‘You are frightened. I can stay with you tonight,’ he offered.
‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘I’d rather be alone. And Connor is here if—’
‘He did well defending you,’ Riordan scoffed. ‘I could see that for myself.’
The derision in his voice turned her cold. ‘Please, Riordan. I just want to sleep.’ With a pointed look, she added, ‘Alone.’
‘If you have need of me…’
This was not working. She took his hands in hers. ‘I am grateful for your help this night. Truly I am.’ She expelled a sigh.
His face coloured with pride, and she understood suddenly that this was what he’d sought. Her approval.
‘Tomorrow morn, perhaps you’d like to walk with me?’ he invited.
She forced a false smile on to her face. ‘I’ll see how I feel in the morning.’ For now, she just wanted to be left alone. She needed to see Connor, to know that he was all right. But if she let Riordan know it, he’d never leave her be.
Finally he left, closing the door behind him. Aileen reached for a jug and poured herself a cup of mead. She drank the amber liquid and fortified her strength.
When she was certain Riordan had gone, she left her hut to see Connor. She opened the door, but there was no fire, only cool darkness.
‘I don’t want you here, Aileen.’
His voice was like granite, harsh and unyielding.
‘Did they harm you? Let me see—’
‘No.’ He kept away from her in the shadows. ‘You need not concern yourself on my behalf. They did not harm me.’
The stillness stretched onwards, and he asked, ‘What about you?’
‘I am not hurt.’
‘It was good that Riordan was there.’
And yet, she could not understand how Riordan had come to be there at precisely the right moment. ‘It was.’
‘Go back to your hut, Aileen.’
‘Not yet.’
The intimate darkness granted her a kind of courage she might not otherwise have. She stepped forward, touching her palms to his face. His warm skin, the rough planes of his jaw, drew her to him. She leaned down and kissed him.
His firm mouth did not kiss her back, so she put more of herself into it, taking his lips and deepening it. She threaded her hands into his hair, and suddenly she broke through to him.
He kissed her back, his mouth unleashing the full force of passion. His tongue met hers, and she gripped his neck to keep from losing her balance. His hands kept still at her waist, but his mouth devoured hers.
Her body awakened, and she needed to be with him. She no longer cared that he was going to leave her, planned to give himself over into Death’s hands. For this night, she craved his touch.
And then he broke away. ‘Leave me, Aileen.’
‘I don’t want to.’
He leaned in, nipping a kiss against her lips. ‘You were right to turn me away the other night. It’s better if we don’t travel down this path.’
‘I was wrong,’ she whispered. ‘But you frightened me. When I’m with you, I can’t stop myself from feeling this way.’
‘You saw what happened.’ His voice was bitter. ‘I couldn’t protect you from those men.’
