Wrong Girl, Right Alpha novel · Chapter 28 of 48

Chapter 28: First Night Back

"It's the salve," Ronan said.

His voice was rough, and he was still staring at his palm.

"The healer gave me a salve for the shoulder. White skin burns easily. I should have washed first."

"Hazel's been in the sun all week and she's fine."

"Then it was the willow in it. Nora, I'm sorry."

He looked up, and for a second I saw everything in his face, all of it.

Then it closed.

I could have pushed.

I stood there holding my daughter, whose cheek was clean and soft and sleepy, and I thought about the new terms.

Before sundown, I'd said, and he'd said always.

The sun had been down for an hour, and he had said nothing.

And I was so tired of being afraid in my own bedroom.

"Tilly's coming for her at nine," I said. "The healer cleared me last week. You haven't forgotten."

"I haven't forgotten."

"Then let's go to the den."

He breathed out.

"All right," he said.

We went up the ridge on foot, with nothing in our hands but a lantern.

The stone den was warm, because he had been up that afternoon to light the fire.

He'd laid the furs out, and he'd put a jar of the widows' honey on the shelf, and a bottle of wine neither of us would open.

I stood in the doorway with the cold at my back, in the green dress, with a body that was still strange to me.

My hips were wider.

There were silver lines across my stomach and the soft bulge under them hadn't gone, and my breasts were so heavy they ached.

I had not been naked in front of him since the spring.

"Nora," he said, from beside the fire.

"Don't. I know what I look like."

"You don't."

He crossed the floor and put his right hand on my jaw.

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