As Xander stuffed his hands into his pockets and let out a long breath, Adriana noticed the shadows in which she hid had started to move. One of them brushed her face in a delicate gesture, a familiar cool touch against her cheek, before rushing back to Xander. As soon as it reached him, his head snapped up and his eyes met hers through the darkness.
Swallowing down the strange giddiness she felt, Adriana stepped into the dim light shining from the kitchens, coming to stop a few feet in front of the man she had missed. He said nothing, his face gave absolutely nothing away either, as he stared at her in silence.
“You came back,” Adriana stated, trying her best to hide the joy she felt of seeing him again.
“It seems that way, doesn’t it?”
She let out an exasperated laugh at his sarcasm. She had forgotten just how annoying he could be, how easily he could get under her skin. With a sigh, she moved to step past him to go through the door to the kitchens, when his hand grabbed her arm under her cloak.
His grip was warm, firm, and she realised that he wasn’t wearing any gloves. She eyed the dark swirling markings of his Nocte brand that stretched down his hand and curled around his fingers as they flexed around her arm. They were beautiful.
Adriana’s breath caught in her throat as he tugged her closer, bringing her attention back to his dark glare. He dipped his head down for a moment as if he might kiss her, and for a fleeting second, her heart seemed to stop beating entirely. Then, he dropped her arm and stepped back abruptly, a sour expression upon his face as he shook his head.
“I can smell him on you,” he said in a low voice. She frowned at him, confused by what he meant. “Your stable boy, his scent is all over you.”
Adriana gave him an incredulous look, before stepping forward and crossing her arms over her chest. “Well then, perhaps you should not have left.”
Xander raised an eyebrow at her comment, before his face slowly split into his signature smirk, a devilish glint in his eye. He stepped to meet her, closing the gap between them.
“Would that have made a difference? Would you have come to me instead of that inexperienced boy who is clearly not enough for you?”
He brought his hand to her face and his touch burned through her, igniting a heat within her that she hadn’t felt since he had left. His bare knuckles brushed against her cheek, leaving a warm glow from within her skin in their path.
“Would you have preferred that I had stayed? If I had not left you that night, would you have wanted me to stay with you, to touch you, to kiss you until the sun rose?”
She could hardly breathe, all she could do was stare into his eyes and listen to his deep voice as her body moved closer of its own accord, her hands reaching up to his chest and fisting the lapels of his coat. She moaned as his fingers trailed through her hair before grabbing her loose braid, pulling it slightly to tilt her head back as he leant in again. His other hand reached inside her cloak and held her side, rubbing circles over her hip through her skirts with his thumb.
“Tell me,” he growled, his breath fanning over her face. “Tell me what you want me to do. Tell me that I am not the only one feeling like this.” He pulled her hair tighter, eliciting a soft gasp from her lips at the sweet pain.
The sound seemed to snap something within him and he quickly stepped back, breathing heavily through his nose as hiseyes roamed her body. She held a hand to her chest; her heart was beating wildly.
“Forgive me,” he whispered, his eyes averting hers. “What happened that night was wrong of me.”
“Are you apologising for kissing me? Or for leaving?”
“Both,” he quipped back immediately.
Adriana shook her head, biting her lip as she held back a laugh or a sob, she didn’t know which. She wanted him to be sorry for leaving, not for kissing her, because then she’d have to apologise to herself for wanting him to do it again.
“At least Jonathon was waiting for me,” she said smugly. “Otherwise who knows, maybe Lord Abbot’s scent would be on me instead.”
Xander’s eyes flared, a muscle in his jaw ticked as his teeth audibly ground together.
“That pathetic excuse of a man will not be bothering you ever again.”
His calm, cold tone sent chills within her. The rumours that Abbot had left town, they’d all been speculations, no one had actually known what had happened to him. But Xander knew. She could see it in his eyes. He knew exactly what had happened.
Before she could say anything else, Xander reached a hand inside his coat and produced a small box wrapped in a purple ribbon, holding it out for her. As she reached to take it, her fingers brushed his for a split second before he wrenched his hand back, his brow pinching as he watched her.
He backed away from her slowly as he quietly said, “Happy Birthday, Adriana,” before turning to walk off into the night, his shadows gathering around him.
Adriana rushed inside, locked the door behind her and rested her forehead against its wooden panels. Abbot was likely dead, and Xander had more than likely killed him. She wasn’t surehow she was meant to feel about it, how she was meant to feel about anything anymore.
With trembling hands, she unwrapped the ribbon from the box to find a small vial of perfume with her name scribbled on the label tied around it. She twisted the silver stopper off and held it to her nose, expecting to find a common scent that the women in town used. But instead, the unmistakable smell of lilies and lavender filled her nostrils, her favourite flowers that she grew in the gardens and often kept vases full of in her room.
Beneath the florals, she detected an undertone of another smell, a heavier, muskier scent. A whiff of sandalwood, a hint of amber, all encompassed by the smell of the trees after a storm. She couldn’t place what it was exactly, and yet it seemed so familiar to her, so beautiful. Sohim.
She knew she should be terrified of him, of what he had practically just admitted to. And yet, she noticed she was still not afraid as a small smile played on her lips.
