Alive. She was alive.
And guilty as sin. Aspen stretched her stiff neck and grimaced. Then she registered her position and craned her gaze to mine. Like a felon, she gaped, her pupils rounding with alarm.
Relief gave way to wrath. I would fucking slay this woman.
Whatever mercenary expression I wore, Aspen noticed. “Aire,” she drew out. “Aire, let me expla—”
She squawked in offense as I sheathed my weapons, hurled her upright, flung her over my shoulder, and stalked from the incinerated camp. Because I’d done a thorough inspection of Aspen’s wounds, this would not harm her. Barring aches and stings, this woman had been forged of stone. She would live.
And if she wanted to be treated like a soldier, I would grant that request with vigor.
Aspen thrashed like a banshee. “Stop!” she raged. “Put me down!”
Not a goddamn chance. I flung her ass onto the warhorse, straddled behind Aspen, and rode a safe amount of leagues before stalling again. Dismounting, I hauled the woman off my stallion and dragged her to a shrouded hill where the ruins of an old watchtower stood. Ivy crawled up the stone edifice, and portions of the exterior had deteriorated, centuries having taken small bites from the facade.
Stomping inside the fortification, I scaled the winding steps and reached the parapet. Crenelations lined the perimeter,and an abandoned falcon’s nest rested between a pair of merlons.
Perfect. Up here, the pair of us could scream as loud as we wished.
“Aire!” Aspen jerked her arm from my grasp. “Aire, listen to me!”
“Listen?” I fumed, getting in her face. “Have you no concept of danger!”
“I’m not the one plotting mass murder! I’m the one who stopped it from happening!”
“And risked your neck in the process!”
“As opposed to when I’d been surrounded by those knights the first time?” she shouted. “As opposed to all the other times I’ve been spying with you?”
“You could have been killed!” I bellowed. “I could have lost you! If I hadn’t intercepted, two warriors would have spilled your entrails!”
“Thank you!”
“You’re fucking welcome!”
“But that’s a gamble you’ll always have to take.”
I would tear out my hair. I would forsake my sanity. I would massacre anyone who harmed her.
And she would do worse to me.
My growl bulldozed into the space between us. “You drive me to distraction.”
Aspen’s wild gaze sank to my bare torso, the ridges stained in muck. Then she hovered at my lips before creeping back to my eyes. Landing the axe home, she nodded. “Fight me on it.”
I shook my head. “Brazen Fucking Creature.”
“Noble Fucking Knight.”
Enough. My muscles pulled taut, the tension liable to shatter bone. Her irises glowed, the vision stoking my cock, and the flurries stirred like wild creatures.
In a snarling fit, we lunged for each other.
35
Aire
Like weapons, we collided. Our bodies crashed together with the force of steel—sharp, combative, lethal. Aspen’s plush tits struck my torso, her heart slamming into my own, our chests blasting into one another.
