Total pages in book: 208
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
“We won’t.”
“We will. Now sleep.”
“You cannot order me to sleep. And we won’t!”
Suddenly his hand was wrapped around the back of my neck, I was across the silks and pressed to the length of his frame, his hand still at my neck, his other arm wrapped tight around me.
“I would have you safe,” he gritted.
Oh heavens.
We were here again.
I’d brought him here again.
Regrettably.
I held my breath as he carried on.
“And I will keep you safe how I see fit, woman, no matter how you argue, if you fight. I will not lose you. Dora will not lose you. When she meets you and becomes attached to you, Aelia will not lose you. I’ll see to it. Is this understood?”
“Cassius,” I started cautiously, “I think we need to talk.”
“In the morning and along the bloody trek to Notting Thicket. We’ll have fucking weeks to come to some accord, my princess. And this we’ll fucking do. And not only to have an accord, but for there to be a time, hopefully very soon, where I’ll do a variety of other vastly more enjoyable things with you when we’re abed. But now…sleep.”
I felt it prudent at that moment to give in.
So I did and I did it saying, “All right. Now, will you let me go?”
“No.”
I stared at his shadowed jaw. “No?”
That jaw tipped down and I caught his eyes through the darkness.
“No,” he confirmed.
“Cassius—”
“Elena, you feel good and you feel alive. Give me that without a bloody argument. Especially tonight. I beg you, please.”
I felt alive.
Unlike, very obviously, his dead wife.
I closed my mouth.
Thoughts tumbled through my head, the most imperative of which was what happened between us that morning.
Therefore, I opened my mouth.
“I should have thought things through…er, this morning,” I declared. “Discussed those issues with a clearer head and without anger.”
“Yes, you should have,” he agreed.
Hmm.
“Though I’ll state now we should discuss those eventually and have an understanding.”
His chin tipped back but his hand at my neck moved so he could wrap his arm around my shoulders, and both arms squeezed as he muttered to the headboard, “Oh for the gods’ sakes.”
“I’m simply saying—”
His chin tipped down again. “I heard you. Now bloody sleep.”
“But tomorrow, are we going to—?”
“Elena, you can be quiet and sleep or I’ll kiss you quiet then I’ll kiss you elsewhere in a way you will not be quiet, but you won’t be speaking words, at least not lucidly, and after, we’ll both sleep. My guess, most thoroughly.”
I fell quiet.
It was then, it occurred to me I’d never lain in the arms of a man.
Well, I had, after Cassius and my activities at the fountain.
But not in a bed.
He felt good too. Solid. Warm.
Good goddess.
I was quite certain there was no way I’d find slumber, but I’d had very little of it the night before, a full day, and he was warm.
His arms were also strong, even lying abed.
I’d relaxed into him after sliding an arm around his waist (for comfort only) when he muttered, “Too bloody good.”
“Sorry?” I mumbled.
“You feel.”
I blinked repeatedly at his chest.
He stroked my back and I could not deny it, it felt marvelous.
“Go to sleep, my princess,” he murmured.
“You’re very annoying,” I told him.
“As are you. The perfect match,” he returned.
I sighed.
But within minutes, I fell asleep.
Not long after, Cassius followed me.
And not long after that, four lovers abed in each other’s arms, the earth trembled.
41
The Reinforcements
Dax Lahn
Residence of the Dax, Korwahn
KORWAHK, THE SOUTHLANDS
“We have to cross the Green Sea,” Circe, his beloved Dahksahna, was informing him.
“We will not be crossing the Green Sea,” he returned.
“We really should cross the Green Sea,” Queen Cora of the country of Hawkvale in The Northlands mumbled.
Lahn heard a deep sigh and turned his eyes to King Noctorno, Cora’s husband, Lahn’s friend, who was standing, leaning his shoulders against the wall and looking what Lahn felt.
Beleaguered.
The sun shining through the windows, they were in what Circe called their “family room.”
None of them had taken a cushion on the floor. All of them were standing.
Mostly because their conversation was annoying, and it was clear the women did not intend to give in.
Which made their conversation all the more annoying.
“I’m having visions, Lahn,” Circe told him something she’d told him a number of times before, once the tremors of the earth started a few months ago, getting stronger each time.
Though Circe had told him she’d felt them even before, when he had not.
However, he did not hold magic, and his wife did.
“We are not crossing the Green Sea,” he reiterated, staring directly into the eyes of his queen.
“I have a bad feeling, Tor,” Cora said to her husband.
“You have mentioned that, my love,” Tor muttered, and when Lahn looked his way, he saw Tor spear his wife with a glance. “Repeatedly.”
“Well?” Cora threw up both her hands.
“I thought bringing you down here for a visit with our friends would take your mind off things,” Tor returned. “Apparently, it has not.”