AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The boy walked past her, disappeared into a stall on the opposite wall, and then emerged with a sidesaddle, the leather polished to such a shine she wondered if it had ever been ridden. He heaved it over the front half wall of the stall, leaving it draped there while he shook out the numnah to be spread on the speckled brown mare’s back.
The toes of her boots dug into the dirt. She’d changed into the black clothes that she’d arrived at Wolfbridge in after she’d said good eve to Vicky. Her hand twisted along the folds of her dark skirt into the deep pocket, making sure her dagger was in place in the folds of the fabric. Her blade had reappeared days ago, sitting on top of the chest of drawers in her room. Reiner hadn’t mentioned it, but she knew it was an offering of trust that he would give it back. How hard it was for him to do, she wasn’t sure.
She hadn’t had the heart to tell Vicky what she was about to do. What sheneededto do.
She had to leave Wolfbridge.
Reiner had said she could leave and she was about to lose more than her memories if she stayed in this place.
It’d been a full day since he kissed her late at night in the library and she was still mortified by her own actions. She hadn’t put up the slightest resistance to his touch. To his lips. No. She had encouraged every single second of his lips wandering on her body. Where his hands had travelled.
And for how he’d asked her to leave the library the previous night, it was as though he was asking her to leave Wolfbridge.
Maybe she had misunderstood everything last night. How his lips felt on hers. How his hands had trailed over her skin, hungry. How he had smiled when he’d had to swallow her scream with a searing kiss. Her body had never reacted like that to a man’s touch before. To a man’s kiss. To his caresses.
But he had turned her into a common trollop within minutes of his attentions on her body.
Maybe now he was done with her. Maybe that was all he wanted. To prove he could make her writhe under him.
Her look averted from the stable boy as a blush travelled up her neck, heating it to uncomfortable proportions. If the boy merely glanced in her direction, he’d absolutely be able to tell where her mind had just wandered. What she had done.
But daylight had come this morning, and with it, a level head. She’d been caught in the shadows of the night, the possibilities of pleasure she’d never experienced. It had been too easy. Too easy to talk to Reiner. Too easy to study his every movement. Too easy to say yes to him, as denying his touch had been the last thing on her mind.
The man was infuriating. And kind. And handsome. And caring. And in rare, sparkling moments when he let his guard down, funny. And the heat in his eyes when he looked at her sparked to life the core of her—the tingling throbbing between her legs that begged for everything his golden brown eyes promised.
He wasn’t the cold duke she’d thought him to be.
The exact opposite, in fact.
And a man like that was far more dangerous than a frigid duke in a lonely castle. It’d been embarrassing how quickly she’d been swept into the moment. In what she’d allowed.
She needed to leave. Leave before another encounter with him that would prove to be her downfall, for she didn’t think she was capable of saying no to the man. Not when she wanted exactly what he was offering.
Weakness, but she could only manage to leave when she was levelheaded. Not in the heat of the night.
“Sloane.”
Reiner’s low voice boomed along the main corridor of the stable.
Sloane jumped, spinning to him as horses nickered at the disturbance.
He strode toward her, stopping an arm’s length away as he surveyed the stable boy setting the numnah in place.
“Leave us, John.”
The boy stepped away from the mare. “Yes, your grace.” With a quick bow of his head he slipped past Sloane and walked out the front of the stable.
Reiner watched him until he was clear of the building. He turned to Sloane, his gaze piercing her. “What are you doing?”
“Leaving. You said I could go, so I am.”
His mouth opened for a moment, a harsh exhale escaping. Just when he looked to bombard her with orders, his mouth clamped closed.
His gaze drifted off of her for a long breath, his look concentrating on the open rear entrance of the stables. “It is almost twilight.” He looked to her. “You cannot travel in darkness.”
“The moon is already out and it is clear. It will be enough to get me into the nearest village.”
“And then what? What do you do there? Where do you go? You cannot think to seriously do this.”
