Amelia swallowed hard and dragged her eyes to his. “I don’t. Are you going to sleep…” She waved her hand haphazardly, indicating to his naked body.
“Yes.” He closed the distance between them. “Or would that make you uncomfortable?”
“It’s fine.” Rennick bit back a smile as she stumbled over her words and red crept up her neck into her cheeks. He wondered ifshe flushed when she came, too. “I don’t know where you’ll sleep,” she added, glancing over her shoulder at the small bed in the corner.
“If I hold you, we’ll both fit.” He didn’t need to assess the bed. He would make himself fit on a pea if it meant being next to her. “I won’t try to fuck you,” he added. “Unless you ask me to.”
She straightened and narrowed her eyes when he smirked. “Sleepingonly.”
Damnit. Whipping off his towel, he sauntered to the bed, relishing in her sharp intake of breath and the mutters that followed.
“I’m only doing this because I feel like I know you,” she said defensively, but why she felt the need to defend her actions, she didn’t know. They were mates. “I don’t jump into bed with men simply because they ask.”
He turned to her slowly. “Good. I try to avoid bloodshed when I can.”
Eyes wide, she whirled around and snuffed out the candles, then quietly felt her way to the bed.
Amelia sat carefully on the edge and laid back, facing away from him. No matter what she said, he knew his nakedness made her anxious. He draped the towel over his hips to put a small barrier between them.
Gathering the comforter and sheets, he pulled them over their bodies, turned on his side, and laid his arm over her middle. Her body lay stiff against his. “Did you hurt Gilpin?” she whispered.
The mention of her past lover made his teeth grind together. Sitting up, he looked down at her silhouette, shown only by the moonlight filtering through the window. “Does the answer matter?”Does she still care for him?
She rolled slightly to meet his gaze. “Yes.”
“I killed him.” Lying would have eased her fears, but she needed to know him completely. He was a man who wouldslaughter the masses for her without question. Not even the gods held as much power over him as she did.
Amelia made a strangled sound and tried to scramble out of bed, but he grabbed her hips and yanked her back. “W-why would youkillhim?” Her voice rose an octave, the tremble more prominent with every word. “He didn’t do anything wrong. It wasmydecision.”
Amelia’s fear penetrating his chest awoke his own.What if she leaves me?
As Rennick took in the deathly pallor of her face and her shaking hands, he sighed. “I wasn’t going to kill him at first, but he said you were nothing.”
She scoffed, and the fear that had invaded Rennick’s chest shifted into angry indignation. “It doesn’t matter if he called me an ugly bitch. You don’t kill an innocent man because of it!”
He sat up, maneuvered her onto her back, and hovered above her, caging her in with his arms.
“Everyone has a moral line they won’t cross.” His chest heaved, and Amelia braced a trembling hand against his chest. “I don’t need a line to know what’s considered good or bad, but if I did, there isn’t a line I wouldn’t cross for you.” He lowered himself and brushed his lips against hers. “I will write your name on my chest with the blood of any man who tries to covet what is meant to be ours. Innocent or not.”
Amelia stared, slack-jawed, into the eyes of a cold-blooded killer.
My cold-blooded killer. She jolted at her own thoughts. “What is wrong with me?” she whispered, rubbing her eyes. Gilpin was an innocent man.
“You’re perfect,” Rennick said with so much conviction she almost believed it herself.
“I’m going to hell,” she muttered, hating herself for being unnaturally turned on by his words.Gilpin, please forgive me.
Rennick moved back to his side of the bed and turned on his side to face her. “If he was a good person, he rests now in an eternal paradise. If he wasn’t, he deserved to die anyway.”
The words were as simple and pragmatic as they were fucked up. She looked to the gods. “Please let us into the heavens when we die.”
Her mate draped his arm across her stomach and pulled her close. “Wherever we go, we go together.” He buried his face in her hair and inhaled. “Gods, you smell good.”
A small laugh escaped her. “Are you sniffing me?”
“Of course.” He did it again, burrowing his face into her neck.
She scrunched her shoulders and rolled sideways to face away from him. He tugged her close, pressing her snuggly against his chest. “Sleep. We have a few hours of travel tomorrow.” He buried his nose in her hair again, drawing in another whiff of her scent.
