It was an easy decision. He leaned down and touched his lips to hers, almost overwhelmed by the sensations flooding through him. Light. Air. Joy.
Gods, when last had he felt joy?
And then she smiled, a look of such wonder on her face that he felt himself smile back. She laughed, a glorious throaty sound of delight that reached into his soul. And saved it.
He ran his thumb over her lips, wanting to feel her laughter in every part of him, and then leaned down to press another gentle kiss onto her softly smiling mouth.
He lifted himself off the bed and found a small towel, which he used to clean her body and between her legs. There was a small amount of blood on the inside of her thighs, and he pressed another kiss onto her creamy skin, overwhelmed with what she had given him.
Once she was clean, he lay back down beside her and pulled her against him before reaching down and taking hold of a blanket to cover them both.
The dark voice deep inside him was clear: Nim was his. And, for the first time in his life, he felt all the parts of himself align, his inner beast settling as he wrapped himself around her, surrounding himself in her scent.
They lay quietly together, and he listened to her heartbeat thumping slowly as she relaxed, gently falling asleep in his arms.
His smooth arms. He looked down and noticed that his scales were completely gone, flattened down to clear, tanned skin for the first time in days. Weeks even. The first time since Ravenstone.
And it was because of the beautiful, brave woman cuddling against him in a cocoon of warmth.
The minutes ticked by as he held her, let her rest. He wished that they could lie there forever. But he knew they couldn’t. It was time.
“Nim, sweetheart, we have to get up.”
“Mm-hm.” She snuggled deeper into his side, covering him with her wing.
He groaned. “I don’t want to either, but Jos will be here with your dress any minute now, and if he sees you like this, I’ll have to kill him.”
She chuckled sleepily and opened her eyes, blinking a few times as she tried to wake up before replying in a husky voice, “Don’t do that. I like Jos.”
He frowned at her, and she chuckled again and ran a soft finger down his jaw as she whispered, “Not how I like you.”
He turned his face into her hand and kissed her fingers gently, still frowning. “You’re mine now, Nim.” He said it quietly, but even he could hear the deep rumble beneath his words.
“And you’re mine,” she agreed immediately, and he almost smiled, until she finished, “Now we just have to survive.”
Fuck. He didn’t want to think about her in danger. He definitely didn’t want her anywhere near the palace. But he also knew that if he tried to forbid her, she’d just go anyway, without him.
He sat up and swung his legs around and out of the bed, still holding her hand, and turned sideways to look at her.
She lay in a disheveled tangle of blankets. Her hair had come loose from its tie and lay in waves the color of rich cocoa spread across the cotton sheets, and she watched him with clear eyes.
Never before had he imagined having something so perfect. Or that he would feel so utterly unworthy.
He let go of her hand so that he could tuck a curl behind her ear, wondering how it was that he had known her nearly all his life but only truly found her when there might be so little of it left.
His thoughts must have shown on his face, because she sat up beside him and tucked herself under his arm before wrapping her arms around his waist. “Tell me what happened.”
“We took Tor to Gatehouse, found the guards there, and paid them for a solitary cell and a doctor to see to his wounds.” He sighed, thinking about how horrific it had been. If the city was cowering under a state of constant fear, the prison was fifty times worse.
A powerful wave of guilt washed over him. How had he left his friend among those killers and torturers? How could he have been losing himself in Nim’s body when who knew what the fuck was happening to Tor?
His scales were back, rippling up his arms in a long slide of disquieting remorse as he realized how wrong it was for him to take such pleasure, and he started to push himself off the bed. But Nim held him even tighter and threw her leg over his thigh. He would have to bodily remove her to stand, and a low rumble started in his belly.
But she was having none of it. “Stop that. If anyone is to blame, it’s me.”
His attention snapped back to her. “What the—”
“No,” she interrupted in a rough voice. “Where do you think I was going when you arrived? Out to look for you and Tor. And why? Because I have spent the whole afternoon coming to terms with the fact that none of you would be in this position if it weren’t for me.”
