I slipped my hand around his jaw. He sighed and leaned into my palm.
Slowly, I eased closer to him. He let me come, heat flickering in his eyes. I halted a hair’s breadth from his lips. His short, warm breaths pulsed against my mouth.
I fucking love you for it.
My eyes fluttered closed, and I pressed my lips against his. Softly. A shy greeting. A breathless agreement.
He kissed me back the same way, as if he didn’t want to frighten me. As if there was more he could give, but wouldn’t.
“Kiera,” he whispered against my lips.
A knock sounded on the door. “Young lady? I have some clean clothes for you.”
Aiden’s brow furrowed, but he backed away from me. I wasn’t sure if I was relieved or frustrated.
He opened the door.
Caddik poked his head in, checking to see if I was still in there. He cleared his throat and leveled a stern look at Aiden. “The others are looking for you in the kitchen.”
Aiden shot a glance toward me, a myriad of unspoken words in it. Then he disappeared out the door.
Caddik handed me a stack of clothing. “These should fit you. Best hurry before all the breakfast is gone.”
I thanked him, and he left. He’d given me a pair of hardy trousers, like the kind a worker might wear. There was also a thick, long-sleeved shirt. Someone had embroidered tiny yellow flowers growing out of the breast pockets.
I rubbed my thumb over the cheerful flowers. Did these clothes belong to his wife? Or a daughter, perhaps?
I’d have worn a sack if it got me out of this dead soldier’s uniform, so I was profoundly grateful for Caddik’s generosity. Even if he seemed curmudgeonly and had essentially tossed Aiden out of the bathroom.
My lips still tingled with awareness as I hastily changed clothes. So many things had happened in such a short time.
Aiden had said he loved me for my defiance. Was that all he loved me for? I wasn’t completely ignorant of the feelings that still tethered us together. I knew he felt the same raw attraction I did.
But was there more?
Chapter 33
Aiden
Gods damn it,why did I say that?
I ran my hands through my hair as I walked to the back of the house where the kitchen was. The hum of conversation mixed with the clanging of pots and pans.
I fucking love you for it.
I rolled the words around in my head. They were true. Too true. I hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
Kiera was nervous around me. She still didn’t trust me. Not completely. I wasn’t even sure I completely trusted her.
But that didn’t stop me from wanting her. Loving the pieces of herself she offered me. I had to fight for every piece, and I never wanted to stop fighting.
When she’d sat there looking so heartbroken and defeated, telling me of the impossible position Renwell had put her in, it’d stirred something deep inside me. Her desire to do right, her guilt in falling short, and her grief for others.
It was a deadly mix, and one I understood all too well.
But her story—our time in Aquinon—was making more and more sense. Her desperation to save Helene and Isabel. Renwell taking Maz. We’d been caught in a battle between master and apprentice.
And Renwell kept fucking winning.
