“Were you?” he pressed.
“I accepted and was not unhappy. Curious of the world but understood that this was my lot in life.”
“Until me.” He smiled.
Nina held his eyes. “Until you.”
He leaned forward, intent on kissing her. Nina pulled back. “Do not.”
“Why?”
“It cannot be.” Another tear leaked out of the corner of her eye.
“I love you and I suspect you love me.”
“It matters not.”
“It matters to me.” This time he pressed his lips to hers and Nina didn’t pull away. Orion drew her close, deepening the kiss as her arms went about his shoulders. The dampness from her tears also left his cheeks wet, but he didn’t care. Nina was kissing him back. She hadn’t said that she loved him but hadn’t denied it either. She was his heart.
At the tug of the vines on his legs, she broke the kiss and looked down then gave him a a sad smile.
“Thank you for the love, for showing me how it could be if circumstances were different. But most of all thank you for your friendship.” She placed a hand against his cheek, kissed him one more time then stepped away. The vines caught on her foot, and she shook them away. “Goodbye, Orion, I will treasure what we shared always.”
Then she turned and ran. Orion started after her, nearly tripping on the vines, but she was too quick and by the time he made it to the other side of the temple, she was gone.
She had left him. It was a goodbye.
She couldn’t mean it, could she?
Why was she being so difficult? They could be happy. Few people met the person they were truly supposed to spend their life with, and he had found her, and he was not about to let her go. Luckily, she couldn’t go far, but without knowing where her cottage was and, if she never left it, he might not see her again.
“We will take you to her.”
He turned to find the five dryads emerge from the woods.
“Lady Wharton told us of the vines and why you were allowed back in the grove,” one of them said. “You are the goddess of nature’s choice for her and her for you. We must assist.”
“Come along.” Another grinned at him, and Orion eagerly followed. He would not leave until Nina agreed to be his wife. Certainly, he could overcome any objection she may have and there should be nothing that stood in their way of happiness.
Nina heard the knock on the door but did not wish to speak with anyone. If she ignored it, perhaps they would go away, assuming those on the other side were dryads and were here because they had witnessed what had occurred in the temple. Except, it was incessant, so she stomped across the floor and cracked it open, ready to tell whichever dryad was on the other side to just go away. Instead, she found Orion.
“What are you doing here?”
“There is more that we need to speak of.”
“No. There is nothing more to say. You promised to be my friend and not kiss me again, yet you did.”
She tried to close the door, but he grabbed onto it and pushed his Hessian boot between the opening.
“Please go,” she practically begged.
“I cannot. Not until we have settled this,” Orion insisted.
For the first time since meeting Orion, Nina experienced fear. He had always stopped pursuing her when she asked, but now he was practically forcing himself into her home.
As if sensing her thoughts, Orion let go of his hold on the door and pulled his foot back, leaving the door ajar so that she could open it and welcome him in, or close it, locking him out.
“I just want to talk, Nina. Please let me in.”
