“No, please,” he whispered as he ran his thumb under her eye, along her cheekbone, “don’t do that.”
“Do what?” Her voice had that soft huskiness that drove him insane. And a touch of acidity that he knew he’d more than earned.
“Pull away from me like that.”
“I think you’ll find,” she replied in a harsh whisper, “that I learned how to do it from you.”
“I know,” he agreed solemnly. “I’m very sorry.”
He’d surprised her into silence. She hadn’t been expecting him to apologize, and her eyes were back to clear and wide. It was his opportunity. Probably the only one he’d get.
“I’m sorry that I was such an asshole. I don’t have any excuse; it’s just you… you make me feel… things.”
“Things?” she repeated skeptically.
“Yes. Things I haven’t felt for a long time. Things I didn’t expect to feel.” He paused for a moment before admitting, “I remember playing in the shepherds’ hut.”
He looked away, trying to find the words before facing her again. “Your mama died loving you. Mine ran away when I was four and left me with a father who hated her for her betrayal. A betrayal that no one ever saw coming. And he hated me for being part of her. I had nothing at home but beatings.”
Her face softened, just a tiny bit. But it wasn’t pity he wanted; he wanted her to understand.
“At your house, with Val and you, I had a home. It was the only time I was happy. And that day that you ran away, gods. You have to know that searching for you wasn’t some kind of obligation. We weren’t angry with you. We were desperate to find you.”
She wrinkled her nose at him. “You were angry, I remember—”
He cut her off with a gentle finger over her soft lips. “Not at all. We both knew that we had taken it too far. That you’d run away because of our teasing. When we couldn’t find you all day, we started to worry that you were hurt. Really worry. That’s all Val could talk about, how he was going to have to go back to your papa only a few months after losing your mama and explain that he had lost his precious daughter too. And that we were responsible.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
He was still stroking her cheek, his thumb rough against her velvet skin. “Please don’t be sorry. I’m trying to explain. I didn’t want to ever feel like that again, knowing that you were in danger because of me. That my actions had hurt you. I thought it would be better to stay away.”
She snorted sadly. “You thought it would be better to walk away and leave me alone and vulnerable? That it made sense to hurt me so that you could avoid hurting me?”
When she put it like that, it made it sound even worse. He grunted. “It was stupid, I’ll give you that.”
Her lips tilted up in a small smile. She hadn’t yet pushed him away. Not yet. It gave him hope. “Will you forgive me?”
The silence stretched uncomfortably as she stared intently into his face, looking for something. He didn’t know what.
Eventually she lifted her small hand and rested it against his cheek. “Yes, I forgive you.”
He let out a sigh of relief, his beast unwinding for the first time in hours. She was too good. Too kind. But he couldn’t bring himself to say anything that might make her change her mind.
He was suddenly acutely aware of her warm, soft body beside his. The way her breasts rose and fell as she breathed. The memory of her hot mouth and gentle curves. And the flush rising over her neck told him that she knew exactly what he was thinking.
A throat cleared loudly on the other side of the fire, and Nim startled and then grinned as he looked up and growled.
He pushed himself up to standing and then growled even louder when he saw that Nim was standing next to him wearing nothing but his spare shirt and socks, with a long expanse of creamy leg between them.
It took him a second to find the words to bark out, “Turn around! Now.”
Either the men were acting on their own honor or his threat was dire enough, but they turned their backs so fast that Nim started giggling again. A throaty chuckle of pure joy that reached all the way into his soul.
He spun her into his arms and started carrying her back to the hut to change but stalled when she reached up and ran her fingers carefully over his lips.
“You should smile more,” she observed quietly, just for his ears, and without even thinking, he lifted her higher and pressed his mouth to hers.
It was only a moment, standing in the early morning sunshine with the squad waiting, backs turned, a few yards away. But she let out a soft sigh and kissed him back.
