Alone, Wolf offered Camelee a seat and then sat beside her. He couldn’t breathe. Could she tell? He wished she saw him on the battlefield so she could know that he was strong and courageous and cunning. He was not ruled by concerns.
But here with her, he was a heap of nerves. “Camelee, I—ehm—”
She stretched across her chair and stroked her hand down his cheek. “It’s good to have you back.”
Staring into her eyes, he took hold of her hand on his cheek and covered it with his.
“I was not pleased about being away.” His lips roved over her palm and then her wrist while he spoke. “And now you see why. I will not leave you again.”
She leaned in. He let her. When she pressed her lips to his, he breathed. It took no time for him to respond. He curled his fingers around her nape and cupped her face with his other hand.
He consumed her in his arms, feeling as if she had been born to be there. He wanted more of her, but he wouldn’t force her. He would do the good thing and make her his wife, but until then, he had to find a way to resist her.
“I cannot mislead you,” he told her, withdrawing a little. “I must admit that I do not want you to leave. I cannot imagine how difficult being here must be for you, but I will do everything I can to make the change easier if you will stay.”
She shook her head, breaking his heart, smashing his hopes. “I don’t belong here, Wolf.”
“Very well,” he said after a short pause and held up his hands in surrender. “I will trouble you no more.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked him.
“It means I accept the life you choose.”
“I’m not sure when you thought there was any other choice, but okay. Good.”
“Yes. It is good,” he agreed sourly and began to rise. “Now I can get on with my day.”
Her hand landing softy on his stopped him. “You couldn’t before?”
He scoffed, but not at her. He disgusted himself for how he felt when she told him every chance she got that she did not belong here and wanted to go home. He hated himself for letting it hurt him.
“Though I sleep, my thoughts do not,” he confessed, angling his head to look at her. “I am weary. I, too, want to go home.”
He moved away, taking his hand with him. “I am going to sleep for a bit in a warm bed. The ground is hard and cold beneath a body.”
She nodded but said nothing as he went to the bedchamber, much bigger than the one in the room near the kitchen.
Finally, he was behaving wisely and not allowing her any further entry. Why would she touch his hand again? To beguile him, of course. But to what end?
He went to a door that adjoined a second bedroom. He knew these chambers, since Cnut entered this keep, Wolf and Fin and the men helped build these extra quarters in the queen’s section.
This bedroom was smaller than the one where Camelee and Genevra slept with Hild. But the bed was just as soft. He shut the door behind him and lay down on the feather mattress, especially made for all the beds in the royal guest quarters. He groaned sinking into the softness, and then swore an oath when he smelled her on the bed. She had to have known that when he returned he would sleep here. Why had she slept in this bed? The one she shared with Hild and Genevra wasn’t big enough?
He heard her enter the room and ground his jaw. He needed to be away from her.
“Did you think of me when you slept in my bed?” he asked to rile her up and get her to storm out.
“No,” she answered, closing the door behind her. “I slept in it because I was thinking of you.”
He opened his eyes and watched her come toward him like a dream coming to life. She sat on the edge of the bed.
“I’m sorry for adding to all those thoughts in your head, Wolf. I don’t want to be apart from you either. I want…I want you to come with me if I get the chance to return.”
“To your future?” he asked, eyeing her mouth and the beguiling shape of her lips.
“Yes. Would you? Would you come with me?”
He suspected there would be times like this when he would agree to anything she wanted. But going so far ahead would be as foreign to him as being here was to her. “I do not know, Camelee.” He would not lie to her. “I know only that everything I thought was so important is being changed into the silhouette of a woman and a child. I understand your desire to go home. I want to hold you, and comfort you…because I believe your fantastical story. Or at least, that you believe it. I do not know how to find a way to the future, and I imagine that must be heart-shattering for you. I—” He stopped talking and closed his eyes as she leaned down to kiss him.
