“I can sleep in my cloak,” Keira protested, standing as if she might stop him.
“There is less cover here, more wind. It’s near freezing already,” he said, unrolling it by the fire.
“I’ll be fine.”
Caspian turned to her, striding closer. Too close. Much, much too close. Her eyes were on his chest, watching as his fingers unpinned his fur trimmed cloak.
Keira opened her mouth as he took it from his shoulders, but then his arms were encircling her. Rational thought fell from her mind, leaving her standing there, silenced. He pinned his coat over her own. It was wonderfully warm and heavy on her shoulders, and curse her, it smelled like him. What she would have given two days ago to wrap herself up in this cloak and lay there until the scent had long since faded.
His hands spread over her arms, rubbing warmth back into them.
“You’re shivering,” he said, as if they were still arguing. As if she were still capable of that.
Seconds passed, and she said nothing. How could she?
“I’m sorry,” he said, “about earlier. I know it can be painful to dredge up the past.”
His touch slowed until he was just holding her. His face was only inches from her own.
Keira shook her head, recovering some facet of herself. “I asked you first.”
He sighed.
“What happened?” she whispered. She was selfish and horrible and could hardly live with herself as the words came out of her mouth. But she had to know.Do you hate me?
“We were in love,” Caspian said without a single pause. “I asked her to wait for me when I left to fight. But when I finally came back, she was gone…” An eternity passed as she studied the heartache like a still open wound behind his eyes. “…I never knew why.”
“What?” she couldn’t help the word from falling out of her mouth.
“After the battle, she stopped answering my letters. It was months before I was well enough, but I looked for her everywhere I could think of. She was just gone. No one knew where. The man she’d lived with had died. Maybe that’s why-” he shook his head, offering a fragile smile.
“I’m so sorry,” she forced through her choked throat.
Caspian was silent, gleaming black eyes studying her, almost as if he were in a trance. “It was a long time ago,” he said finally.
As his touch trailed up to her shoulders, Keira’s better sense stirred within her. He was looking at her too closely. She had to step away now. If he looked any deeper, he was going to see through the charm. But she couldn’t. Her eyes were locked in his, leaving her paralyzed in his arms.
He pushed her hood down from her hair, his warm palm grazing her cheek. She leaned into his touch, even as it stirred agony in her hollowed heart. She’d missed this. She’d missed him. It was impossible to believe that this was actually happening, that she hadn’t just stepped into a memory. Whatever desire she felt, Keira could see it reflected in Caspian’s eyes, the longing, the anticipation. She knew what this was; her suspicion had been right. His heart already knew what his eyes couldn’t see.
Her hands pressed against the cool metal of his breastplate. His arm tightened reflexively around her waist, closing the distance. Caspian’s nose brushed her forehead. Without thinking, she looked up. Such a familiar gesture, a reflex she’dthought forgotten. He looked down at her as if the rest of the world had melted away, hooded eyes fixed on her mouth. It was only in the moment before his lips touched her own that she realized what was going to happen, what she had let happen.
He was going to kiss her. No, not her- Erin, the forester who he’d met yesterday.
She could already feel his warm breath against her skin. Everything within her yearned to melt into his touch, to pour herself into this embrace. This moment was all she’d dreamed of for all the years they’d been apart. But it was all a lie, her lie. She couldn’t let it go any further. Still, the wanting that rippled through her was enough to kill her, enough to rip out her heart as she pushed him away.
Caspian
There was no question about it; he had lost his mind.
Caspian panted as he retreated from the fire, from the woman he’d nearly kissed. His head was spinning. She had been right to push him off. He’d clearly gone insane.
“I- I-” he tried and failed to find an excuse. Only a second ago, it had seemed like the most right thing in the world to have her in his arms. His mind struggled fruitlessly to explain how he could feel that way for a stranger, or why the feeling was still lingering like a bittersweet taste on his tongue.
“I should go to bed,” Erin said slowly, careful not to look anywhere near him.
“Of course,” Caspian barely forced out the words.
She lowered herself into a heap of cloaks on his bedroll. Her hood pulled up until he could see nothing of her at all.
