, Duke of La'Angi to General Dieudonné, Count of Black Borough
14thDay of Winter’s Wife Moon,
Age of the Locways, Year 271
La’Angi Keep
“So, your money comes from cider?”Chay repeated, frowning.“But mostly from knappchs?”
I shook my head, short of air to respond this far through our training session.My legs burned.My shoulders burned.The tiny muscles around my knees burned.Most of all, my blood burned with the anxiety of trying to figure out this latest problem.
“That’s the orchard profit,” I clarified.“Eighty percent of the fruit…” I paused to draw a breath and continued with the lunges.“Gets turned into cider.Fifty percent of theprofitcomes from knappchs.”
Moving to the same rhythm as I was, he looked at me as if unsure whether I was teasing.His chest rose and fell quickly, too, but the sword in his hand didn’t waver.“Isn’t that what I said?”
It wasn’t, but if it was what he meant, I’d focus on that.“But I don’t have enough wheat,” I added, which had been the point of our conversation.My foot fell improperly.I focused on my body, ensuring my feet were positioned right and my knee tracked correctly.“Without the wheat, what profits I have will be even worse than predicted.”
Working with Bernadette and Ettie’s recommended people, I’d spent that morning looking over the larder and cellars.They could make the wheat we had stretch until the end of spring, hoping once travel got easier that we could buy enough to make up the difference.
We needed to get the knappchs fermenting.The profits lost from this harvest would have potential impacts foryears,including damaging relationships with the big names in trade that might be impossible for me to repair without access to their social circle.With the small amount of apples we had, if I could only source some grains, we could take most of the sting out of that cost.
I was fine with taking money from the families who had more than their share and giving it to those without, but I still needed to be able to pay wages, repair roads, and uphold trade agreements.And there was a limit to the assets people had lying around in my city.
“How do we get more wheat?”he asked, modelling a three-step sequence now.I mimicked his movements, double-checking the angle of my elbow and blade against his.“You don’t have much growing nearby.How does it usually come in?”
“There’s fields between us and Ange’s Pass,” I said, absently.“It’s mostly barley out toward Triple Peak.We should’ve got it in during the harvest.And we did get some.”
