Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
Silence descended on their small camp, both lost in their own thoughts about Owain’s tale.
“Is that what happened to you? Were you tricked into trying to kill me?” Orla’s voice was barely above a whisper. She was looking him in the eye now as she spoke.
The campfire blazed in those pale blue eyes, highlighting the golden flakes and making them look like flames. Gods, she hated how beautiful she found him. Even dirty and exhausted, he was still the most striking male she had ever seen.
“No. I wish I could claim so. But I planned to kill you because I thought it would bring me something I had wanted for a very long time.” A loud crack sounded as he threw the squirrel bones into the fire, staring into the flames.
When Orla had left the palace, she had so many questions for him. Why did he do it? Was anything he did for her real? But once she was near him, she found it difficult to ask. She feared the answers she would get as much as she feared not knowing.
Alas she couldn’t help herself. Maybe it was his story about the Gods that had reminded her so much of their time at the chapel.
Or maybe she was just tired of the walls she was putting up.
The past week had been lonely and exhausting.
Twelve hours a day on horseback, only to sleep on the hard ground of the forest when really what she wanted was to be nestled in Owain’s arms.
Maybe she just missed him. Though she wouldn’t voice those thoughts aloud, not even to herself.
“Was it worth it?” Was all she could manage to say as she tucked her knees under her chin. A question that held so much. It was a question as much for herself as it was for him. Had it been worth it to love him only to be so shattered? She didn’t know the answer.
Owain thought for a long time. So long that Orla thought he wouldn’t answer her at all. He smiled faintly when he finally spoke.
“For the brief time that I had you, yes, it was worth it. You are worth everything to me, Orla. I can’t say that my ambitions were worth losing you, but if I had never taken up the plan to kill you, I never would have had a reason to get to know you.
I never would have seen how you are both fierce and guarded.
How you are so unfailingly strong but have moments where you are as delicate as Elven-made glass.
For a few glorious weeks, I had you. You were mine, and it wasn’t enough, could never be enough. But it was worth it.”
Despite her resistance, a tiny bit of her iced-over heart thawed at his words.
* * *
Orla was still pondering over Owain’s words from the previous evening as the two rode in relative silence.
Owain let her know that they were only a two days’ ride to the inn they would be staying at where Chrys would be meeting them.
All their time in the saddle meant that they had made good time and could afford to rest more today.
It also meant that Orla’s ass was hurting something fierce, and she relished the opportunity to get out of the saddle for a few extra hours.
Though it was winter, the air felt muggy and warm.
Orla knew it wasn’t Owain’s magic that was warming the air.
His magic had a softer feel to it, like the caress of a soft blanket.
This warmth felt more oppressive, like a wool coat on a hot day.
The plants in this part of the forest were also different; they had a tropical feel to them that Orla had only seen in books about the plant life in the warmer south in places like the Kingdom of Urdhe.
After riding for a few more minutes, they discovered why. There was a hot spring nestled between two outcroppings of rocks. The water was a deep turquoise and steamy tendrils wafted off its surface.
Orla nearly moaned at the site of it. They have been traveling for over a week without a proper bath. Water had been scarce so they couldn’t waste it on bathing.
Quickly, Orla dismounted before walking over towards the hot spring. Tentatively, she placed a finger in the water to see how hot it was while Owain set up their makeshift camp. A squeal of delight fell from Orla’s lips as she realized that the spring was the temperature of a hot bath.
Before she even realized it, Orla was stripping out of her boots and yanking her dress up overhead when she heard Owain clearing his throat from behind her.
In her haste to not feel like a grimy pig, she forgot he was likely looking at her.
She turned to face him in nothing but her breast bindings and her trousers. The heat in his gaze made her pause.
“What? I need to wash,” she said defensively.
He smirked. “Carry on. I won’t stop you.
” As he turned to unfurl his bedroll, she stripped out of her remaining clothes and walked into the water.
She hadn’t known how sore she was until the moment she was nearly submerged in the soothing water.
The tensions in her whole body uncurled the deeper she went.
Her shoulders relaxed and her jaw unclenched as dirt and grim drifted off her skin.
The hot spring was the size of one of the smaller palace swimming pools, but it could easily fit twenty people comfortably. Orla swam to the far end of the spring before dipping her head into the water. When she rose, her heart jolted.
There, at the water’s edge of the spring, was Owain splashing water over himself, fully and completely naked.
She had never seen him naked before. In all their trysts, he had always kept his trousers on.
Her mouth suddenly went dry and an unmistakable ache hit her between her thighs.
Curse her reaction to him, but by the Gods, was he beautiful.
She knew Owain was well-built, he was a warrior after all, but seeing the taught muscles of his thighs as he walked into the spring was too much.
Rivulets of water streamed down his sculpted torso, past the large scars on his chest. He moved farther into the spring with the grace of a jungle cat: lethal and poised for a strike.
Her gazed trailed up his legs and settled on…
Well, there was no other way to put it; she was staring at his cock.
Orla had been a warrior, spending large quantities of time in barracks and on battlefields.
She had seen her fair share of naked men in her life, but she had never seen a cock like that.
He wasn’t fully erect, thank the Gods or she didn’t know what she would do.
But his length hung heavy and full between his thighs nonetheless.
Beautiful. The word popped into her head unbidden.
She had never thought of a cock as beautiful before, but she supposed there had to be a first time for everything.
He had never let her touch him there during their many, many trysts.
She wondered what he would feel like in her hand, how he would respond if she stroked him, what might he ta—
“You’re staring.” She shook her head as Owain pulled her out of her fantasies.
She looked up at him to see a cocky grin on his face.
The combination of that grin and a naked Owain was devastating in all the best ways.
For a moment, she had to remind herself why she was so upset with him.
But as she did, she schooled her expression from one of shock and lust to cool indifference.
“I’m using the hot spring. I was just surprised you didn’t wait your turn.”
“There’s enough room for two.” He smiled as he turned around, giving her a view of the firmest ass she had ever seen on a man. It took all her strength not to swim towards him and bite it.
They stayed in the hot spring like that for a while, both washing in an uncomfortable lust-filled silence when Orla finally spoke. She didn’t know why, but she desperately wanted to believe Owain when he had told her that they were real.
“When did it change for you?” He turned towards her. Mercifully, he had moved deeper in the water. The water lapped at his bare chest as he sat on a ledge in the deep pool.
He raked his wet hands through his hair before looking her in the eye.
“After we went foraging for the first time.” She thought about that day. How Owain had skipped his meetings to spend time with her.
“And what changed?”
She was inching closer to him now, closing the distance between them.
“I got to know you. In Edam, you are this monster, and I wanted to believe that because it would justify me killing you. But that day I saw that you weren’t a monster, you weren’t even cruel. It was the first day where I felt like I got to see the real Orla, and I really liked what I saw.”
He sighed as he moved off the ledge, eating up the distance between them.
“Afterwards I started thinking of ways to follow through with our plans without killing you. After that day, I couldn’t stay away.”
She looked up, they were separated by less than a foot of space now.
“Why did you never let me touch you? Every time we were together, you always focused on me. Why?”
They were even closer now, nearly chest to chest with one another as they spoke.
“Why do you think?”
“After I left the palace, I thought it was because of your ruse, that you didn’t actually care for me and that you couldn’t stand the thought of me touching you. Of you giving yourself to me fully.”
“And now what do you think?”
She shook her head as he gazed at her with such tenderness before placing a tentative hand on her shoulder and using the other to tilt her chin to look up at him.
“I didn’t take my pleasure with you because it didn’t feel right. There was so much you didn’t know; that you still don’t know. And if you decided to give yourself fully to me, to join with me in that way, I wanted it to be because you wanted me with all the information. No secrets.”
His words struck her and that ice around her heart continued to thaw. Gods she wanted his words to be true. He leaned in towards her, tilting her head even farther as his gaze traveled towards her lips.
Her breath grew shallow and then she stilled. Something in what he had said caught her.
“What else don’t I know?” He inhaled deeply, his gaze searching hers, but before he began, a screech of pain and a feral snarl echoed around them.
They turned quickly, looking at the bank near their camp, and on that bank stood two massive hellhounds, one with blood dripping from its maw, looking straight at them.