Bend Her novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Say It Again

"Say it again," I told him, an inch from his mouth. "Your hands stay off me."

His chest rose and fell under mine.

Snow was still falling on his horns.

"Linnet."

"Say it, and I'll get up."

He did not say it.

His clawed hand slid down my spine and stopped at the base of it, and the black seal on his chest hissed through his shirt.

I felt him flinch.

"That is the oath," he said hoarsely. "It will leave a mark."

"Let it."

"It will leave a worse one on you if I..."

"Ansel."

I put my forehead against his.

"I have been told what I may touch my entire life. Nobody ever asked what I wanted to touch."

He shut his eyes.

"What do you want?" he said.

"You."

He made a sound in his throat that was half a growl.

Then he stood in one movement with me held against him.

He carried me across the yard, through the great hall and up the spiral stair.

He did not put me down until my door had shut behind us.

I heard him shoot the bolt.

On the inside.

He turned and set his back against the wood.

"You do not know what I am," he said.

"I know you."

"You know nothing. I have claws. I have a body you have not seen. I am not made like other men, and you are not made for me."

"Then show me," I said, "and I'll tell you if you're right."

I untied my cloak and let it fall.

I unlaced my bodice with fingers that shook.

He watched every inch of it come loose, his amber eyes gone dark and bright.

I stepped out of my skirts, and then my shift.

I stood in front of him in the firelight in my gloves and nothing else.

I had never been looked at like that.

It was not the way the court looked at me.

He took me in one inch at a time, and he did not hide that he was hungry.

"Take the gloves off," he said, very low.

I peeled them off, one finger at a time, until my scarred palm lay bare.

His gaze dropped to it, and his expression broke open.

"Come here," he said.

I crossed the room.

He took my face between his hands, claws drawn in.

He kissed me hard and slow, until my knees went and he had to hold me up.

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