Torin and the Battle (Torin and the Princess #3)

Chapter 1

ALEXANDRIA

For hours I drifted in and out of sleep in that weird place where I was exhausted mentally and physically but also excited.

I was skin to skin with Torin, and it was electric everywhere.

I was three quarters on my stomach, hands under my pillow, one knee cocked, the bottom leg stretched long, and it was my comfortable usual position, but this time it was also new and different.

Torin had snuggled up behind me, his face pressed against the small of my back, his arm thrown across my hips.

He said that he’d had, “enough of yer face,” meaning it sweetly, that “I ken it well enough,” and now he needed “tae get tae ken the parts of ye that are usually hidden by yer garments.”

He had kissed my back and embraced me closely and then slowly had fallen asleep, down at the bottom of the bed. I wondered if I ought to tell him to come back to the head of the bed, but he seemed so content...

I looked down at Torin and then over at Dude, sleeping in Torin’s place, his paws twitching as if he were having a dream adventure.

I pulled my grandmother’s quilt over my shoulder, faded patchwork squares stitched by hands I could still remember.

Somehow it still smelled faintly of lavender and old cotton, and even after all this time, it reminded me of the winter nights when my mother would tuck it around me. ..

I slowly fell asleep.

Now I was comfortably embraced, enjoying the moment when I felt him shift, his arm tightened around my hips, his hand moved down to my knee and caressed the skin.

He pulled my hips close.

I sighed.

He crawled higher and pressed his mouth to my neck, pulling me closer, spooning me, fully awake now.

He shoved me over onto my stomach, rolled on me, rubbed his hands up my side, all rough and tumble and hot, oh my, my arms over my head, he grasped my wrists, his mouth drew up my skin and settled in that place right behind my ear.

His breath warm, his heartbeat strong, his excitement built, “Ye awake, wife?”

I said, “Aye,” as he used his knees to push my legs apart and entered me in a rush.

He ran his hands down my body and pulled my hips up for a better ride and then oh how he did.

My knees went weak, his arms held me up against him as he plowed into me, the intensity building and building, until we both hit the peak.

Finally, my moans meeting his groan, we spilled over the other side.

He collapsed onto my back, pressing me into the soft mattress, his weight heavy in the best of ways. He kissed my ear and my hair, and my cheek and with a big warm calloused hand pulled my chin up to give me an awkward twisted kiss on the edge of my lips.

I dropped my head back to the pillow.

He rested his head beside mine for some long minutes, him on me, then asked, “Am I too heavy?”

“You’re the right kind of heavy.”

He kissed me again, then rolled off to the side and gathered me up beside him, my head on his chest.

“Ye hae allowed me tae take ye in different ways, tis excitin’ for me.”

“All in one night, we’re going to be exhausted in the morning.” I pulled my head up to look at the clock. “It is morning.”

The light was dim, just before sunrise.

His eyes followed mine to the glowing digital clock. Then I saw him look away.

I said, “Are you surprised I allowed you to take me in different ways?”

“Aye, I dinna ken twas a thing wives would allow.”

“Your wife will. Mostly.”

“Will my wife allow it whenever I want?”

“Do you mean literally or just figuratively?”

He raised his head and looked down. “What dost ye mean?”

“I mean I want to say yes, because it’s our first night together and this has been really fun. I want to say it will always be like this because I really like you, but I will have my period—”

“Tis what?”

“Menstruation, my time of the month. You know?”

“Aye. I ken. Ye are cursed.”

“And I’d like to be completely honest, I will have moods, Torin. I will be really hot for you sometimes, other times I will be not so hot. It’s part of my cycle. Does this make sense? It doesn’t mean I don’t love you, just… different moods.”

He rolled over and put his arms around me. “I daena want tae think on it, ye canna tell me anything bad about ye, I am yer husband—”

I raised my brow and looked in his eyes. “You don’t want to know anything negative about me, Torin? This is not a good way to start!”

He pulled me even closer, like a bear with a growl up against my ear. “Tis not what I was goin’ tae say.”

“What then, nothing bad…?”

“I am yer husband, I already ken it all, mo leannan, I ken everything about ye that I need tae ken. I ken yer loss and yer heartbreak, I ken yer suffering, and yer loneliness, I ken many of yer moods and how they can blast from the North when an albannach—”

“What is an al-a-ban-ack?”

“A Scotsman.”

“Oh, go on.”

“Yer moods can blast from the North when an albannach might be expectin’ a sunny day, the mood of the Princess will turn cold and the albannach will be beggin’ for a warm hearth.

But I also ken that Alexandria is warm and has invited the albannach tae her bed and her heart.

I think the albannach can handle the cold winds. He has weathered worse.”

My arms around his head, my fingers entwined in his hair, I pulled one of his long locks, curled around my fingers, in a lazy spiral. “You already know so much about me, Albannach?”

“Aye, I ken yer body, and all the sounds and all of the scents.”

“Maybe not all of them, but very close.”

“Aye, and I ken yer beauty. When we were ridin’ through Scotland I would look back at ye, ye ken. I liked the view verra much.”

“You think I’m beautiful?”

“Och yer beauty made me ache for wantin’ ye.

The high pink of yer cheek, the green flecks in yer eyes.

I couldna draw m’eyes from the edge of yer smile when ye were teasin’ me, yer lips the palest of red.

And yer hair was the color of the sweetest honey.

But then twould all flash dark when ye were angry with me. ”

“Oh, that’s...really nice... truly dark?”

“Aye, yer eyes would deepen, yer cheek would flush, yer lips redden. Tis half the reason I teased ye, tae see yer color deepen.”

I batted his shoulder playfully, then said, “I liked looking at you on those rides, too.”

“The view of me canna be nearly as fine, mo leannan.”

“I’m very fond of your knee when it sticks out from under your kilt, Albannach. Makes me flush hot and a little wriggly.”

“Wriggly?”

I rocked my hips against him.

“Och, I see,” he grasped my buttock and pulled me close. “All from seein’ m’knee? Ye must be mistaken, Princess.” He raised his knee. “Tis bony and furry, how can ye like it?”

“I like it so much.” I ran my fingers up his thigh, feeling the jagged scar there. “Where did this come from?”

“The boar I was tellin’ ye about. Twas after I brought ye home.”

“Whoa, Torin, that’s big and looks deep, I didn’t realize how bad it was when I dismissed it last night. I’m sorry. But I am grateful he didn’t scar your knee.”

He chuckled. “He almost killed me.”

I raised my head. “Really? Well now I sound like an ass for making light of it. I’m grateful he didn’t kill you, but a little relieved he didn’t ruin my view of your knee.”

“Twould ruin m’knee tae see a scar, if it proves I fought a boar and won?”

“Good point, I take it all back. I’m grateful you won.”

He chuckled again. “Actually, mo leannan, nae, I dinna win, he almost killed me and though I got a dirk in him, twas nae enough tae kill him. He will live tae gore again.”

I said, “Ugh, I’m so sorry about this whole thing, I love you, I’m so sorry about the wound, and I’m glad you’ve survived everything you’ve been through. I’m going to memorize all your scars and learn all the stories of them.”

His fingertips trailed down my hip as I spoke, but then he paused. “I will memorize yers as well...” He lifted his head and looked down. “Like the scar there on yer thigh.”

“I don’t even remember getting that scar.”

“Ye daena?” He blinked, looking at it. Then he grasped my hip, pulling it close. “Yet I remember.”

“What do you mean?”

“I remember we were… walkin’ through the gorse, ye snagged yer skirt and… I canna fully remember where… ye daena remember?”

“No,” I shook my head. “I think I’ve had it much longer than since we met.”

His brow drew down. “Ye daena hae a memory of it?”

“No, but I had it before we were in Scotland. I didn’t get it in Scotland… Is that where you thought it was from?”

“Aye, in the memory of it, tis Scotland, but I daena ken when — the colors are verra bright, tis a sunny day and yer skirts are yellow, ye are angry that ye hae ripped them.”

I asked, “And it’s not a dream?”

“Nae, tis real… it feels verra real.”

“Maybe it’s like déjà vu. You get a feeling that you’ve already experienced something, but you can’t place it.”

“Aye, perhaps, I felt the scar upon yer thigh, and knew what twas afore I saw it, the memory came tae me.”

“I would like to say it’s nothing, just your mind playing tricks, but my nightmare about being taken from a hovel that seemed more like a memory.

.. that ended up being true.” I looked down on the scar.

“So maybe you were with me when I got this scar, possibly. But also, I swear I had it in high school. I remember putting vitamin e on it, in the locker room at the pool.”

His eyes remained on it, “Yet I canna shake the feelin’ that I was there.”

“That’s weird.”

He lay back down, kissed the top of my head, and I curled up on his arm. All around us the room was soft with early light, pale gold filtering through the half-open curtains, the tops of the trees, my woods, stretching away quiet and endless.

“It’s like you know things about me that I don’t remember telling you.”

He nodded.

“It’s like I’ve known you for a long time, or in a way that I don’t remember, it’s unsettling.”

“I ken, ye are familiar, but I daena ken how.”