Page 42 of The Last Wish of Bristol Keats
Very tender, she thought, and she was grateful he no longer deflected painful questions. He had changed.You made me want to share my life with you.
And he did, sharing one of the most painful days of his childhood. “When the rites were over, Eris took my hand in his and led me away. My mother and brother were walking just ahead of us, and he told me I would need to be strong for my mother now. I remember turning and burying my face in his robes, and holding on to him. I was terrified.” Tyghan stopped at the back of the cave, looking nowhere in particular, maybe seeing the frightened child he had once been. “I was certain I could never be strong enough. Eris put his hand on my head, like he was protecting me from the world, and said,But on the days you can’t be strong, I’ll be strong for you.”
Bristol’s throat twisted, seeing Tyghan’s loss in a whole new light, and seeing Eris in a new way too, a man not only juggling the duties of a transitioning kingdom, but considering the needs of a broken family as well. “Was he?” she asked. “Strong for you?”
Tyghan nodded. “More times than I can count.” He added the dry branches to the glowing embers on the log, and it flamed up. “But at the time I was still afraid and overwhelmed and wanted to disappear, and then, just like that, I did my first nightjump.” A small laugh lifted his chest. “It didn’t go well. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing or where I was going, just that I wanted to get away from it all. I’m lucky I didn’t kill myself. I missed the first landing and bounced down the side of the mountain until I ended up here. I lay on the beach nursing my wounds, but even as my head throbbed, I felt a powerful calmness. It’s such a small canyon, a small lake, but it was all mine. In a single day I fell in love with this place, and determined to get better at nightjumps.”
“Well, you succeeded with that,” she agreed, remembering the feeling of floating in his arms. “This has been your secret sanctuary ever since?”
He nodded. “I’ve never shared it with anyone, but now it’s yours too.”
“Hmm, could be bad news. I don’t do nightjumps.”
“I guess I’ll always have to be your personal guide, then.” He stood and began unbuttoning his trousers. “Ready for a swim?”
“It’s safe in the lake?”
“Empty. The only creature you have to worry about is me.”
More buttons.
“Then I have a lot to worry about.”
His trousers fell to his ankles, and he stepped out of them. Firelight licked over every exquisite, sculpted muscle he possessed. Heat kindled low in her gut. She remembered the first time she stumbled upon him, half-naked in his room, and her useless admonishment to herself tolook away. Now she brazenly drank in every inch.
Her first assessment of him still stood—the planes, the sinew, the hard cut of deltoids meeting biceps, the tight ripples of his abs, even his calves were carved to perfection. Except now his long, jagged scar didn’t seem like a flaw but a victory. Michelangelo wouldn’t reject an imperfect piece of marble if he saw Tyghan. His flaws, inside and out, were what she loved, what made him perfect, a hard-won version of himself that was a work of art.
This time of course, there was no towel covering his middle. He let her assess him, standing perfectly still—except for one part of him that was quickly growing. She was caressing him with her eyes, and it appeared that was enough.
She felt the heat of his eyes on her too. She glanced down. Apparently, it wasn’t just her gaze causing things to grow. Her gown was wet from going through the waterfall, and the thin fabric clung to her like skin. Her chilled nipples eagerly peeked through.
“You can join me whenever you’re ready,” he said. And with a few steps, he dove, disappearing through the waterfall.
CHAPTER 33
Tyghan treaded water in the middle of the lake. He glanced down and sighed, though nothing was visible beneath the dark water. “Down boy,” he whispered, lamenting that his near instant erection would make Bristol think he only lured her here for his own “devious” passions—though she never objected to his passion before. Except tonight he wanted to make it all about her, giving her what she wanted, what she needed. But damn, he ignited every time he was near her.
He swam the short length of the lake, maybe thirty yards, his shoulders swaying in rhythm with each lap, his arms gliding through the water, neither cold nor warm, the perfect balance that made him feel free and unbound to the world.
I fell in love with this place.
Thatwas why he brought her here. A childlike hope that it would be enough to buoy her for what was to come. After his mother left, he sometimes thought that if he had only brought her here, shared this place with her, the powerful calm of it might have helped her to stay. It was a game he had tortured himself with for months after she was gone. If he had loved her more, if he had been stronger, if he had shared—
It was a childish thought, and one Eris set straight immediately.This was not about you or anything you could have done. Your mother loved you more than life itself. She left to save you. Tyghan asked him if there was truly a curse, as his mother claimed. Even Eris didn’t know.She was deeply broken, he told him.Sometimes fear is the most powerful curse of all. Eris encouraged him to concentrate on being the best Knight Commander Danu had ever known.Safeguard the kingdom your mother loved.
It was a message that was sealed into him. Whenever he lost his way, he always returned to that. Maybe that goal had saved him even more than the secret place. Or maybe it was Eris who had saved him all along.
Safeguard the kingdom. That should have been his only thought. But it wasn’t. It hadn’t been for a long time. He had to safeguard Bristol too. He had to make those two goals become one.
He did another lap, and another. The storm clouds had moved on, and a crescent moon shimmered on the surface of the water, lighting his way. The soothing sound of his strokes slicing through the surface, the balmy air, the sheer joy on Bristol’s face when she saw the cave dripping with light, drained away his thoughts and cares. That was how it had always been, this place. The only thing that made it better was now he had someone to share it with. Midway in the lake, he stopped and treaded water, turning to face the cave. What was she doing behind the waterfall? Still soaking in the wonder? He didn’t want to rush her but—
“Hey!” Bristol startled him, breaking the surface a few feet away like a triumphant breaching fish. Her chin and lashes dripped with water.
“You swam all that way underwater?”
“Motel swimming pools,” she said, laughing. “One of the greatest luxuries of my childhood. My sisters and I would swim in them for hours. I got pretty good at holding my breath. But here . . . here I don’t feel the need to breathe at all. It’s like this place is breathing for me.”
She disappeared beneath the water again and resurfaced in his arms, sliding close, her gown shed and her skin like silk against his.
