‘Sorry,’ he muttered, realising his clumsy manoeuvre had knocked the wind out of me.
‘He wants to go,’ I said, my words falling sluggishly off my tongue.I couldn’t look up at Torgrin, but I could feel his gaze on my naked breasts.
‘D’you wanna go, Captain?’Cillian’s words slurred together.
Torgrin’s silence ate away at me, so I lifted my heavy head and attempted to focus on the man standing only a few steps away.
He was holding the stag’s head, forgotten at his side.Dark, inky strands of untamable hair fell into his eyes.He watched me like he always did, as if this would be the last time he would ever see me, and he needed to remember every freckle and strand of my hair.
‘I want whatever she wants.’Torgrin blurred in front of me as tears rose unbidden under my heavy lids.
‘She wants you tastay sooo I want you tastay.’Cillian smiled beautifully at me right before dropping to the floor in a heap.Without Cillian holding me, I felt my legs give way, and I fell to the ground in a puddle of skirts.
When I opened my eyes again, Cillian was snoring in the bed beside me, and Torgrin was pulling my boots off.I must have said his name, for he looked up at me.His eyes were molten pitch as he took in my semi-nakedness.I smiled, revelling under his gaze.
He placed my boots aside, then returned to remove my mask.His fingers touched my cheek, and a desperate wanting shivered down my entire body.I sat forward so he could reach behind my head and untie the mask’s ribbon.As he reached behind me, his forearm brushed my naked breast.I couldn’t hide the way my nipples peaked or the sudden flush of my skin.I breathed in his scent as he removed the mask.Trees and lightning.
He dipped his head to look at my uncovered face, and I raised a hand to cup his scarred cheek.Our rapid breaths mingled as we stared into each other’s eyes.
My entire body trembled at the sharp stab of yearning deep inside me, where I remembered what it was to love him with my body.‘Do you remember what it was like between us?’My words were nonsense, but I saw a flash of something in his eyes.
He closed his dark eyes, drawing in a steadying breath.His face turned in my cupped hand and he laid a lingering kiss on my palm.
Torgrin stepped away from the bed, leaving me again.I knew I was not thinking clearly, but my heart cried out for him as if it knew what it was to miss him.‘Don’t go,’ I lamented.
Torgrin halted halfway to the door, his back speaking volumes to me.I was making it difficult for him to do the honourable thing.My desperate plea must have shaken his resolve, and I was glad for it.
He turned away from the door, his head bowed.
With a swift motion, he pulled his shirt over his head, revealing a tanned, sculpted torso.Dark hair sparsely covered his chest while a slender line trailed down to his waistband, resting low on his hips.
My fingers itched to explore him, but I was quiet and still while he sat on the edge of the bed to remove his boots.Finally, he climbed in next to me with his breeches still on.I hesitated, unsure what he was allowing.
‘Come closer,’ he said huskily.
Like that night on the road, my head found the spot I liked just under his chin, where his shoulder and chest cradled me.This time, we were skin to skin, and my fingers brushed the hair that gathered under his navel.He sucked in a sharp breath, but when I didn’t move my hand any lower, he relaxed.Once again, the slowing beat of his heart soothed me to sleep.
†
I sat in darkness as the sound of river rapids drowned out the sound of the dying stag’s harsh breathing.The proud animal lay in my lap, bleeding from an arrow piercing its body.
‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ I cried, for it was my arrow buried in the stag’s chest.
My hunched back stiffened at the howl of a wolf.I strained to see the animal faltering between tree trunks in the shadows.
‘Stay away!’I held the stag closer to my chest.
The wolf turned its head and whimpered.The sound pierced my soul.This was no ordinary wolf, just like the stag in my lap.
‘It’s all right, don’t cry,’ I begged as the wolf continued to search for me.I kept calling it, my voice bringing the wild wolf to its belly, inching its way closer to us.
My hand sank into its golden-umber fur, and the sensation of warm, flowing blood greeted me.The faithful animal lifted its heavy head, and I cried out at what I saw.The wolf’s eyes were gone, taken violently.
A black owl hooted from a low-hanging branch.The goddess Hecate.She could save my stag and my wolf.
‘Help them!Please!’I begged her soulless eyes.
But I wasn’t her dark-haired daughter.Why would she help me?
