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“It took almost losing you for me to see it,” he went on. “But now I know. I was so scared that I’d lost the way I used to love you, and I was scared of what it would cost me. And that blinded me to the truth.”
His hand cupped my cheek and lingered. My heart stopped, and then started beating again, too quickly.
Quietly, he admitted, “I didn’t accept that I’d found a new way to love you.”
I didn’t know what to say to him. My lips parted, trying to find words, and then I didn’t need them. He leaned forward, and I raised my chin, my lips seeking his. For a second, our breaths intermingled. The two of us were as shy as a first kiss.
Then Tal’s lower lip brushed against mine, and I pressed my lips to his. My hands ran up his shoulders, my body molding to his, my mouth meeting his completely.
He might not remember me, but my body remembered him. The hard ridge of him pressing against my waist. The way his hands clasped on my hips. The softness of his lower lip, the way he kissed me tenderly. The way one hand rose to thread through my hair, angling my face to his. The way he deepened the kiss, his mouth parting, his tongue teasing against the seam between my lips. The way I opened to him, my own tongue seeking his.
He might not remember falling in love, but he kissed me as if some part had never forgotten me.
I pulled away first, breathless, my heart beating faster than in any fight. I had to see his face, had to know how he felt.
Talisyn gazed down at me, and I could feel his warmth radiating from his chest beneath my palms.
“If that is the first kiss I remember,” he said, “then it was a good one.”
“They’ve all been good ones, Tal.” My eyes flooded with tears. I blinked hard, not sure why I was crying. Was it relief? Was it grief? I couldn’t tell anymore what the emotions were that flowed between Talisyn and me.
“Hey, hey,” he said softly, gathering me into his arms. He hugged me tight, dropping a kiss in my hair, rocking me against his powerful chest. “It’s all right, Honor. So I forgot a few months. We have a lifetime together.”
If he only had some part of his love for me… if there was a part that Teris had taken and I could never get back… could we really have a lifetime together?
The question was insistent, but I tried to push it away. Because I was in Talisyn’s arms now, and he was still murmuring soothing nonsense into my ear.
And how could I doubt this man, who had always seen me, who had believed in me before anyone else did, who found a way to love me even when that love had been rooted out mercilessly?
“I think I can use the stone to bring your memories back once we find Teris’s stone,” I whispered, even though he didn’t think he needed it.
“Of course I’ll try it.” He pulled back, just slightly, so he could look at my face. Then he wiped my tears away with his thumb. “Gods, I hate that I make you cry.”
“It’s not your fault,” I whispered.
“That doesn’t change the way it breaks my heart.” He hesitated, studying me. “We’ll get Teris’s stone back. But I don’t want anything else to stand between us. You can just tell me what I missed, Honor.”
“Okay,” I said.
“Why don’t we start here?”
“Better yet,” I said. “Why don’t we start in the ballroom?”
CHAPTER17
Honor
Tal pickedthe lock to get into the ballroom, then pushed open one of the massive wooden doors. He braced it open with his back, then half bowed, sweeping his arm for me to enter.
Our footsteps seemed to echo in the cavernous room. It looked so different than when it was full of students and guests, with music playing and servants circulating.
I turned to face him. “This wasn’t where we met for the first time, but it was where you made a big impression.”
“Was I charming?” he asked lightly, crossing his arms.
“You were at first,” I admitted. “I was serving at the party, and some of the girls I’d grown up with mocked me.”
A cloud passed over his face. “So I came to your rescue?”
