The Cursed Blood novel · Chapter 20 of 32

Chapter 20: First Night

I didn't say anything for a long time.

The stove ticked. The wind went over the Gap and down into the valley.

A choice.

Every big thing that had ever happened to me had been handed to me.

My kitchen. My apron. My place at the bottom of the hall.

A mate who looked at my tray and threw me on the floor.

Even the rot. Even the Trials. Even the Gap had come to me because my mother hid a postcard under a stone.

Nobody had ever handed me him.

He was kneeling on my floor with his scarred hands open, waiting, and he wasn't asking me for anything at all.

I got up.

He watched me cross the room.

I stopped in front of him, so close my bare toes touched his knees.

"Stand up," I said.

He stood up.

He was a whole head taller than me. He always had been. I'd never once felt small next to him.

"You said it's a choice," I said.

"It is."

"Then you don't get to make it for both of us."

"I'm not trying to."

"Good." I put my hand flat on his chest, over his heart, the way I had against the door. "Because I choose you."

His breath went out of him.

"Isla."

"Not because of a feast. Not because the moon picked. Not because I'm angry at anybody." My voice wobbled and I let it. "Because you kept your promise to my mother and never once asked me for anything back. Because you rehung my door. Because you eat Hettie's stew like a man who hasn't eaten in a week and never once say thank you, and she adores you for it."

He laughed, very low.

"And because you looked at my mouth on that rock like it was the only thing on the mountain," I said. "I want you to look at the rest of me like that. Tonight. All of it."

"You're sure."

"Ask me again and I'll bite you."

"I'm asking again anyway." His hands came up and held my face. They were shaking. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," I said. "Yes. I want this. I want you."

"Then yes," he said. "Gods, yes. Since the road."

The bed in the corner had been my mother's.

The gray brothers had mended its frame the week Hettie moved in, arguing about the pegs.

Hettie had piled it with every wool blanket the warden house could spare.

I'd slept in it every night since.

I took his hand and led him to it.

I didn't stop at the edge of the bed.

I turned to face him, my hands on the front of his shirt, and I pulled.

The buttons gave.

One of them hit the floor and rolled under the stove.

"Slow down," he said.

"No."

I pushed the shirt off his shoulders and let it fall.

His chest was lean and hard and covered in a thin line of dark hair that ran down under his belt.

I put my hands on him and he made a sound like I'd hit him.

"Gods, Isla."

"You've been looking at me since the road," I said. "Now I'm looking at you."

I dragged my palms down his ribs.

He shivered.

I reached for the tie in his hair and pulled it loose.

It fell around his face, black and thick.

I pushed him.

He sat on the edge of my mother's bed and looked up at me.

"Take off your boots," I said.

He did.

He was slower about it than I wanted, so I knelt and did it for him.

His hands came down and covered mine.

"Mean it," he said.

I looked up at him.

"Don't push."

That stopped us both.

It had been my voice on the rock.

Now it was his, here, in the only quiet place I'd ever had.

He pushed the hair back from my face and his thumb dragged along my jaw.

"Say it again," he said.

"Mean it," I said. "Don't push."

← Chapter 19 · All chapters · Chapter 21 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend