Chapter 16: The First Night

I took the ring out of his palm and put it on my right thumb, where it was too big.

Then I took hold of the front of his shirt and pulled him over the threshold.

"You said you'd earn it," I said.

"I haven't finished."

"You stood in front of two hundred people and said your own name. You held my coat." My voice shook. "You lay on a floor."

"Rowena..."

"I'm saying yes. I'm saying it now, while I'm not furious, and I'm not scared, and I'm not drugged. I want you in this bed."

His breath left him in one rush, and he kissed me.

It was nothing like the angry kiss against the guest-room wall.

He kissed me slowly, thoroughly, taking all the time in the world.

His hand cupped the back of my head, and he took his time.

I shoved the door shut with my heel.

I got his shirt over his head, and the Beta's red scarf went with it, and I dropped both on the floor.

His chest was broad and hot and scarred in three places I had never asked about.

I put my mouth on the longest scar, high on his ribs, and felt him shudder.

"Who gave you that?"

"A rogue. I was nineteen." He laughed, breathless. "You're asking now?"

"I'm asking now. You can tell me after."

He found the zipper at the back of Penny's dress and drew it down, one slow inch at a time.

The gray fabric fell open to my waist.

He went quiet.

My back was bare to him, with the long pale line of the surgeon's work between my shoulder blades.

He put his mouth to the top of it, so lightly that I felt his breath more than his lips.

"I'm sorry," he said against my spine. "For every day it was in you."

"Conall." I turned in his arms. "Stop being sorry at me and take my dress off."

He did.

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