“What would you like to do today?” she tried instead.
He looked up at her, seeming almost startled that she had spoken. He must have been deep in his thoughts again. She couldn’t imagine what he had to think so hard about. His eyes met hers and as usual her stomach did a slow roll, her heart beginning to throb almost painfully in her chest.
Must be what it feels like to be struck by Cupid’s arrow… the ache…
He looked back down at the food he wasn’t eating. “What I want to do and what I can do are two different things, lass”, he grumbled.
“Well what would you do today, if youcoulddo anything at all?”
He took a breath and let it go. “I would go home.”
Willa felt her heart leap into her throat.No! Not yet… not when I can’t even follow…And God, why did those words on his lips feel so much like a betrayal? Ruthlessly, she pushed back the feelings of panic that flooded her at the thought of him leaving… of never seeing him again. What would her life be like, if he left now? Would she always wonder, for the rest of her days, what could have been had she been just a little bolder? Pushed a bit harder?
Yes. The thought deepened her resolve.
“Well, since youaren’tgoing home today, what would you like to do while you’re stuck here with me?”
Drust regarded her with a carefully blank expression. Carefully blank because at her last question, all sorts of images flooded his mind without his permission, and he couldn’t seem to stop them. They all involved naked flesh and the woman standing before him, with her hands on her hips as if she was about to tell him off for being stubborn and prickly. Which he supposed he deserved. She had been nothing but kind to him, showing him more care then even his own brothers would have.
His cock was, as usual, swollen and now pushed uncomfortably against the fabric of his breeches. He shifted in his seat. It didn’t help matters that Willa seemed to grow more beautiful every day. Today she had on only a plain, simple dress of pale blue, but he had already noticed the way the light fabric hugged the soft curves of her body. Now, as she stood near the open doorway, the bright morning sunlight caught the highlights in her unbound hair and lent a rosy glow to her cheeks. She was perfection, an angel incarnate. And not just because she had already saved his life.Aye, he finally admitted to himself.
I want her.
To try to deny that fact any longer only made him feel like a fool. It was not his body’s primal reaction to near-death at all that had him all torn up inside and constantly harder than a damned rock. It was the woman.Thiswoman. Something about her… made him crazy. But he could never have her, even if he were to let himself consider such a thing. He didn’t know who she was, but he knew she was special. Full of grace and beauty and far too high above him to even hope to have her… He had to heal and leave this place before he was tempted to do something he would regret. Or something he’d no doubt be punished for when her family found out…
“Fine”, Willa said when he just looked at her for several long moments. “I’ll decide what we’ll do today. In fact, I’ve already decided, because I knew you were going to be stubborn about it. You see, there are two choices here. You can either enjoy the time you’re given and live life to the fullest, because you really don’t know what will happen tomorrow, or… you can be all serious and miserable and refuse to so much as smile. Which is not much fun. I know which I choose, so first, we’ll make some sweet buns, and while they bake, we’ll go for a walk, but not too far. Perhaps down to the river to bathe.”
His eyes widened at that, and Willa smiled to herself. “I’ll get the flour. And Maura brought me some raisins from her sister.” She paused to push red hot coals from the hearth into the small oven to heat it, then retrieved the flour from a shelf.
She set a bowl on the table, then moved around the room, gathering ingredients and measuring them, handing Drust a spoon.
“Here.Stir this.”
She almost laughed aloud when he looked at the spoon as if he’d never seen one before, but he apparently decided against arguing and tentatively began to stir. Willa smiled. Here was a warrior that she had no doubt would be all power and grace with a sword in his hand, yet mixing a bowl of dough seemed to confound him. She went to her little chest to retrieve a jar of cinnamon. When she took it out, she felt a mixture of joy at having such a simple pleasure, and shame that she thought to bring such luxuries under the circumstances. Of course when she had packed the tea and spices, she had only been running away. She couldn’t have known she would end up running for her life. Or maybe she should have known, had she gotten her head out of the clouds in time and paid more attention.
Well, however it came about, they would have cinnamon with the sweet buns. And this time, she was in charge. She would choose the man she wanted, and she would call the shots. Or so she hoped.
Willa struggled to open the little jar, but the lid wouldn’t budge. She pulled and twisted and tugged at it, determined. She felt her temper rising, and knew she had kept it too firmly tamped down these past weeks as survival was first and foremost. There was still a painful anger in her that was burning just below the surface, and she had been doing her best to ignore it. Now it seemed the hapless jar of cinnamon was about to take the brunt of her firmly buried emotions.
“Damn!” The expletive slipped from her lips just as she felt a solid warmth right behind her.
Drust’s arms came around her and took the jar from her hands. “Do ye need help, lass?” There was a hint of amusement in his voice as he easily loosened the lid and put the jar carefully down on the table in front of her.
She leaned back a little and turned her head to look up at him with a rueful smile.
“Thank you.”
The smile quickly faded as she became aware of the closeness of his body, pressed against her, and her heart began to pound. Instinctively, she leaned back just a little farther, bringing the length of their bodies together. He was so warm, so hard, and he smelled like dark spice and sin…
She felt Drust tense, as if such close contact with her was unwelcome, but she had seen the raw hunger flash in his eyes. And she felt the rigid evidence of that hunger suddenly pressing into the small of her back. Slowly, as if he could not help himself, his arms tightened around her, and one hand slowly trailed up her side until his fingers slid past her throat and traced the delicate line of her jaw. She stopped breathing.Waiting.Hoping.
Yes!Kiss me.Please, kiss me!
She was trembling in his arms now, consumed completely by the tension and heat and the scent of the man holding her enthralled with only the closeness of his body and the unspoken promise of what could be between them… but she would have to wait.
He made a small, anguished sound and dropped his hand, abruptly pulling away from her.
No! She had never felt so suddenly cold and alone.Abandoned.
