Chapter Twenty-Seven #2
“He is, least that’s the story I heard, though Mister Orrin has yet to confirm.
Anyway, he’s just right there.” She points as she stops in front of the double-French doors leading to the back.
Framed by clusters of pines and spruce, I spy his tall figure walking along the grass, beyond the fountain, and my heart, God, my heart…
“Thank you,” I say, passing Mrs. Minthy in a rush.
I don’t waste time walking.
I run to him, across the grass, past the forgotten greenhouse, to where he wanders at the edge of the paved walkway.
“Orrin!” I call and he looks up in surprise. I stop abruptly, just shy of leaping into his arms.
He wasn’t sure I’d be back. Does he truly want me back?
“Come here,” he demands.
I do, throwing myself into his open arms, hesitation gone.
“You’ve gotten less stubborn,” he teases as he tugs me in tighter. I inhale his scent, bury myself closer to his warmth, the chill of autumn against my back. I can still sense so much about him, even now. He is as glad to see me as I am to see him.
Smiling, I draw back. Then I frown, pausing to run my finger along the jagged scar, stitched shut along his face. Still healing.
He flinches, and I stop. “Sorry.”
I stare into his green eyes, discovering him anew. Do I miss the black after all this? He’s beautiful, in a different way now. What does he see me as?
“Do you want me, still? After everything?” I ask, holding my breath.
Orrin stares at me and his mouth falls open, incredulous. “I want you more than anything, Corliss. But the choice is yours. Last time, I made you come here, and you stayed for a long time, out of fear, and obligation to return your sister to safety—then, perhaps, for lust.”
“It was more than lust.”
“For me too. But this time, the choice is yours alone.” He pulls me in for a kiss.
The touch of his mouth on mine makes something in my belly flutter with delight.
Reluctantly, like he doesn’t want to let me go yet, he lowers me to my feet.
“Stay for as long as you like. My heart is yours, and my home as well.”
At his fiercely stated, open admission, I ask, half-teasing, “Have I tamed you then?”
“Only a little. I can still be wild, brutally so. You may find that out tonight.”
Laughing, I slip my hand in his, tug him toward the house. “Your room or mine?”
“We haven’t tried the dining room yet.” His lips twist with mirth. I can still taste those lips on me.
“The ballroom wasn’t scandalous enough for you? You’ll have to kick everyone out of the house if you want to have your way with me in each room.”
“That could be arranged.” Orrin’s eyes twinkle like the sun cast on the sparkling sea.
We are still smiling at each other as we walk up the stairs—to his room. Still smiling as he tosses my cloak down, where it puddles on the carpet. As he kisses me, the smiles fade, to seriousness, to sighs full of longing. As he touches me, to moans and gasps.
He kisses me all the way to my feet then pauses. With tender fingers, he removes my shoes and stockings, lifts my feet to his lips, kissing each one reverently. Then my white dress and undergarments follow the rest of my clothes to heap on the floor.
On the way back up, he stills, eyes glued to the bandage on my rib cage. “Are you hurt?”
“No.” Shaking my head with the secret, I reach down and peel the bandage off. Underneath, my fresh ink bleeds a bit, but I don’t mind.
“A crow,” he muses. “For me?”
“I made a stop before I came. I had to do something for you. And I’m quite fond of the little beasts now.”
He laughs as he gently reapplies the bandage to cover the crow inked on my skin, in black, black as night. Black as ink, as black as his beautiful eyes when I first hated him, when I first loved him.
“What?” I say to his smirk. “What’s so funny?”
Then he lifts off his own shirt, and I see it, on his lower rib cage. A lush pink rose, with plenty of thorns, more healed than my tattoo. Without him saying a word, I know it’s for me. This is how he sees me, beautiful and wild and soft and full, all at once.
I only shake my head, press my lips to his. I love him, I love him. He kisses me back and teases me, talented fingers pausing to stroke and divide me so that I shudder.
To tease him back, I run my fingers along his hard body. “I missed this.”
“Just this?” He shuts his eyes with pleasure.
I kiss him chastely, though my words come out breathy and weak. “No, not just this, you fool. This, you, everything. I missed it all. I feel as though I’ve been gone a year instead of days. I so desperately wanted to be back here, with you.”
“And are you happy now that you are?”
“I am.” I pause, voicing my concern out loud, “But are we safe now that Elisavet is gone? She’s not the only queen we have to fear.”
Orrin nods, running his hand along my naked back. “There will always be evil. I don’t know that there will ever be anyone like her though. But there will also always be hope and love and beauty. Sometimes, only a sliver. Still, even that is powerful. Even that can win.”
“I’m not gifted anymore, not like how I was, with all the magical senses. Or at least, they’re muted now,” I tell him. “And the red shoes don’t work.”
“I was wondering.”
“They turned brown. The magic is gone.”
His eyes are intense when he tugs me back into his inked arms. “Not all the magic.”
I smile. Perhaps he’s right. Sometimes I still feel as though there’s more to me. More within me. I glance down at his forearms and wrists. “I’d have thought these tattoos would fade as well. Like the other magic.”
Shaking his head, Orrin frowns. “No. These were never magic, never a symbol. They’re real, as real as any of the others, a part of my past. I can’t erase who I was in every sense.”
“Nor would I want you to.”
He hesitates, voice gruff. “I’m not perfect. You may yet find me hard and cruel in ways.”
“You’re no more a beast than I am,” I argue. “And I like you that way. Now shut up and kiss me again.”
“You kiss me,” he challenges back.
Laughing, I lean up to him. Sigh. “If you say so. I suppose you’ve tamed me as well.”
As he moves to join me, he says, “No, neither of us really are. We are just two wild hearts who find calm within the other. Two old souls, made the same. That’s why the red shoes loved you; you and I shared each other even then. Fated to find each other one day.”
“I agree,” I whisper, closing my eyes. “And I believe you’re right. The magic isn’t gone.”