Kalfr sighed again, so heavy Raye could feel it shudder through the sofa beneath her. “I did,” he replied. “I kissed her.”
“You did not,” Gaelfr snapped back, sharp again. “Not the way she wished for. Not the way she deserved.”
The words twisted and echoed through Raye’s foggy awareness, strange and surprising. Gaelfr really thought she’d deserved that? Or was he only saying it because he knew she was half-awake, knew she was still listening?
“You would not have gained that band without her, today,” Gaelfr continued. “Silfast may have claimed this was due to his mistrust toward her, and toward me — but his rage was all towardyou,ástin mín.”
It was? Raye’s consciousness stirred higher, closer, and she waited, listening, until Gaelfr spoke again. “I should not have expected to find him so set against you, or scenting of such fury upon the sight of you. Not after all your fealty and service toward him, and the clan.”
His voice had softened again, surely seeking the truth of Kalfr’s answer, and Kalfr’s weight shifted on the sofa, perhaps leaning forward toward the fire. “No, Silfast has been wroth with me, ever since I set myself to this,” he replied, sounding muffled, tired. “I wielded his own honour and kindness against him, you ken. He vowed before all the clan to grant me full command over thisbyrgias itsvörður, and amidst this, he claimed his deep trust in my wisdom and fealty and good judgement. And then I turned about and chose…this.”
He surely meant his plan to sacrifice himself and thebyrgito Sybil, and there was a moment’s silence from Gaelfr, his chest expanding and hollowing against Raye’s side. “So that is why he has not yet openly moved against you, then,” he said. “But would he not yet have made some attempt, before this came about? Were I in his place, I should now gladly order you captured, and thrown in a deep Ka-esh dungeon.”
Kalfr huffed a sound that might have been a laugh, or perhaps another sigh. “Ach, mayhap,” he replied. “I have made friends of Silfast’s mate Stella, and she may have urged him to this — and you saw how he is now oft in close counsel with Joarr,who is a tricky orc with many plans, also. But” — another sigh — “Silfast is yet ruthless with his vows, most of all when the safety of the clan is at stake. And wereIin his place, I would allow my death, and thus be rid of two troubles at once.”
Gaelfr’s growl was harsh, immediate, and Raye could feel his arm jerking behind her, perhaps gripping at Kalfr’s shoulder, or punching him. “Well, no matter Silfast’s cause,” Gaelfr said, “he wished to witness you ploughing Raye on that altar today, before he would grant you that band. And she was wise enough to see this, and freely offer you this, without quibble or complaint. Shehonouredyou.”
“Andyou,” came Kalfr’s instant reply, with a slight edge on his voice, but Gaelfr only chuckled, and his arm moved again, maybe caressing Kalfr’s shoulder.
“Ach, and me,” he murmured. “And this was good, was it not? I have always longed to feel you thus. To be inside a sweet woman together with you, making her squirm and squeal and spray upon us.”
Kalfr’s breath hitched, and Gaelfr chuckled again. “I can scent you,ástin mín,” he said. “And I follow why you now need to hold your power over her thus. But when your pretty mate has dressed for you, and swallowed both your and yourástvinur’s pricks whole before all your clan, and then begged and wept at your feet as she anointed our altar with our fresh blended seed — ach. A blessing and a kiss in return does not grant you failure, or weakness, or defeat.”
Raye’s heart had begun beating faster, and she could hear Kalfr’s swallow, could feel his weight shifting on the sofa. “But it yet…feelsthus,” he replied, very quiet. “Ach. In all my days, Gael, and all my darkest dreams, I never once fathomed I could become…thatkind of Bautul. Most of all with the one woman I yet ought to honour most. The woman who birthed and raised myson.”
There was unmistakable pain in his voice, and maybe disgust, too, but Gaelfr’s hand only kept moving, perhaps caressing Kalfr’s back or shoulder. “There is no harm or shame in this,ástin mín,” Gaelfr murmured back. “You must not forever be the martyr, ach? You have borne and given much these past summers, and if wielding your power over her grants you peace, why not welcome this? Most of all when she so deeply longs for this from you, also?”
Wait, she did? Raye absolutely should have argued that, but surely Kalfr would argue it too… right? But there was only more silence, and the feel of Gaelfr’s steady stroking arm. “But it is also power, you ken,” he continued, softer, “to show kindness and favour, when she has worked so hard to please you. When she needs this from you. And when” — his voice lowered — “youneed this, also.”
There was yet another long silence from Kalfr, followed by a slow, shaky exhale. And then movement, something easing closer, and…
A hand. Kalfr’s hand, settling warm and soft against Raye’s flushed cheek. And when her eyes blearily blinked open, he was here, leaning over her, his face almost near enough to touch hers.
Raye swallowed, or perhaps whimpered, because gods, how was he even more beautiful? His face flickering in the firelight, his lashes long, his lips so soft and full. And when Raye’s eyes caught on those lips, they curved up, and —
He leaned in, and kissed her.
39
Kalfr was kissing her. On purpose.
The warmth and light and longing flashed through Raye with dizzying force — but alongside it was the vision of the altar. That horrible, humiliating moment when she’d tried to kiss him, and he’d pulled away. He’d said,no. No.
And this time, it was Raye wrenching back, shoving herself shocked and shaky into Gaelfr’s solid chest behind her. Blinking muddled and uncertain at Kalfr’s too-close face, at the confusion and even hurt in his glimmering eyes.
“But you — you didn’t,” she choked, “wantto. With — me.”
Kalfr’s eyes shifted, cleared, and a small smile pulled at his mouth, wan and rueful. “I did want to,” he whispered back. “I… do.”
He did. Hedid. Raye’s heart leapt, her eyes snapped wide — and suddenly he was kissing her again. Or she was kissing him, or perhaps it was both of them at once. Tasting each other, drinking each other, swallowing each other like they were starving for it, and yes, Raye had been starving for this. She’d needed nothing more in the world than his hand on her face like this, his soft clever wonderful lips plundering hers, his tonguetwining into her mouth, staking his claim. Making her his,his, and Raye could have shouted with it, danced with it, drowned with it.
When Kalfr finally drew back, he was breathing hard, his eyes blazing, his lips plush and swollen — fromkissingher — and Raye had to bite her own lip, bite back the desperate urge to hurl herself forward, and beg him for more. While something shifted behind her — Gaelfr — and what would he do, what would he say…
“You keep tending our mate thus,ástin mín,” he purred, as he eased sideways off the sofa, and onto his knees on the fur-covered floor below it. “Whilst I tend her here, ach?”
Here. He was gripping both hands at her skirts, sliding them up, because oh hell, he meant he was going to tend her there, likethat— and amidst the furious flare of longing, Raye could only nod and moan, and spread her legs wider. Earning a smug grin from Gaelfr in return, and a huff of a laugh from Kalfr too, as Gaelfr settled her skirts up around her waist, and spread her legs wider apart. Exposing her entire lower body for him, and Raye shuddered all over as he looked, as his tongue brushed against his lips…
And then he leaned in, and latched his lips to hers.
