Chapter 20: The Hide

The Rite was set for the full moon, and the full moon was four weeks away.

I was twenty weeks gone by then, with a belly under my nightgown.

A husband in all but name lay asleep across the foot of my bed.

I wasn't sleeping.

Dane lay with one arm hooked around my ankle, as though I might leave.

I had my own room now, the best in the east tower, under my own name.

Nobody called me Bren anymore.

I drew my foot out of his hand and slid down the bed until I could put my mouth against his ear.

"You're awake," I said.

"I am not."

"Your heart's going."

"It's an honest heart. It has nothing to hide."

I bit his earlobe.

He rolled over so fast that the bed jumped.

He propped himself over me on his forearms, careful of my belly, and the lamp turned his green eyes dark.

"You are impossible," he said.

"I'm Cardross."

"You keep saying that as though it's an excuse."

"It's a warning."

He kissed me slowly, with no hurry in it.

It wasn't the hungry kiss of the first night.

It was the kiss of a man who had nothing left to be afraid of.

I pulled his shirt up over his head.

I ran my palms down his scarred chest, and he shut his eyes.

"There's still a place on your ribs I haven't kissed," I said.

"Is there."

"There's a pale white line, here."

I put my mouth on it.

He made a rough sound in his throat.

I worked my way down his stomach, and his hands went into my hair.

I felt him say my name through the bond before he said it aloud.

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