Kit sidestepped and twisted his arm free of her grip. Shadows darkened his features.
Tessa’s eyes flashed wide with surprise, but she regained her composure quickly. “I get off at sundown,” she offered, crowding Kit again. “We could share a meal.”
I grit my teeth, and my hands clenched. I had a response at the ready, but Kit was quicker to speak.
“I’m going to have to decline,” he said. “I think you have a certain idea of where you would like this to go, and any effort toward that end would be wasted on me.”
With her back to me, I couldn’t see Tessa’s face, but I imagined it rife with disappointment.
“I don’t understand.”
Kit set his stance with his arms folded across his chest. There was no mistaking the gravity in his tone as he explained. “I already have someone, and I’m quite happy with him. I’m not interested in pursuing anything with anyone else.”
I smiled so wide my cheeks hurt. Kit’s gaze flicked up to meet mine for a fleeting moment, and I hoped he saw clearly how damn happy I was. How proud.
Tessa looked wholly foolish holding her unwanted foodwhile Kit gave her nothing but disdain. “So, it’s true then?” she sniped, trading her honey for vinegar all at once. “You’d rather have a man than me?”
Kit didn’t reply, but his silence spoke volumes.
Tessa huffed and crossed her arms under her breasts, seeming to heave them up in a final effort to attract Kit’s notice. “I’d make you a fine wife, you know,” she said, and moved her hips so her skirt swished. “I could cook for you, keep your house, satisfy your desires…”
Her sultry tone had returned and was almost too much for me to take. My lips peeled back in a snarl, and my body bunched up tight, ready to launch at Tessa and drag her out of here.
While rage ate me up from the inside, Kit remained impossibly stoic.
“I think I’m more suited to a husband than a wife.”
Every bit of tension fled my body, and I went so limp it was a miracle I didn’t collapse. Tears pricked my eyes, but I blinked them quickly away.
First courting, now marriage? Did he really think of me that way? I told him I’d love him forever. Did he picture our future the way I did?
Tessa’s protest became a drone in my ears until she declared, “You don’t know what you’re missing.”
Kit shook his head, and his curls brushed his brow. “I’m well aware, and I’m glad to be missing it.” He retrieved the tongs and piece of steel from where they’d been set aside while Tessa and I watched him, both of us struck dumb, but for entirely different reasons.
He returned the metal to the bed of coals, then poked at them with the tongs, seemingly disengaged until he fell still. “Also, don’t touch my recruit again. I don’t abide anyone putting hands on him without his consent.” Heturned on Tessa with a glower. “The next time it happens, you’ll deal with me.”
Tessa backpedaled, clearly more swayed by Kit’s threats than mine. She stammered through a weak protest, then finally shook her head and threw the package of roast on the shop floor before dashing out into the square.
Kit made a sound that might have been a laugh as he returned to stoking the coals. I was still stunned and a bit unsteady when I bent to pick up the brown-paper wrapped dish from the ground and toss it into the waste barrel outside the canopy. With that managed, I glanced at Kit again. He looked pleased, and merriment sparkled in his eyes.
Coming up to him, I snagged the apron string tied around his waist and tugged him away from the forge and toward the secluded back corner of the shop. He was still holding the tongs and giving me a quizzical look when I grabbed both sides of his face and brought him in for a kiss.
His laugh ended it quickly, and he shook his head. “Careful, she might come back,” he said, but the warning lacked conviction.
I kept my grip on his apron, and my smile returned, wide and toothy. “Then she’ll be even angrier to find out who your someone is.”
Kit hummed softly, and his lips curved in a smirk of his own. “Oh, did you think that was about you?”
My head bobbed as I pushed in for another kiss. “I’m your someone,” I murmured against his mouth.
Kit nodded, too, then tipped his forehead to rest on mine. “You’re my only one.”
Excitement filled me with giddy energy. I didn’t want to let him go, didn’t even want to stand still. It was perfect. Everything was perfect, and I couldn’t have done a lick ofsmithing if I tried, so I was grateful when Kit smiled and gave me an out.
“You know, Pen, youdowork hard around here. I think you’ve earned the afternoon off. What say you go check on Thoma in the stables? I have some horseshoes for him, and I know you’ve been wanting to see the new foals again.”
A walk around town did sound nice, even if it meant leaving Kit for a short while.
