“You have yet to entreatme.”
His smile was quick and wicked. “Please, my Annelise, see to the welfare of myhorse.”
“I already do,” she replied. “I would rather see to your welfare during the day, sir.” He silenced her argument with a potent kiss, one so heated that she nigh forgot her own name. Annelise felt her annoyance with him fade away. She was breathless when he broke his kiss and warm to hertoes.
He knocked firmly on the gates. “Open and admit the lady!” hecried.
The gates did precisely that. Did they also obey her husband’swill?
There was an intriguingthought.
Her spouse simply pressed a kiss to her brow. “Be good,” he murmured, and gave her a little shove toward thepalace.
“When will I see you?” sheasked.
But he was already gone and gone so completely that she was afraid he had never been there at all. The gates creaked and Annelise darted into the courtyard, fearful they would leave her locked out in the cold andalone.
Only when they slammed shut behind her did she realize that the scent of the air inside had changed. Rivulets ran across the damp ground, all that remained of the snow that had drifted here when she left. The air was mild and humming with the sounds ofinsects.
It was incredible. Annelise stared in awe, touching the flowers that only the night before had been bent beneath the weight of the snow. The sky was clear blue overhead and a bird swooped low overher.
He had done this forher.
Annelise laughed and strolled through the garden to the palace, certain she was wed to a wonderful, if enigmatic, man. A steaming bath awaited her, along with clean linen and another kirtle. There were boots of fine leather, boots that would be ideal for riding ahorse.
Annelise smiled. Not only did her husband attend to her needs, but he cared about her comfort. He had changed the weather within the palace walls purely to pleaseher.
Perhaps he came to love heralready.
She would guess her husband’s name. She would convince him to trust her. She would win his reprieve from the djinn’scurse.
And then this marriage would be precisely as she had always hoped wedlock wouldbe.
* * *
WasRolfe becoming the same pathetic suitor who had brought gifts to Rosalinde like a hapless pup? He had sworn he would never play the fool again, especially for a woman. Rosalinde had deceived him, as had the first djinn and possibly the second, aswell.
As mightAnnelise.
Yet he had changed the temperature inside the walls of the palace, simply to please his wife. He had entrusted her with the tale of the two djinns and had very nearly told her all abouthimself.
Was he tootrusting?
Or was Annelise worthy of histrust?
Surely, her every thought showed in her expressiveeyes.
Rolfe spent the day as a wolf, a wolf pre-occupied with thoughts of a certain lady. Did he dare return to her that night? Would she guess his name or learn more of hissecrets?
Would she betrayhim?
Every instinct within Rolfe told him to go to Annelise, to make love with her, to talk to her, to confess the full tale toher.
But he should not riskit.
He could not riskit.
The djinn’s curse warned him of the price he would pay for trusting anyone. What manner of fool was he to doubt what these beings could do, given what they had already done tohim?
