AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Cassia stopped glancing at the statue and let herself really look at it. At the muscles rippling down the male’s back, at his bare buttocks and his powerful legs braced on the pedestal. At the tenderness of his embrace around the female he held, at the expression on his face as he looked at her, which said he wanted nothing more than to have his stone gaze locked on her forever. She had her arms around his neck. Her legs around his waist. Her fangs were inches from his neck, poised to grasp him, frozen just out of reach of what she longed for.
Lio’s mouth touched Cassia’s neck. A whimper caught in her throat. She shivered and leaned back against him.
“I got you something at the fair,” he said.
She turned to look at him. From a pocket of his work robes, Lio pulled a narrow silk gift box. He held it out to her.
She took it in her hands. “The box is so beautiful, I feel like you’ve given me a gift already.”
He smiled. “Go ahead and open it. I can’t wait to put it on you.”
Returning his smile, she lifted the lid. Inside was a silk hair ribbon the color of her gardening dress. A lump rose in her throat. “Oh, Lio.”
“You were very kind to cover for your friends when they sneaked off. Especially when all you wanted to do was sneak off yourself.”
“You noticed.”
“I always notice.”
She lifted the treasure from the box and placed it in his hands.
He drew out her hair to let it drape down the front of her cloak. “I wish you didn’t have to cover you hair.”
“I wish I didn’t need this cloak.”
He drew a breath. “Cassia…”
She caught his hand. “Why don’t you braid it?”
He went still. “Do you mean that?”
Cassia drew breath to tell him exactly what she meant. She stood there with his mouth close enough to kiss and the words close enough to say.
He brought his face a little nearer to her, and the spell light gleamed in his eyes. As if a veil had been drawn away, she saw the truth there. Hope. So much hope, it hurt to behold.
He wanted her to stay. As much as she wanted to be able to.
She closed her lips on all the words she needed to say. She must hold herself to her resolution that she would not announce her decision to stay until she could promise him it would actually happen. After all the progress they had lost with the embassy tonight, she was not in a position to promise anything.
If the Solstice Summit failed, unspoken promises would be easier to break.
But she could not bear to break his hope. Or hers. It was all she had.
She lowered her gaze from the revelation in his and brought his hand to her hair. “I do mean it.”
She watched his long, elegant fingers slide between the sections of her hair and felt his gentle tugs as he wove the strands together. He braided her hair from the nape of her neck, over her shoulder, down her breast.
He knelt before her to weave the braid to the end. As he completed his working with the green ribbon, the motion of his fingers caressed her through her gardening dress. Looking up at her, he pressed the end of her braid to his mouth, as if making her a promise in return—or holding her to her own.
27
Nights Until
WINTER SOLSTICE
SPOILS OF PEACE
The curtains of Cassia’sguest room fluttered in the draft from the courtyard. A shimmer of light veiled by sheer silk caught her eye. Lio hadn’t long taken his leave of her, but now he stood in the courtyard once again.
