“Cease,” she said softly. “You are only half shaved, and I would finish before you have your way with me.”
He was trying not to smile or laugh, trying to remain still while she finished one side of his face before moving to the other.
“Sorry,” he said, barely moving his lips. “I simply cannot help it.”
“You’d better, or I might accidentally slit your throat.”
He remained still after that, his eyes following her as she finished shaving him. Then she washed out the razor and set it aside, using the damp rag to wipe Roi’s face of the remaining soap.
“There,” she said, looking at her handiwork. “You look like a proper lord now.”
His big hands completely covered both buttocks, and he pulled her against him, her naked flesh against his. “You have my thanks, wife,” he said softly, instantly hard and aroused. “Now, it is my turn.”
Diara wound her arms around his neck. “To do what?”
His answer was to slant his mouth over hers, kissing her passionately. Diara gave herself over to him completely, letting him have his way with her, and he took charge. His lips moved over her clean skin and to her damp, firm breasts before claiming her lips once more. The bath was growing cool, and he stood up, still holding her, and carried her over to the bed, where he laid her down atop the coverlet and had his way with her.
Twice.
As they lay there in clean, damp bliss, still wrapped around one another, they began to hear Dorian’s voice as she argued with her sister. The family chambers were on one level, with Roi and Diara’s chamber being right next to Adalia and Dorian’s. The walls were thick, made of stone and two feet wide in some places, but the doors weren’t good sound barriers. Dorian was upset about something, and tangled up in Roi’s arms, Diara sighed heavily.
“Should I see what is amiss?” she asked, her face half pressed into Roi’s chest.
He opened his eyes, staring up at the ceiling as he listened to his daughters argue. “Nay,” he said quietly. “I will go.”
“Are you certain?”
He gently let her go and sat up. “Aye,” he said. “They are my daughters. I do not feel as if I’ve been a very good father to them. You’ve helped me to realize that I should pay more attention to them, whether or not you are aware of it.”
Diara sat up beside him. “They do not think you are a bad father,” she said gently, putting her hand on his head in a comforting gesture. “I certainly do not. Your children love you very much.”
He looked at her. “That may be, but I have not been around for them,” he said. “Watching you with them, seeing how you are with them… They are my family, Deedee. We arealla family. Losing Beckett has made me realize just how important my family is to me. And I want to be a better father to my daughters.”
She smiled at him, and he kissed her before he stood up and went in search of his clothing. A week ago, Diara had been mortified at the sight of a naked man, but just a short time later, she’d relished it. The man had a spectacular form. As he pulled on his breeches, she got up from the bed and went to the wardrobe, finding the robe that Dustin had left for her on their wedding night. She pulled it on, tying the sash around her waist, as Roi pulled on a tunic.
There was a table near one of the windows with a small, polished mirror on it, and she sat in front of the table and picked up a comb, pulling it through her hair just as Roi opened the door to the girls squabbling in the corridor outside. As she combed her hair, she could hear him trying to negotiate a truce between two girls who hadn’t had much fatherly interaction intheir lives. But Diara smiled faintly as she realized that was about to change.
I want to be a better father to them.
She thought that Adalia and Dorian were lucky girls, indeed.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Totterdown Castle
Demesne of Lord Cirencester
“Tell me whathe said again.”
“The time is now, my lord.”
Riggs Fairford clearly knew what Mathis meant, but Mathis had no idea. He was exhausted from a long ride that had started at Lioncross Abbey, escorting Robin and Ananda and Iris back to Cicadia Castle, but it ended at Totterdown when Robin demanded that he take a message to Cirencester. It wasn’t even a written message, but a verbal one. Four very simple words—the time is now.
He’d had to repeat those words three times to Cirencester until the man seemed to understand them. In fact, his face appeared to light up with glee as he turned away from Mathis and paced the floor of a chamber in the keep of Totterdown that was barely habitable. There were holes in the wall, a floor that had some weak spots, and about a dozen dogs lounged over the place. For a family who was so legendary in their wealth, they certainly didn’t show it.
“The time is now,” Cirencester repeated succinctly. “That is very good news. You can return to tell him that I shall comply. Did he confirm that I should move my army to Colesborne?”
“Colesborne, my lord?” Mathis said, puzzled. “He said nothing about it.”
