‘It’s not because I don’t want you with every fibre of my being.I don’t know what has happened, and you don’t have to tell me right now, but I don’t ever want you to regret anything that happens between us.’
He walked over to the bed and sat on the edge.‘Come here.’He tugged my hand, and I went to him.I felt his thigh muscles twitch under my hands as I stood between his open legs.
Cillian kissed me like he had all the time in the world.Did all men like kissing?The way he tormented and devoured my mouth created sizzling sensations throughout my body.He gradually released my lips to trail open-mouthed kisses down my neck and across my collarbone.
Cillian pulled back and gazed at me with hooded eyes.I ran my fingers through his tresses until the leather strap holding his hair fellaway.His head pressed back into my cupped hands, and he looked at me through thick lashes.
‘I must be the most foolish man alive for not taking you right now,’ he said hoarsely.
‘You are foolish, but it only makes me respect you more.’I released his head with a heavy exhale.I did not deserve this wonderful man.
He pulled back the covers.‘Get in.’
I climbed under the blankets, relishing the feel of the soft linen against my clean skin.Cillian stayed firmly on top of the covers, holding me until I drifted into a peaceful sleep.
CHAPTER 17
Iwoke to the smell of coffee.Cillian stood next to the bed with tousled hair, smiling and holding two mugs.
He had stayed with me the entire night, and I had slept long and deeply, his presence bringing me the peace I had so desperately needed.
The sheet slipped down before I could catch it, and Cillian got an unexpected flash of my breasts.I bit back a smile at his groan.
‘Move over,’ he grunted as he maneouvred onto the bed, trying not to spill the contents of the mugs.Leaning back against the headboard, he handed me one steaming mug, and I allowed him to drag me back with his free arm to rest against his body.I snuggled into him and took a sip of milky coffee.I groaned as the liquid gold went down.Ignoring his laugh, I continued to drink.
‘Where did you get coffee from?’I asked between sips.
‘I have my ways,’ he said mysteriously.
I elbowed him, annoyed with his non-answer.
‘So, are we going to talk about why I haven’t seen you for nearly two weeks?Or why I found you in here half starved and out of your mind last night?’He gave me a little nudge.
I wanted to hold on to how good I felt, and his questions cast a shadow over the moment.
‘I left because Iain was ill.’
His arm tightened around me.
‘He’s gone,’ I whispered.My eyes were drawn to the corner where the sword Iain made was wrapped in the mysterious cloth.He could be a father who abandoned me for ten years, or he could be a knight who was ordered to find me another family.Each possibility was like a stone in my gut, heavy and grating.There was a third possibility that the faded cloth with a royal coat of arms was nothing but a scrap Iain had found and used to protect a gift for me.The truth of it died with Iain, and I might never know who my birth parents were.
‘I’m sorry, Caris,’ he said as he pressed his lips to my head.
I could not suppress the urge to unburden myself and tell him all that had happened.‘Three men are lying dead on the road.They attacked me on my way back to Murus.I –’ I choked as I tried to tell him the horrible thing I did.‘I turned a man into ash.’
‘Good.If he was stupid enough to assault you, he deserved it.The thought of you alone, out on the road grieving – and not one, butthreemen attacking you,’ Cillian said, his voice rising in volume.
‘But I killed one of them with my Curse.’
‘How is that different from killing him with a sword, Caris?’
‘If you had seen it, you would understand that dying by my sword would have been a mercy.’
‘Dead’s, dead.It doesn’t matter how.He deserved it for attacking a lone woman out on the road,’ he said.
‘What I can do is unnatural.’I wanted him to agree with me, to say it was wrong, to stop defending me.‘My Curse is evil.I killed with it.’
‘You’ve saved lives using it too.’Cillian reminded me.‘People tried to tell me that what my wife did was unnatural.She lost her life because of their fear.If I could do what you could, I would burn all of them.’
