“It occurred to me,” he said, “that having been away from Summerlea so long, you might be missing your home, so I thought I’d bring a little home to you here.”
She stroked the soft, velvety petals of the flower, then looked back up into his darkly handsome face. The gold eyes gleaming softly, framed by thick black lashes and dark bronze skin. The shimmering blue stylized waves curling along the bridge of his cheekbone. Tenderness welled inside her.
“Thank you,” she whispered. She didn’t know if one of her sisters had told him of her particular attachment to her mother’s roses, or if he’d just made a lucky guess, but of all the gifts he’d showered upon her, this one touched her the most deeply.
Never had he appealed to her so completely as he did now, this very moment. He stood before her, a haven of strength and otherworldly beauty and beckoning welcome. Everything about him called to her senses. The soft drape of his pure whiteshumacircling narrow hips, his feet bare on the marble floor, the broad, muscular expanse of his chest and shoulders—shoulders that looked strong enough to bear the weight of the world. Most of all the dark, warm, silky skin shimmering with hypnotic swirls of iridescent ink and fragrant with the exotic oils that made her ache to snuggle close and breathe him in like the flowers she loved so much.
It was as if every part of Dilys’s being was standing before her, murmuring softly, “I am everything you’ve ever wanted. I am all that you will ever need. I can keep you safe—even from yourself—if you will just let yourself love me.”
The Rose on her wrist pulsed warm against her skin. It was so hard—so dreadfully, painfully hard—to be alone when everything in her cried out with the need to feel complete.
If he leaned down right now to kiss her, as the soft light in his eyes told her he wanted to do, she would let him. And she would kiss him back.
But instead, with one last, faint smile, he bowed his head and stepped back. “Good night, princess. May your dreams be sweet.”
Then he was turning... walking away... and then he was gone.
Gabriella stood beside her doorway for a long time, staring at the empty space where Dilys had been. It occurred to her that, apart from her initial resistance and the rough start to their dinner, she’d never enjoyed a more wonderful, perfect evening in her life. She’d never lost herself in conversation with any man like she had tonight—never revealed as much of herself to anyone either.
Never felt such a perfect sense of peace. Of belonging.
Of coming home.
Long after Amaryllis had helped her change into her nightclothes, Gabriella lay awake in her bed, staring at the Summerlea rose she’d placed in a bud vase and set on her nightstand. Throughout the few brief hours of Konumarr’s short summer night, she seriously thought about Dilys Merimydion, contemplated what life with him might be like, imagined letting herself love him. And she waited for the familiar sense of terror to rise up and clamp its jaws around her. Waited for the monster to roar with triumph and claw for its freedom.
But for the first time in her life, the terror didn’t come and the monster didn’t rouse.
Chapter 16
Every day for the next week, Dilys spent several carefully planned and frugally apportioned hours in the company of the woman he planned to wed.
He was careful to keep his desires tightly checked. The more he wanted her, the less he allowed himself to touch her. He had made his desire for her clear. Now it was time to let that knowledge of that desire work upon on her.
That she wanted him as desperately as he wanted her, he did not doubt, but she was still too skittish, too ready to bolt if he came at her directly. Forcing her to admit her desire hadn’t worked. She’d only accused him of using his magic against her and then run away. Seduction hadn’t worked. She’d only resented him for the ease with which he’d broken down her will to resist him. Absencedidwork, but he couldn’t make himself stay away—at least not completely. With both of them bound inliakapua,they needed to spend time with one another, to share emotions, to share touch.
So he saw her every day, for a few short hours. He abandoned all the seductive techniques he’d spent a lifetime learning in order to win the bond of his chosenliana.Instead, in the time he and Summer spent together, he offered her simple companionship. Friendship. Laughter. Even a little adventure—something to break up the sheltered monotony of her gilded royal cage. One day he took her hiking up the mountains. Another day, he took her out on one of the local Winterfolk’s small skiffs and taught her how to read the wind and work the sails. And just yesterday, they had gone cloudberry picking with several dozen other couples and children, then joined the group in one of the plazas, where they spent a laughing hour or two making and baking cloudberry pies with the fruits of their excursion. Gabriella—who’d never baked anything in her life—ended up wearing almost as much flour as went into the pie crusts, but the day was delightful, the pies delicious, and he could have sworn she was sorry when the afternoon ended and he escorted her back to the palace.
There were weddings daily, as Summerlander and Winterfolk women chose their mates from among the Calbernans. Dilys attended several of the ceremonies with Summer—including the marriage of her friend, Lily, to his ballista operator, Talin. And even though Summer fretted that Lily had chosen too fast and was acting recklessly, it was clear that Talin doted on his newliana,and that the Summerlass had blossomed in his care. Lily was still shy—she probably always would be—but there was a new confidence about her, a greater readiness to laugh and smile. As for Talin, he strutted around in his newobah,grinning like akokufish and bragging about his impending fatherhood with as much pride as if he’d done the deed himself.
Each time Summer and Dilys were together, he tried in dozens of different ways to get her to talk about the terrible event in her childhood that had frightened her so badly she had spent a lifetime walling up her emotions, caging her power, and damming up the driving, Siren-born need to love and be loved in return.
She hadn’t confided in him yet, but his patience was beginning to pay off in other ways. She’d become less guarded in her conversation. She’d stopped constantly lying to him... well, for the most part. She’d stopped trying to put as much physical space between them as possible, too. Now, in fact, she frequently chose to close the distance between them rather than widen it. And yesterday, when he’d taken his leave of her, she’d leaned towards him, a slight flush in her lovely cheeks, and he’d known he could have bent his head and kissed her and she would not have stopped him.
But passive acquiescence was not what he wanted from her.
The next time he kissed her, it would be becausesheinitiated it.
He only hoped that time would come soon, because being with her but withholding himself from her was killing him. Each moment in her company was an exquisite torment that kept him lying awake in his bed every night, racked with need and longing.
He took comfort from the knowledge that the most precious of victories were always the hardest won. When his Siren finally claimed him, every sleepless night, every painful moment of self-denial, would be worth it.
Or, at least, that’s what he told himself each time he had to wrestle his desire into submission and don the increasingly torturous mask of Dilys the Patient Suitor before heading out to meet the Siren whose claim he was determined to win.
Dilys grimaced at his reflection in the mirror as he arranged the fall of his green, blue and goldshuma,then gave his emerald-and-sapphire-encrusted belt a final, unnecessary adjustment and headed downstairs to collect his future bride for today’s adventure.
Summer and Dilys shared a light afternoon tea, complete with dozens of the delicious little iced cakes that she loved and a full tray of sinfully delicious chocolates from Zephyr Hallowill’s shop. Summer couldn’t decide between the two, and ended up eating far too many of both her favorite confections. Dilys didn’t seem to mind her gluttony. He only smiled at her with indulgent delight and offered her more iced cakes and chocolates, seeming to thrive on her pleasure as if it were his own.
“You will not find this so amusing when I double my weight,” she warned him.
