“You could even invite him and Reimond for dinner if you’d like.”
I grinned. “Tonight?”
“Why not?” Kit bounced his shoulders. “I’ll even cook.”
“You’ll cook for me? Will you keep my house too?” I snorted.
“Ourhouse,” Kit corrected, but I could tell he liked me calling the little cottage my own.
In fact, he was in such a fine mood, and everything reallywasperfect, so it emboldened me enough that I shifted forward and rolled my hips against him in a way that made his breath catch.
“What about my desires, Kit?” My voice grew husky as I tried and failed to keep the waver out of it. “Will you satisfy those?”
His tongue snaked across his lips, and his gaze grew intense. “Yours and mine both,” he replied.
I must have misheard.
Was I losing my mind?
Was Kit?
“Careful,” I said through a choked laugh, “I'll hold you to that.”
Blush tinted Kit’s cheeks as the implication of his words seemed to catch up to him. He ducked back, and I thoughthe'd never been so charming as he was in that bashful moment. “Eventually,” he mumbled.
I smiled wide and kissed him again, pleased to find his face still splotched with pink when I released him at last. I backed out of the stall while holding his gaze, memorizing his face, and paused only to collect the armload of horseshoes on my way out.
25
Kit
Once Penny was off, I found my focus too scattered to do much of anything. Between the crackle of residual excitement from finally setting Tessa straight, and the lingering heat of the handful of kisses Penny and I shared in the shadowy corner of the shop, I was only good for raking out the coals to close down early.
It had felt good to admit out loud that I fancied someone, even if I didn’t reveal who it was. Though I’d gone further than that. I hadn’t intended to talk about marriage, but when Tessa brought it up, I’d spoken without thinking, and surprised myself by realizing I meant it.
Before Penny, I’d never given thought to courting or weddings or husbands or wives. My life didn’t feel conducive to those sorts of relationships. I was too closed off, too afraid to let anyone in long enough to really get to know me. I didn’t think anyone who did would have the desire to stay until I saw the joy on Penny’s face when I informed Tessa that she wasn’t the one I wanted. Like hefinally believed it, and it was news he’d been waiting his whole life to get.
I was trying to be clearer with my affections, too. It was a struggle to work through the overwhelming swell of emotions and sensations every time we got close, but it was getting easier the more often I initiated the contact myself. By now, my hands knew the contours of Penny's chest and back better than they knew my own. I craved the feel of him pressed flush against me while we breathed the same air. The soft skin of his neck beneath my lips, the roll of his hips against mine…
This was not the place to be thinking about such things, so I smothered that spark of desire before it could become something more. No one had ever stirred such things in me, but sometimes, Penny could do it with a look or a smile. I yanked the apron over my head and hung it on its hook before stepping out into the cold of the square, where a gust of wind cooled the burn in my cheeks.
I was about to start for home when I noticed Rosie’s mother at the bakery stand across the square. I’d seen Rosie manning the stall the morning after her ill-fated visit to our house, but she’d made herself scarce since.
As much as I loved spending time with Penny one on one, I worried he would eventually get bored of me. I enjoyed our quiet evenings and didn’t have much desire to do more than relax after working at the forge all day. For now, he was content to sit with me and draw, but he was running short of pages in his sketchbook, and I was sure a day would come when he needed the sort of boisterous company that reminded him of Sayla. That reminded him of home.
I wasn’t sure it was my place to step in, but I made myway to the stand of cakes and pastries before I could talk myself out of it.
“Afternoon, Missus Saunders,” I said.
The stout older woman smiled. “Afternoon, Kit.”
“I haven’t seen Rosie today. Is she around?”
She shook her head. “I'm afraid she’s home again.”
I had my suspicions as to why, but another worry lingered in the back of my mind, persistent enough for me to inquire.
“Penny mentioned something about her and Tessa passing through a town with plague during their second Oath. She’s not sick, is she?”
