“I think...I think it is time for us to go inside,” said River with a nervous gesture of fixing her hair. “We’ve been playin’ for long and it’s too hot for the bairns.”
“We’re fine!” Arya called.
“Nay, ye’re nae!” said River over her shoulder, before turning back to Archer. “We’ve played enough.”
“Aye, so ye have,” called Finlay from his spot near the wall.
Archer didn’t even try to resist the urge to glare at him. The two men stared at each other in silence, like two bulls circling around each other, until once again, River stepped between them and broke their line of sight. Archer’s gaze focused back on her, taking in the firm line of her lips, the slight frown between her brows, and he couldn’t help it; he stepped closer, planting a kiss to her cheek, as close to her lips as he could without actually kissing them.
When he pulled back from her, he found her red-faced, her mouth hanging slightly open in shock, as if that had been the last thing she had expected.
“I shall come to ye tonight,” he promised her. “Wait for me.”
Then, he turned on his heel and walked away, without turning around to see if she was watching.
He was certain she was.
12
Wait for me.
That baritone lilt echoed in River’s mind again and again, reminding her of the promise Archer had given her that morning.
He had been so shameless, holding her and trying to kiss her in front of everyone in the courtyard. Not only had it been terribly embarrassing, to the point River had no chance of hiding her furious blush, but it had also been entirely too jarring.
Archer had asked her to try. He had asked her to see him as he was now, not as he had once been, and yet that was a far more difficult task than River could have ever anticipated. A tiny voice in the back of her head kept insisting that she would be a fool to believe him, to think he had changed at all.
River had been waiting for him for too long. Ever since he had told her he would come find her that night, her mind had beendrifting to their future meeting, and that only worsened once she was alone. The only thing that kept her sane enough was the cup of wine Layla had brought her earlier that evening.
The knock on her door came too soon and not soon enough. Before she knew it, she was jumping like a spring to her feet, smoothing down her dress and fixing her dark hair in an attempt to be more presentable, though it was a losing battle.
It was the first time Archer didn’t enter her chambers immediately. River cleared her throat and called him inside, and only then did he open the door, stepping carefully into the room.
“I thought ye wouldnae let me in,” he said.
“I thought ye didnae need an invitation,” River said.
Archer chuckled, shrugging a shoulder casually. “I thought after the way ye looked at me this morn, ye might nae wish to see me.”
With an indignant huff, River crossed her arms over her chest. “Ye shouldnae act like that in front of everyone. It’s...it’s improper.”
“Why?” asked Archer as he stalked closer. He lowered his head, looking at River through his lashes, and he reminded her of a large predator ready to pounce.
What she didn’t know was whether she wanted him to or not.
“What dae ye mean why?” she asked with a disbelieving, humorless laugh. “Because it is! Ye shouldnae act like that in front of others...or have ye forgotten that?”
“Ye’re me wife,” Archer pointed out, as if that explained it. “And this is me castle.”
“As true as that may be, it doesnae change the fact that ye cannae ado as ye please.”
For a moment, Archer seemed to truly consider that, as if the thought had never once occurred to him.
“I actually think I can,” he said in the end, and by then, he had reached River, standing so close to her that she could feel the heat of his body. His lips curled into a predatory smile and River regretted ever letting him into the room. “I have another game for ye.”
It was not what she had expected to hear. River tilted her head to the side in confusion, wondering where, exactly, archer was going with all this. Why did he always want to play these games with her? Did he think he wouldn’t spook her so much if he framed it as a game? Did he think he could trick her into doing something she didn’t want?
“Daenae look at me like that,” Archer said, slightly amused. “I havenae even told ye what the game is yet.”
