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You shouldn’t feel that bad for him after the way he treated you before, Julita says tartly.He hardly needs coddling.
“It really might help me sleep better too,” I murmur back.
She lets out a skeptical hum.
When Stavros accepts my knock on the bedroom door, I find him sitting up at the far end of the vast bed, leaning against the headboard. The loose short-sleeved undershirt that covers everything but his head, neck, and arms leaves whatever modesty I possess completely unaffected. I do my best not to wonder what he might have on—or not—under the covers tucked around his torso.
As I go to retrieve the book from the table where I left it, the former general clears his throat. “Since it doesn’t sound as if it’d cause any issues with Aleksi or Casimir, I was thinking—and you can absolutely say no, not that you’ve ever had any trouble with that before—I would feel even better if you spent the night in here rather than on the sofa. Simply so I’ll know immediately if the scourge sorcerers call you away during the night.”
I blink at him. “You want me to sleep in the chair?”
The crooked grin comes back. “I was thinking the bed has rather enough room. We can stick to our own ends without imposing on each other’s space at all. I’d imagine it’d be more comfortable for you than the sofa.”
My fingers tighten around the book. I know from past experience that his mattress is close to divine—he brought me in here after Esmae nearly murdered me.
But his bed didn’t havehimin it then.
I want to say yes at least as much as I want to say no, and I’m not sure I’d like the reasons why if I looked at them closely.
“Won’t that be worse for your nightmares?” I say instead. “Having the monstrous riven sorcerer right there beside you?”
Stavros stares at me for a moment, some of the color leaching from his light brown skin. Then he swipes his hand over his face. “Ivy… You’re not the villain in the nightmares I’ve been having lately. And I’m never quite fast enough to save you. So I’d say having you close at hand would help deflect any bad dreams too.”
Julita makes a sound like a sucked in breath. The book wobbles in my hand. I can’t find my words.
Even after all his apologies and attempts at amends-making, it never occurred to me that he could fear for my well-being on such a deep level it’d infect his dreams.
In my silence, Stavros makes a dismissive gesture. “It’s all right. You clearly don’t like the idea. Make full use of my chair for the reading, and—”
“No.” My heart is beating very fast, and I’m not totally sure why. I don’t know if I want the answer to that either. “A bed definitely beats a sofa. If we both stick to our own sides.”
Stavros halts, and a softer smile touches his face. My racing pulse manages to skip a beat as well.
“We stick to our own sides,” he says like a promise. “You can sleep on top of the covers if you prefer—or I will. Whatever makes you most comfortable.”
I swallow thickly. “I’ll stay on top for reading, at least.”
Stavros nudges one of the plump pillows closer to my side. I prop it up against the headboard and sit gingerly right at the edge of the bed.
He’s far enough away that I’d have to lean over to touch him. This really isn’t that big a deal.
Insisting on that to myself, I tug on the ribbon to open the book to our last page and focus on the story. “They thought that was the worst of the journey, of course, until they stumbled on the village in the hidden valley…”
Thirty-Six
Ivy
Ijolt out of sleep at an unexpected pressure around my waist.
I tense instinctively and realize it isn’t just my waist. There’s solid warmth all down my back that matches the weight on my side.
Stavros. He’s drawn himself against me on the bed and looped his muscular arm around my belly in a loose embrace, his smoky spicy scent wafting over me.
I don’t think he’s aware of what he’s done, though. The soft, slow rasp of his breath behind me tells mehe’sstill asleep.
The heat of him courses right through to the center of me. I’m starkly aware that there are only a couple of layers of thin fabric separating our bodies.
How in the realms did we end up like this?
