Chapter 16: Rafe

The troopers locked the cell blocks at nine and posted two men at the end of each corridor.

Rafe came anyway.

I heard no footsteps.

I heard my door lock click once under his hand, because the lock was mine and he had no key.

I opened it.

He stood in the dark corridor in his black tunic, with his shoulders nearly touching both sides of the frame.

"The guards?" I said.

"Kit dropped a tray in the east block. They went to look."

"Rafe."

"I know the rule." His voice was rough. "Nobody comes in unless you open it. I'm asking you to open it."

"It is open."

"Say you want me to come in."

I looked at the scar through his eyebrow and the long hard mouth.

I had felt that mouth once in a locked steel box.

"Come in," I said.

He came in and shut the door behind him and turned the lock himself.

Then he stood very still.

"I said I wanted to be here," he said. "I don't know how to do the rest."

"What rest?"

"Being gentle."

"Then don't," I said.

His eyes went black in the dim light.

He crossed the room in two steps and lifted me against him, one arm under my hips, and kissed me.

It was hard and deep and it tasted of ash and cold water.

I got my fingers into his black hair and pulled.

He growled into my mouth, a low sound that came up out of his chest.

My back found the wall, and then the cot.

He laid me down and stood over me and stripped off his tunic in one pull.

He was enormous.

He was scarred across the chest and the ribs, and the muscle moved under the scars when he breathed.

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