Chapter 19: The Night Before

On the third night Aldric came across the river under Torin's truce, alone, with no weapon.

I was in the guest cabin at the edge of the Greywater yard, sitting on the bed with my shirt off and a cold cloth against my ribs.

Three days of training with Torin had left me bruised from armpit to hip.

The children were across the yard with the Greywater women, asleep in one big bed.

Aldric stopped in the doorway and looked at the bruises.

"He did that," he said.

"I asked him to."

"I'll kill him."

"You'll thank him." I dropped the cloth. "Close the door."

He closed it, and stayed there with his back against it.

"I shouldn't be here," he said. "Tomorrow you fight for your life, and I can't be the thing you're thinking about."

"You're all I've been thinking about for three days."

His eyes went dark.

"That's not an argument," I said. "Come here."

He crossed the room, knelt on the floor at my feet and put his forehead against my stomach.

His arms went around my waist, careful of the bruises.

His breath was hot through the thin cloth of my skirt.

I put my hands in his hair.

"I'm afraid," I said quietly.

"I know."

"Not of her. Of what happens if I lose, and Rowan goes back to her."

"You won't lose."

"You can't know that."

"I know you." He looked up at me. "I've known you for seven years and been too much of a coward to say it."

I pulled him up onto the bed.

I got his shirt off him, over the healing wound, and he let me do it.

I pushed him back onto the blankets and straddled him.

The scar on his ribs was pink and raised.

I kissed it, and he shivered.

"Tonight," I said against his skin, "you do what I say."

"Yes."

"When I say go, you go."

"Always."

I kissed down his chest and his stomach, and unbuttoned him, and took his cock out.

He was already hard. I wrapped my hand around him and he hissed through his teeth.

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