Looking him over.
Appraising what was damn well hers now that they were bonded. Now that she had allowed him to kiss her everywhere he wanted to kiss her.
He preened under her attention, flexing his stomach and his arms a little more. "Well?" he said, trying very hard to sound seductive. "Do you like what you see?"
She had tilted her head to the side a little, and then he realized her attention was almost too focused on his member. "I remember it being bigger only a few moments ago."
Looking down, he heaved a great sigh. The damn thing was just as cold as he was, and of course it had looked bigger moments ago. "Rose, I don't have the time to explain male anatomy to you. He's cold. He'll be more impressive the next time you see him."
"Would it get bigger if I touched it?"
Yes, that did the trick. He could already feel the blood rushing to between his legs with a startling force that almost made him lightheaded.
With another giggle that chimed like bells through the clearing, she took his shirt and made quick work of drying herself. That show also did not help, and by the time she was dry, dressed, and handing him his shirt back, he wasn't even sure he could get his pants on.
Grumbling at her, he waved for her to head into the forest ahead of him. "I'll catch up."
"That bad?"
"And to think, you were a meek, shy woman only a few weeks ago."
"I was never meek or shy. I was just taking my time to come back to myself." There was no sadness in the way she said it. Maybe even a hint of pride in there.
He'd have stared after her with his jaw hanging open if he hadn't realized they did need to get back to the clearing with the others. And he was the one now standing nude in the midst of the forest, waiting for someone to find him with his bare arse hanging out.
He quickly yanked his pants on and rushed after her. The last thing he wanted was for her to wander through the woods on her own, if only because he feared it might be dangerous. But she was so confident as she stepped through the trees.
Reaching overhead, she moved the leaves out of her way, looking like a ghost all on her own. Like some ephemeral being he had discovered, as he tracked her path while she left glowing footprints in the moss.
His heart was so full. Watching the trailing edge of her pretty gown, seeing her hair getting caught in the limbs of the trees above her like spider silk. And the heated glances she kept sending back to him. Perhaps she was not yet whole, andperhaps she never would be. But she was no longer afraid of living, and he was the lucky one who got to be in her life.
As they got closer to the clearing, she paused and stood at the edge of the tree line, waiting for him to join her.
Then, quietly, she said, "I think my whole life all I've ever wanted to do was serve others. I felt a need to provide a service to someone. That if I didn't give them what they wanted, then they wouldn't want me around in their life. I had to prove that I was valuable enough to people, and that's been something I fought with for years."
She took a deep breath and then swallowed, the sound more of a gulp. But she still pulled herself back together and continued.
"When I met you in the labyrinth, you were the first person who asked nothing of me. You told me to rest and that you would stand guard, and I thought for a second, good. Because I was so tired of serving. And maybe it was silly, but you were the only person I've ever decided to not give anything back to. I didn't prove that I was valuable in your life. I did nothing that would make you keep me around, and yet... you stayed. For a year. You kept me, and I think more than anything else you've done, that is what has mattered the most. You asked for nothing and still gave your whole self."
She was wrong. She had given him a lot of reasons to stick with her. Small glimpses of who she was and how funny she could be. He'd loved watching her blossom all this time. She'd given him someone to look after because that's all he had ever wanted. To keep someone safe and happy and to be useful in his own way.
But he didn't say any of that. She didn't need to hear that right now.
Instead, he cupped her jaw, holding her face so that he could trace the outline of her pretty lips with his thumb. "You neverhad to prove yourself valuable to me, Rose. I don't need you to give me a reason to be with you. You are more than enough without being a servant, a slave, a sexual partner, any of it. You are enough. Just as you are."
Tears glittered in her eyes. "I knew you would say that. And that's all I ever wanted to hear from anyone."
By the gods, this woman was going to be the end of him.
Wrapping an arm around her shoulder, he tugged her against his side. "Men are stupid."
"Incredibly so."
"And you should hate them for what they did to you."
"Most of them I do."
"Who do you not hate?"
