Her breathless reply made him chuckle. “Perhaps that is best for the duration of our time together.” He rolled off of her so that he was lying on his side, propped up on an elbow while his other hand rested on her flat stomach. His finger began to trace a nondescript pattern on her abdomen as he stared down at her.
“What are you doing?” Cyn asked him, looking up at him with wide, searching eyes.
“Touching you,” Thalion answered with no shame whatsoever. “I only have you for a limited time, and I will not waste any of it. Now.…” Thalion took a deep breath and let it out. “Tell me something about you that no one knows.”
Her face scrunched together in a deep frown. “That’s a little invasive.”
“Perhaps. But I want to know everything about you.” When she didn’t respond, he grinned. “Fine, I will start. I’ll tell you something no one knows about me…” He trailed off as he thought about his own question. “I do not like to sleep in absolute darkness.”
Her brow rose. “You’re afraid of the dark?”
He shook his head. “No, not so much afraid of the dark as much as I am shaken by the way it closes in on me. When there is a lack of light, I feel as though there is a lack of space, as well.”
“So you don’t like small, enclosed spaces?”
“Not particularly, but the dark is worse because I can’t see how small the space is. Even if it’s only in my mind,” Thalion explained.
“The mind can hold great power over a person,” Cyn said, her eyes loosing focus as she seemed to drift off to some other place.
“What power has your mind held over you, beautiful?” He leaned close to her ear and whispered.
“It seems I am unable to change my way of thinking.” Her voice was soft and as she talked, Thalion could see the tension begin to ebb away. “I have been taught for so long that I am a warrior. The idea of not being a warrior seems to throw my mind into a frenzy. Like throwing raw meat before a pack of wolves, it simply attacks me. No matter how I attempt to fight back, my mind wins. So you see…” She turned her head slightly to look at him. “It is powerful. It holds me captive to the life I have, and I don’t know that I could ever walk away. Not even for you.”
Thalion slid his body closer to hers until he was pressed against her side. He slipped his hand across her stomach to her side, gripping her hip as he tugged her even closer. “Who says you would have to stop being a warrior for me?” he asked. “I love you because of who you are. You’re right, Cyn. You are a warrior, and a very good one, from what I gather. I do not wish to take you from that.”
“How can I be with you and still perform my duties?” Cyn asked him.
The earnestness in her voice gave him hope that maybe she truly did want to find a way to be with him.
“We will figure it out, love. You don’t have to be with me every waking moment. When the council needs you, then you go. I would, however, like to request that you at least make it home to our bed every night.”
A brow rose on her forehead as her lips pursed.
He shrugged. “I know that after tonight, not having you in my arms while I sleep will be torture.”
She let out a long sigh. “I wish to talk about something else.”
Thalion wanted to press the issue, but he didn’t want her to run off again. He feared that if he pushed her on their relationship, she’d be gone before his next breath. “Can you tell me something no one else knows about you?” he asked again.
“I do not remember my sire and mother,” she said after several minutes of silence.
“Are they still in this world?”
“I have no idea,” Cyn admitted. “I don’t even remember what they look like.”
“I know I am probably going to regret saying this, but … well … you have been alive a very long time. There are probably many things that you do not remember.”
A mischievous twinkle lit up her eyes. “Are you saying I am old, Prince Thalion?”
“Would I be able to redeem myself if I said you didn’t look a day over 500?”
She laughed and the sound made his heart swell. This was what he was missing in his life—her. Her laughter, her smiles, her ability to stand up to him and throw knives at him. His existence was empty without her in it.
“I might choose to let your slight against me go for such a compliment,” she teased.
“I like this.” he motioned between them.
“What?”
