Chapter 11: The Night

He did not move for the space of three breaths.

Then he turned his face into my palm and kissed it, open-mouthed, on the heel of my hand.

My knees nearly went.

"Mabyn," he said against my skin.

"Not yet." I stepped in until my chest touched his. "Lock the door."

He crossed the room in two strides and shot the bolt.

On the far side, Cadoc's boots went away down the stairs, slow at first and then fast.

I laughed, shakily.

"He's got ears like a hare."

"He's got a mouth like a brother," Torren said. "He'll say nothing."

He turned back, and the lamplight fell across the burned side of his face.

He stood with his arms loose at his sides, waiting for a blow.

I knew that look.

I had worn it in the yard.

"Come here," I said.

He came.

I took the hem of his shirt in both hands and drew it up over his head, and he let me.

The scars ran from jaw to hip on the left, shining and ridged under my fingertips.

I touched them anyway, slowly, one by one.

He had stopped breathing.

"Does it feel?" I asked.

"Everything," he said hoarsely. "Everything feels. Nobody has touched it since."

I bent my head and put my mouth to the long ridge over his ribs.

A sound tore out of him.

I kissed my way up the burn, over his collarbone and the base of his throat.

I kissed the hard line of his jaw, and the shiny ruin of his ear.

"Gods," he said. "Mabyn."

"I want you," I said.

My voice surprised me, it came out so steady.

"I wanted you in the tower, before the bond. I wanted you when you were cruel."

I held his face between my hands.

"I want you now, with my father's poison in my blood, and I am not doing this to be saved."

His eyes closed.

"Then take what you want," he said.

I pushed him backwards onto the bed.

He went down all at once, heavy and huge, and propped himself on his elbows.

I stripped off my bodice, my chemise and my skirts as fast as I could.

I stood naked in the lamplight with my hair coming down.

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