I settled onto the edge of the bed to brush the hair back from his face and press a kiss to his forehead. “Time to wake up, sweetheart,” I murmured against his skin.
He grumbled in protest, groping for my hand and giving it a tug when he found it.
“Come back to bed,” he slurred.
“It’s morning, Pen. We slept a whole day away. I need to talk to Levitt, and one of us needs to get us something to eat.”
He blinked bleary green eyes at me, and a tired smile curled his lips. “You called me sweetheart again.”
Heat rose to my cheeks. I started to sit back, but Penny’s hand came up to cup my face and hold me in place.
“Should I stop?” I asked, and his grip slid around to the back of my head to pull me down so our lips barely touched.
“No. I like it. I like being your sweetheart.”
I leaned in to complete the kiss, and several more just like it. Penny's arms cinched around my shoulders, and I let him draw me closer until the temptation to get into bed became almost too much to resist.
“I have to go,” I said as his mouth traced kisses across my cheek and down my neck.
He smiled against my skin. “Levitt can wait.”
My resolve was crumbling. If I didn’t escape Penny’s grasp, neither of us would be leaving the house anytime soon. I eased his arms off my shoulders so I could sit up and move further down the bed, hopefully out of easy reach.
“He’s already waited a day.” I smoothed my mussed hair with shaking hands. “I shouldn’t make him wait another. It could be important.”
Penny huffed a sigh and propped himself up on his elbows. “More important than me?” he asked with an ornery smirk.
I pushed up to my feet and went to his dresser, desperate for a distraction. “Of course not. But you have an important task too.”
Buried under everything else, I found a pair of wool trousers and one of my heavy cotton button-ups andtugged them free. When I turned back, Penny was watching me with a sultry smile. I had half a mind to throw the garments in his face and flee before he could lure me in again.
“And what’s that?” he asked.
I dropped the clothes in his lap. “Breakfast.”
He looked ready to protest, then pressed his palm to his stomach. “Iamstarving…”
I offered him a hand up, which he reluctantly took. He shivered as the blanket fell away.
“I’ll walk you to the market, and we’ll meet back here for breakfast?”
The mention of the market sobered him, and he dropped his eyes. Considering the last time we’d been to the square it had been to witness something awful, I could assume his worry even if he didn’t voice it.
“They’ll have cleaned up,” I assured him. “There won’t be anything left to see. I promise.”
He nodded, and I squeezed his hand before leaving him to change.
I was ready to go by the time he emerged from his room. He stepped into his boots, let me swing his cloak around his shoulders, and even suffered through me pulling the hood up to keep his ears warm.
I lingered there with my fingers curled around the edges of his cloak and studied his face. His eyes were bright, though there were deep shadows beneath them still even after a full day’s rest. The color was back in his cheeks, the growing blush there making his freckles look even darker, and a scruffy bit of peach fuzz lined the edges of his jaw.
I’d always thought him pretty, and he was even more so now, safely on the other side of the third Oath. Alive. Recovering. I wanted nothing more than to tuck my hands intohis hood and wind them in his hair, to pull him in for the kinds of kisses that made both our knees weak. To remind myself that he was okay. To tell him that I loved him.
…Ilovedhim.
How long had I loved him? I’d asked Penny the same thing when he said as much to me: when it started, when what I really wanted to know was why. But I knewwhyI loved Penny, even if I couldn’t point to the moment when things had changed for me.
He trusted me more than I trusted myself, willing to walk into damnation by my side fully believing I would lead him safely out the other end. Welcomed me into his family like I had always been there. Took care of me, even when I was too stubborn and proud to accept the help. He loved me when I felt unlovable, and showed me that I was capable of it in return. And somehow, despite knowing where I came from, he believed I was a good man.
