He grinned at that. “I should hope not.”
She picked up a bucket to rinse his back. He sighed as the warm water slid over his flesh.
Callie set the bucket aside and returned to sit beside him. “I want to get to know you, Sin. I think knowing you would be a most wondrous thing.”
He looked away as he took the cloth and started bathing his leg. “Truly, there is nothing about me worth knowing.”
She caught his face in her hand and turned him until her gaze held his. “What did they do to you to make you withdraw so far into yourself?”
Sin didn’t answer. He couldn’t. He’d spent the whole of his life trying to bury those memories. Trying to never look to the past for anything. He just existed. It was all he knew.
She heaved a weary breath. “You’ve left me again, haven’t you? I can always tell. Your eyes turn dull, cold.”
Callie rose to her feet. “Very well, I shall leave you in peace. But know this, one day I am going to find the heart you have buried away from the world.”
“And what would you do with it if you found it?”
“I would hold it safe and keep it from the hurt that has shriveled it.”
Said heart pounded at her words. “My lady, that organ knows nothing of love. It knows nothing of kindness. Even if you did find it, I assure you, it would be quite worthless to you.”
“Perhaps or perhaps not. Either way, I intend to find out.”
Her strength never ceased to amaze him.
She moved toward the bed and pulled her gown over her head. Sin’s entire body burned at the sight of her naked. Worse, she gifted him with a lush view of her backside as she climbed into bed.
In that moment, ‘twas all he could do to not join her. All he could do to not run to the bed, roll her to her back and partake of the feast that was her body.
His tongue burned from want of her lips, her breasts. It would be pure bliss to have her wrap her body around his. Pure bliss to be her husband this night.
But he couldn’t do it. She was accepting of him now, but things would change when he got her home. Her Highland brethren would never tolerate an English knight in their midst.
Not even his brother’s clan had been able to do that. He’d stayed with the MacAllisters for a brief time after Braden and Maggie’s wedding while his burns had healed. And though all had been cooly cordial, he had still seen the way the servants and villagers had shied away from him. The way no one wanted to spend more than a fleeting moment in his presence.
Worse, his stepmother, Aisleen, had been very coldly polite to him during his stay. Not once had she been able to even meet his gaze. Of course, her cold aloofness was a vast improvement over the contempt and repulsion she’d shown him in his youth. Still, he had refused to stay where he was unwelcome.
He had to do that enough at Henry’s court.
Sin looked back at the bed where his wife waited, his stomach hurting. No one had ever welcomed him before Caledonia.
She would give herself to him if he asked it.
And he wanted to ask. So much so that he burned with the yearning.
Don’t do this to her or to you. Leave, Sin.
No good could come of tasting heaven when he couldn’t stay in it. He’d learned that early in life. Memories of happiness only stuck the barb in deeper.
And he had been barbed enough.
Callie held her breath in nervous anticipation as she heard her husband leave the tub. He would come to her now, she was sure of it.
While the men had been fighting outside, Emily had told her much about how hard Draven had fought against the love Emily had offered him.
She took courage from Emily that if she had bent her stubborn husband to accept her, perhaps there was a chance for her and Sin as well.
Perhaps.
