“Damn you, Moira.” he said it with a sigh as he played with her hair. “You’re perfect.”
“Am I?” Her already glowing cheeks went pinker with pleasure. “I won’t argue because I feel so perfect right now. Thirsty though. Is there any water about?”
He nudged her aside, then rose to fetch the jug. She sat up as he poured, and her hair spilled over her shoulders and breasts. He thought if he had a heartbeat, the sight of her like this might stop it.
He handed her the cup, then sat across from her on the bed. “This is madness. You know it.”
“The world’s gone mad,” she replied. “Why shouldn’t we have a piece of it? I’m not being foolish, or careless,” she said quickly, laying a hand over his. “I have to do so many things, Cian, so many things where there’s no choice for me. This was my choice. My own.”
She drank, handed him the cup so he could share. “Will you regret something that gave us pleasure and harmed no one?”
“You haven’t thought about what others will think of you for sharing a bed with me.”
“Listen to you, worrying about my reputation of all things. I’m my own woman, and I don’t need to explain to anyone whose bed I share.”
“Being queen—”
“Doesn’t make me less a woman,” she interrupted. “A Geallian woman, and we’re known for making up our own minds. I was reminded of that earlier tonight.” Now she rose, picking up her outer robe to wrap it around her.
He thought it was like she wrapped herself in mist.
“One of my ladies, Ceara—do you know who I mean?”
“Ah, tall, dark blond hair. She took you down in hand-to-hand.”
“That she did. Her brother was killed today, on the march. He was young, not yet eighteen.” It pierced her heart, again. “I went to the sitting room where my ladies gather and found her there when I would have given her leave to be with her family.”
“She’s loyal, and thinks of her duty to you.”
“Not just to me. She asked if I would give her one thing, in her brother’s name. One thing.” Emotion quivered in her voice before she conque
red it. “And that was to march in the morning with her husband. To go from here, from her children, from safety and face whatever might be on the road. She’s not the only woman who asks to go. We’re not weak. We don’t sit and wait, or no longer will. I was reminded of that tonight.”
“You’ll let her go.”
“Her, and any who wish it. In the end, some who may not wish it will be sent. I didn’t come to you because I’m weak, because I needed comfort or protection. I came because I wanted you. I wanted this.”
She cocked her head, and with a little smile, let the robe fall. “Now it seems I’m wanting you again. Do I need to seduce you?”
“Too late for that.”
Her smile widened as she moved toward the bed. “I’ve heard—and I’ve read—that a man needs a bit of time between rounds.”
“You force me to repeat myself. I’m not a man.”
He grabbed her hand, flipped her onto the bed—and under him.
She laughed, tugged playfully at his hair. “Isn’t that handy, under the circumstances.”
Later, for the first time in too long to remember, Cian didn’t slip into sleep in silence, but to the quiet rhythm of Moira’s heart.
It was that heart that woke him. He heard the sudden and rapid beat of it even before she thrashed in sleep.
He cursed, remembering only then she wasn’t wearing her cross, nor had he taken any of Glenna’s precautions against Lilith’s intrusion.
“Moira.” He took her shoulders, lifting her. “Wake up.”
He was on the point of shaking her out of it when her eyes flew open. Instead of the fear he’d expected, he saw grief.