Page 209 of Winter Gods & Serpents

He sighed resting his forehead on my belly. “They have never bothered me, the bastard that has done them does.”

“He will suffer for them.”

“I heard, what you did to him, to his family.”

“See what I’m capable of doing—how capable I make myself to be hated.”

“You know I don’t like that, but I also am not you and not one to judge.” He kissed my stomach one more time and stood facing me. “And not one who would have let that animal breathe after what I heard that day.”

I had forgotten he’d been there. Some embarrassment creeped to my ears. After I’d seen Cai and Mal hold him back, I’d wanted to swallow myself. I hated what he’d heard.

His finger circled the scar on my shoulder from the time in Kirkwall. “Why do you not heal them?”

A wave of disappointment washed over me. “You hate them that much?” Where they that ugly?

He sighed shaking his head. “I cannot love what reminds me of your pain.”

Relief. I kissed his hand. “They are my strength too.”

He kissed my brow in return. “You are strong, my love, here,” he said pointing to my heart and then to my head, “and there. Don’t remind yourself how you crawled to survive, but how you rose from that survival. Bear the triumphs of your victory, not of those that aimed to bring you down.”

I tugged his jacket tightly. His honey mouth was torturous. “Enough, I am yours already. Enough enchanting me, you prick.”

He smiled gradually, teasing my lips with a thumb. “Are you smitten with me, miss dark head?”

I frowned. He called me all there was in the dictionary. “Terribly, mister smart arse.” Leaning against him, I reached and smacked his bottom. “Correction, mister tight arse.”

“Heavens and seven hells,” he groaned dropping his head back. “Give me patience no man has ever asked before.”

“Heavens and seven hells,” I said as he did, “let him fall for my enchantment.”

“You wicked woman,” he accused, dabbing the towel violently to my hair.

“Tie this, please,” I asked, fiddling about with the robe tie, my hands impaled in bandages. Could swear he had done this on purpose.

“Better not. It looks better like that anyway,” he pointed, tilting his head to my open gown and I hit him with a brush.

“You have no right to this, remember all the shit you sung for me a moment ago?”

He laughed and tied my robe severely slowly and loosely, till I hit him again.

It was growing dark outside, Kilian had positioned himself in a corner of my room watching me brush my hair, looking tired and worn out. He had stayed guard for almost two nights without sleep and helped bury Samuel. I had not attended the funeral they had organized, I did not deserve to be there, when I do it will be with the blood of those that caused his death, with the blood of my father spread across my sword in his honour, and then I will plead for Samuels forgiveness and send him to the heavens he deserves to rest at. With Samuels death in my hands my plate had became overbearingly hard to balance. I had so much to do, to dig out of my father’s well of lies and secrets, yet here I was almost two weeks away to being sent off to Adriata without a grain of any information on his plans, and to make matters worse, infatuated with a man who was not just any man. The same idiot who was about to turn himself into the living dead because he wanted to stare at me to eternity. Not a usual stare, one that had raised my temperature enough that I was sweating. This was very frustrating.

“Nubil’s heaven, leave or fuck me, otherwise cut that.” He did not even bat an eyelid at my frustration except the gradual growing smirk in his ridiculously handsome face.

“So impatient and so needy, my dahaara. I hope you stay like that. It gets me really hard.”

I did not like the tease or whatever game he was trying to play to test my patience. Little did he know I was shameless. I would make that first move myself, strip and rip him apart, promise or no promise.

“Prick, your left hand shall be very jealous of your right these next few weeks then.”

“I’m ambidextrous, love, that means you will be jealous of both my hands.”

I turned round and threw about a hundred combs and pins at him till I was left panting and him laughing his tight arse out.

After several attempts to persuade Kilian to rest he had given up when Mal and Nia showed up and dragged him out to his chambers. He had stared longingly as though we were not to see each other for lifetimes when he had been taken out, the ridiculous man.

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