Cree looked to Torr.
“I am her husband and you will leave us,” Torr said.
Cree scowled, not caring for what he must say. “He is right, Wintra. I no longer have say over you. You now belong to him.” He followed Dawn out the door, closing it behind him.
Wintra turned angry eyes on Torr. “I do not belong to you, and I want you to leave right now.”
“I am not leaving. I am staying right here with you.”
Wintra’s green eyes darkened and turned wide. “You do not mean to stay the night, do you?”
He smiled. “Tonight and all nights to come.”
Chapter Fifteen
Torr thought for a moment that Wintra would argue with him, but she did what he did not want her to do. She retreated into her thoughts. Her eyes suddenly lost their anger and her face softened, and he grew angry.
“You will find no answers or solutions in your thoughts. Talk with me,” he said, though it sounded more like a demand.
“What is there to say to you? You lied to me. How do I trust you?”
He not only heard the pain of her disappointment, but he saw it reflected in her eyes and it tore at his heart. “What would you have done if I had told you? You would have grown angry as you have just done, and then what? We would not have talked and gotten to know each other. I thought it best you got to know me, discover my nature, and see for yourself if you could care for me.”
He made sense, though at the moment she did not want him to. She was much too angry with him. Had he been angry when he had learned that she was his wife? The question hurriedly spilled from her lips. “How did you feel when you learned we were wed?”
It was a good question she asked and one he had not given much thought to. “I had no time to consider it. The message had arrived from the King shortly after your brother left the keep to find you.”
“My brother was coming for me?” she asked surprised, having thought differently.
“Cree had been furious when the news came of your abduction. Warriors were gathered immediately and Cree left with haste. I followed with the message. Cree and I were alone when he read the message. From the look on his face, I feared the news was not to his liking. He handed it to me and I read it, then I told him I would go find you. He agreed, though he truly had little choice, since I was your husband and the decision and responsibility mine.”
“When Cree became a warrior, he rarely lived by rules,” Wintra said, recalling the obvious change in her brother over the years when he had visited her in the abbey. “He could have commanded you otherwise.”
“And take a chance of causing a rift with his sister’s new husband? Besides, the King had already seen it done. He had had a proxy marriage performed so that his decree could not be challenged. Your brother also had his warriors and lands to consider, if he had not I imagine his decision would have been different.”
She leaned her hand on the back of the chair, her legs having grown much too tired. “What I do not understand is why the King would force a marriage between us?”
Torr could see that exhaustion was quickly taking hold of Wintra. “You are tired and need rest. These are questions better left for another day.”
“What I need are answers and I need them now.”
“When your brother said it was complicated, he spoke the truth. Leave it for another day when you are not so exhausted.”
As much as she hated to admit that he was right; he was. All she wanted to do was slip into bed and sleep—alone. Or did she? She had grown accustomed to having Torr wrapped around her. But now, with him being her husband, he could have his way with her, and the thought sparked her passion to life. How could she be angry at him and still desire him?
“You will be sleeping with me?” she asked.
Torr stood and walked toward her.
She watched him approach, not able to take her eyes off him. His gait was slow and confident, his shoulders broad, and he wore the slightest of smiles on his handsome face. And that was all she needed to see, her body reacted instantly to him, igniting the passion that had sparked in her and turning her legs from tired to weak.
He stopped in front of her and raised his hand to ever so lightly stroke her cheek, chin, and lips. “We are husband and wife and from this night on we share a bed—and so much more.”
She almost gasped from the exquisite pleasure his touch stirred in her.