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“Please, Sahlyn. Don’t. I overreacted. I was hurt and humiliated, but my anger isn't for you.” She scoffed. “Alright, it was certainly atyou, but I’ve realized my angershouldn’tbe at you. That you sold yourself to her unbeknow—”
“I was a fucking idiot to allow what she did to me, Autumn. I won’t lie and say I did it for some heroic reason because I didn’t. She displayed all her assets and the grand things I could have, which sucked me right in. I’d lived in a poor fishing village, watching my family struggle financially for so long; I thought that if I could do something for the crown and make enough coin, I could send it home. I could be something for them. I had no idea what it would entail until I had already done it.”
“Sahlyn, do you even hear yourself? You fucking idiot.”
I jerked at her harshness, and my throat bobbed. I deserved her cruelty, even as my eyes cast down at her chastising. But she turned to me fully, cupped my chin, and made me look into her golden eyes glimmering in the starlight. Tears shivered in them, and I put my hand to her cheek, rubbing one away with my thumb. I never wanted to make her cry.
“Sahlyn, you wanted to make money forthem.For your family. For their survival…” She shook her head. “No. For them tothrive.If that is not heroic or honorable, I don’t fucking know what is, nor do I ever want to. You were pushed into believing you’re not good or worthy, and I understand that you have done unsavory things. Believe me, I understand. But your moral fiber is intact, Sahlyn. I know you think you reside in the darkness, that it consumes you, but that’s a big fucking lie.” She grabbed my face firmly in her slender fingers. Calloused from her bowstring but perfectly female. “Get yourself out of that headspace, Sahlyn Asher.Now. I need you at my side.” Her breath came out shaky, and a sob wrenched her throat. It stuttered my heart to hear it. “Ineedyou.”
Without a thought, I wrapped my arms around her waist, and her hands draped around my shoulders. I leaned into her, my cheek against her ear. “Autumn, you need no one, but I will stand at your side for the rest of my days if you wish.”
“We could die, Sahlyn. In all this. It could be the end of us.”
“It will not be,” I said with far more confidence than I felt.
“And what happens after… If we succeed?”
“We rebuild. Everyone rebuilds—themselves, their bonds, their ties, their lives, their meaning for life. Restoration is how we move forward.”
“Is there someone to claim the throne?”
I bit the corner of my lip. “It depends on the fate of Feist with this war. The Duke of Feist is kin to the late king, but… Bereille made it seem like the next in line would be a baby boy born to Duke Drekor and Lady Margarite, the daughter of the Duke of Feist, I believe. I wish I had paid more attention because I’m not sure how the succession of the crown works. The only issue is that Bereille made it seem like Queen Amira cursed the baby. I don’t even know if he still lives. I never gathered the details. Bereille—” I sucked in a harsh breath. “He was gone before I could.”
Autumn sighed and glanced back to the starlight shimmering above us. The moon was full, lending a beautiful silvery glow that shined off her hair and golden eyes. She truly was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. My belly curled with heat at the insatiable need to claim her lips with mine.
“We’re in a big fucking mess, aren’t we?”
I couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped at her bluntness. “Yes, we are. We’re directly in the middle of it.”
Her eyes slowly came back to me. She exhaled another deep sigh. “You deserve the futureyouchoose, Sahlyn. You might think you don’t, but you do. You cannot atone forever for what she made you do. Someday you deserve happiness.”
It was my turn to sigh. “Maybe someday I’ll agree with you.”
Autumn shook her head as her arms swept my shoulders to the back of my neck. She stepped closer; her body now so close our clothes rubbed against the others. I drifted my hand to push a stray lock of hair that swept across her face behind her ear. Her lashes dipped at my touch. I’d never envisioned her allowing me to touch her like this back when I’d attempted to murder her. Who would have ever thought things would end up this way? Our death loomed, yet this moment was the sweetest bliss. If I could bottle up the scent of the mountain air, her aroma of jasmine and sandalwood, and everything else about this instant, I would. I would wear it as a talisman around my neck and open it whenever my days turned dark, to remember the starlight glimmering off her golden eyes and the delicious pliancy of her firm body.
“Are you going to kiss me, Huntsman, or simply stare at me all night?”
I choked out a chuckle, and my grin touched her full mouth, which curved into a smile. A featherlight touch of my lips against hers was all I gave before I stepped back. There was no point in anything else.
She arched a dark brow, then her fingers, which had threaded into my hair, yanked, and she tugged me back to her. Her body went flush against mine, and every nerve ending in my body went molten fire that ended pooling in my groin. I wanted all of her. I was a drowning man desperate for a breath of air, and it washer. She was my air.
I’d experienced nothing like it, and I knew I would never again. Our involvement would end before it began. Was it worth it if that were all this would be—stolen kisses in the moonlight, one unforgettable night where passion consumed us, yet we’d been unable to join in that act that defied time and place?
What if Amira killed Autumn?
Autumn’s tongue darted inside my mouth, teasing and building an ache within me, scattering my melancholy thoughts.
It was worth it. It was all worth it.
I let her take the lead, and her confidence and eagerness torched through me. She was fierceness and fire in a perfectly toned, lithe little package, and at this moment in time, she was mine.
So, I took what she offered and changed the angle. One hand cupped her neck, and the other went to the small of her back. I pulled her closer until I felt every bit of her through her clothes. I rubbed the bulge in my pants against her stomach. She moaned when my teeth grazed her lower lip, and my mouth sunk deeper into hers. Our kisses escalated quickly to feverish. It had never been like this for me—all-consuming. Fire swept through my veins with my need for her. I had kissed plenty of women, but it didn’t hold a candle to this—to her. Her kissing me was my beginning and my end.
In my head, a vision of our frantic coupling played out. The first time would be quick, animalistic, and primal, but afterward, it would be gentle, tender, and worthy of what I felt for her.
Our kisses continued as the stars sputtered and waned above us, but soon things got out of hand. Our hands were roaming, clasping and yanking at clothes to the point that continuing would be torture.
I pulled my lips from hers and grazed them twice with a soft, tender touch, then tucked my face into her neck, inhaling her potent scent. Our breathing gradually slowed, and our tripping heartbeats, which had pounded in sync, calmed.
