Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 90574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
“I was not hungry,” she said, and poked at his chest. “And who are you to talk. You have not even washed the dirt and stench of battle off you.”
He grabbed her wrist. “I was too busy burying the dead.”
She gasped. “I am so sorry. I did not know you lost men.”
“I did not. I helped bury the enemy.” He released her and dropped back in his seat. “They will hurt us no more.”
She reached for his hand and he did not stop her.
“That is how you got the splinter?”
“The wooden handle broke.” He turned his head and stared at the flames. “I buried a lad younger than James today. I hoped I would not have to bury James.” He turned back to her. “Has he died yet?”
“You expect him to?” she asked.
“I have seen no man survive a gut wound.” He jumped when she touched his swollen finger.
“You should have come to me immediately with this.”
“I had no time to give it thought.”
“There is time now.”
He took hold of her hand when she released his. “We will eat after you are done. You need nourishment.”
She smiled. “You need a bath; then we will eat.”
“Do you tell me I stink?” He grinned.
She held her nose and laughed.
“Tend my finger, healer, so that I may wash and appease your senses.”
It was more than a sliver of wood embedded in his finger, but with gentle prodding Aliss managed to remove it without much difficulty. She cleansed it with a warm potion and patted it dry.
“After you wash, I will put salve on it and bandage it. Tell me immediately if it should discolor or pain you.” She looked at his finger then at him. “You will show me the wound each morning and night.”
“Will I now?”
Her finger gently probed the skin; she was glad to see that the swelling was already subsiding. “Yes, you will.”
“Why would I do that?” he asked, slipping an arm around her waist and spreading his legs to tug her closer to him.
Panic gripped her, and with a gentle pushing of her hands, she eased away from him and started sorting the dried herbs on the table.
He stood and walked up behind her, standing close but not touching her. “Why, Aliss?”
“I want to make certain no poison sets in the wound.” He stood too close, his heat seeping into her, titillating her skin, giving her gooseflesh.
“Thank you for caring.”
She turned, quickly bracing her hands on the edge of the table behind her. “I care for all the ill.”
“And who cares for you?”
Chapter 7
Rogan entered the room quietly, freshly washed from his dunk in the stream, his hair damp and his chest bare. He watched Aliss from the doorway. In between crushing herbs to a fine powder, she tended the stew bubbling in a cauldron over the hot fire.
She had impressed him when they first met. Her escape had been unexpected but it had been a display of her courageous nature, something he had not foreseen. He had heard rumors about the twins, the strength of one, the gentleness of the other.
He had been surprised to learn that the gentle twin possessed strength of a different kind. Once she had learned of the illness that plagued his clan she forged like a warrior into battle, relentless and untiring in pursuit and destruction of the enemy.
However, when he stepped near her, touched her, her courage faded and she retreated like a young lass uncomfortable with her emerging womanhood. Her dual natures made her an enticing woman, as did her beauty.
He would not deny he found her attractive or that her presence chased away the loneliness he had suffered since his wife’s passing. Then there was that healing touch of hers that his people gossiped about. He had thought them delirious—but then it had happened to him.
He had felt the warmth and tenderness of her touch when she tended his finger. He did not recall a twinge of pain. All he remembered was her loving touch and the desire to feel it again.
“The stew smells good,” he said, entering the room.
“It is almost ready.” Aliss glanced over at him.
He smiled as her eyes rounded and fixed on his naked chest; with a shake of her head, she quickly turned her back on him to fuss over the cooked stew.
He glanced with appreciation at the perfect image of her narrow waist, curving hips, and round backside. His hands itched to reach out and run his fingers ever so intimately over her naked flesh, getting to know every delightful inch of her.
He silently cursed his lascivious thoughts. His mission was more important than satisfying his lust.
Rogan slipped on a shirt and plopped down at the table. After a few awkward minutes, they began to talk and a relative comfort fell over them. They had grown accustomed to sharing daily news at the evening meal, just as he and his wife had done. And lately he looked more and more forward to this time together. Aliss never failed to find a bright spot in her day or to make him laugh at something she had heard or experienced. He found her soothing nature extremely attractive.