Page 86 of Tamed By Her Touch

Kaelus spoke at the same time.

“We slept.”

“You only slept?” Maera raised one eyebrow. “You did not give your husband leave to pleasure you?”

Clair felt her cheeks burn.

“I was very tired from our journey,” she said. “Too tired to, er, let Kaelus pleasure me much.”

Kaelus turned his head and gave her a look and she glared back.

Thankfully, Maera seemed willing to let it go. Instead, she studied Kaelus critically.

“He needs something else,” she said, frowning.

“No, he does not,” Kaelus said immediately.

Maera ignored him.

“A goddess should always leave some sign upon her husband that he belongs to her.”

Clair looked at Kaelus and he scowled back.

“What kind of sign?” Clair asked cautiously.

Maera pointed to a small tray on the dresser where several decorative objects had apparently been placed for them.

“Look in there—I’m sure you’ll find something.”

Among the objects were several narrow metallic bands and jeweled clasps. Clair picked up one of the bands. It was dark silver and etched with delicate blue symbols.

“What does this mean?” she asked, holding it out to Maera.

The other woman’s eyes went soft and she smiled.

“Devotion,” she said. “A wife fastens it around her husband’s upper arm. It tells others that he is cherished and claimed by the woman who owns him.”

Claimed. For some reason, that word did something funny inside Clair’s stomach.

“Oh,” she said. She was pretty sure Kaelus wouldn’t like the idea of her “owning” him in the way the band implied. She started to put it back, but the big Hybrid surprised her by holding out his arm.

“Put it on me,” he said.

Clair looked up at him in surprise.

“You’re okay with this? You don’t mind being ‘owned’ by me?” she murmured.

“It is a necessary part of my new outfit,” Kaelus said evasively.

“That’s not what I asked,” she pointed out.

His expression became unreadable.

“No,” he said quietly. “It isn’t.”

He held her eyes with his and for a moment everything else seemed to fall away. Then Maera shifted behind her and Clair forced herself to break the staring contest they had somehow fallen into.

Bending to her task, she fastened the band around his massive biceps. She couldn’t help noticing that her fingers looked tiny against his arm. The dark silver band settled in place and tightened automatically until it fit perfectly.