“Nay,” Maxwell said at once. “Nae yet.”
Her jaw tightened. “But he’s in danger.”
“Aye.”
The word tasted like iron.
“He’s on the border,” Maxwell continued, the words spilling now that the seal was broken. “With the bordermen. He thinks O’Douglas will move soon. He’s right.”
Ariella’s eyes never left his face. “And ye think he’s putting himself in harm’s way?”
“I ken he is,” Maxwell snapped, then immediately gentled his tone. “He always does.”
Her thumb brushed over a vein in his wrist, and he shuddered despite himself.
“If something happens to him,” Maxwell said, voice dropping, “there will be nay undoing it.”
Ariella stepped closer. Their bodies nearly touched now. “Ye willnae let that happen.”
“I cannae be everywhere,” he said, frustration bleeding through. “I cannae fight every battle myself.”
Her hands slid higher, over his biceps, grounding him. “Ye daenae have to.”
He scoffed softly. “That is nae how this works.”
“It is now,” she said simply.
He stared down at her, searching her face for doubt, for fear, for any sign that she did not understand what she was offering.
There was none.
“How did ye ken I was like this?” he asked quietly.
She smiled, small and sad. “I didnae. I just felt… unsettled.”
His chest ached, sharp and sudden, like he’d drawn breath the wrong way. And he ignored it.
“I am glad ye found me,” he said, the admission scraping free.
Her hands stilled. “I will always find ye.”
The words landed like a vow.
The room seemed to tilt. The fire popped softly. Outside, the wind pressed against the stone.
“Ye’re nae alone,” she continued. “Nae anymore. Whatever comes, we face it together.”
He should have stepped back.
He should have said something measured and careful and safe.
Instead, the scent of her hair as she moved filled his lungs, and his body responded before his mind could catch up. Heat coiled low and insistent, driving away the cold fear, replacing it with something fierce and alive.
He groaned softly, a sound he did not recognize as his own.
Her hands were still on his arms, still grounding him, but now there was awareness there too. A question.
He reached up, fingers brushing her jaw, thumb tracing the line of her chin with reverence that surprised him.
