I’d misread him.
“If you do not feel the same, say so now. We can forget this.”
“I wouldn’t be able to,” he said.
My shoulders deflated. He’d said so few words in response to so many.
“I couldn’t forget you,” he clarified. “Nor would I have been able to let you walk away easily, knowing that you might have wanted something more. I tried so hard to convince myself that I could never be what you want—what you need.”
He stepped closer, intensity flaring in his eyes as he put a finger beneath my chin and tipped my head up. Water from his hair dripped onto me.
“It’s you that I see for my future too. And it has nothing to do with an old book or a prophecy within it. I wantyou.Howeveryou come, however many obstacles you set in my way. I will never be the perfect husband, but I can work on being perfect for you.”
There was no current in the water, yet I felt pulled closer to him. My breasts brushed against his chest. “I have some conditions,” I added.
“Why does that not surprise me?” His hands skated up my arms and left goosebumps in their wake. “Name them.”
“You were right about that list. While I want a child, I want to be ready to be a mother...and I am not. I need you to understand that. However long it takes, I will work to set Caym back until I am sure.”
His hands halted on my shoulders. He looked pissed off.
Will he turn away now?
“You think that still weighs on my decision to want you?” Signature annoyance had leaked into his voice, but also something akin to worry.
I tried to reason with him. “I know the prophecy requires urgency but—”
“Fuck the prophecy. We’ll change it,” he cut me off. He brushed his lips against my ear. “I said I will take you as you come. If you look in that satchel in the cavern, I even brought tonics to prevent conception in case you might consider being with me again. I don’t have conditions, Sybilla. So keep naming yours.”
His lips moved down my neck, dancing across my pulse point. So distracting. My core tightened with anticipation. I wanted so badly to feel him inside of me again. His words were even more distracting—the absolution in them. I would have his heir, but he was giving me control of the timeline and that lifted a weight of stress off my shoulders.
His willingness to offer so much more of himself than I’d ever imagined left me dizzy. A future, a partner, someone to laugh with, fight with, grow old with.
I almost forgot my next condition as he nipped at my shoulder and then kissed away the sting.
“Good then,” I choked out as one of his hands squeezed my waist and I pressed into him. “The next condition is that you will remove that statue from the bell tower.”
This time, he faltered and straightened. His expression dropped to something torn between anger and melancholy. It mirrored the look he’d had on his face when he’d started piecing together Ryn’s betrayal.
I regretted the way I’d phrased that sentence.
“Shit, no,” I continued. “Freya has been in that dark room alone for too long. Don’t you think? She deserves to see the light, to be seen and celebrated. I shouldn’t meddle...but I’ve already told you that isn’t something I can help. It seems she might like the main hall more...or maybe to be in Luz, where she’ll be closer to her homeland?”
He stood stone-still and silent for a beat. Then his posture softened, and his arms abruptly wrapped around me.
Thank the Sources.
My fingers dug into his back, and the weightlessness of being in the water made it easy to hitch my leg up on his hip. One of his arms slipped below my thigh to balance me. His free hand caught in my wet hair before his mouth took mine and I let out a breathy gasp.
There was something decadent about the way he tasted on my tongue—something tender about the way he felt. The last time we’d come together had been so frantic, so rushed. This kiss and his gentle touch were something new to savor.
Our bodies, slick against one another, tangled together. With my breasts pressed to his chest, his length rubbed against where I craved him most, and I groaned into his mouth.
We broke apart only to catch our breath. “Any other conditions?”
“We’ll settle the rest later,” I answered. “We have other things to settle tonight.”
His fingers dug into my hips as he whispered into my mouth, “Bedroll?”
