63. The Stranger
Chapter Sixty-Three
The Stranger
I don’t know why I stop myself from pushing past her exhaustion.
Her various enemies won’t care if she’s tired or injured or afraid, but seeing the weariness that she hadn’t even acknowledged to herself, I can’t resist pulling her into my arms to give her what she needs.
So instead of taking advantage of her weariness and training her through it, I wrap her around me in the middle of the meadow and hold her as she sleeps.
I can rationalize that I am doing this for her, but I savor every soft breath against my neck, the weight of her in my arms, the warmth of her soft curves pressed against me, even the tiny snores coming from her.
She rests against me peacefully, relaxed in my hold, and I can’t resist burying my face in her hair.
I am such a selfish creature. She’s on a clock, and I can’t allow her to waste her time sleeping.
Closing my eyes, I step into her dream. It’s surprisingly peaceful—a blank space of warmth and sun.
She’s truly exhausted if she’s not even dreaming of anything in particular, only that complete void of security.
Is this a sign she feels safe with me? Holding her in my arms like this?
Deliberately, I push at the boundaries of her dream, working on her subconscious defenses.
I want to trigger the ones that automatically engage at an intrusion, forcing her mental walls up to keep me out.
But even as the walls strengthen against my intrusion, I hear a voice calling from inside them.
It’s the melodic language of the Daoine Sith, whispering to her in sleep, but the words are lost to me.
The walls I foolishly just helped her raise are now keeping me out too .
I feel her body shiver in my arms from the chill in the air, and I know I should wake her.
Instead, I conjure a blanket, comforting her as I wrap it around us.
I don’t move, not even to sit, not wanting to risk this moment being over.
I will stand here holding her in the middle of this meadow all night.
She shifts her head on my shoulder, and I drink in her features, but my eyes stutter to a stop at the mark on her neck.
My lip curls in annoyance, and I cut my thumb to draw a rune over the bruise, forcing it to heal.
She pushes me too far sometimes, and I wonder if she knew how close to the edge I am, if it would make any difference.
My teeth grind. How much longer can I keep my most violent impulses at bay? How much longer can I keep myself from killing those who got to experience her? No matter how they helped her through her grief, no matter that I know she’ll never forgive me if she loses someone else?—
“Stranger,” she moans softly into my neck, still asleep.
The single word soothes the anger coiling inside me, at least temporarily. Even in sleep, she searches for me, dreams of me, fantasizes about me. The boys she passes her time with don’t matter. In the end, it’s me. Everything and everyone else is a distraction. They are all just noise.
“Good girl,” I praise her softly. Dream of me. Crave me. Want me.
As if in response to my unspoken commands, her hips rock against me, rubbing her core along my cock. “Fuck,” I mutter. I was already asking a lot of my restraint when I picked her up and wrapped her around me, but her moving like this against me is something straight out of my dreams.
“Don’t stop . . .” she whimpers.
Fuck. Me.
“Princess!” I say, landing a hard slap to her ass. She gasps sharply, and her eyes fly open. I smirk. “What were you dreaming about?”
“Nothing,” she says, blinking up at me, trying to adjust from the dreamscape to reality.
I spread my hands, cupping her ass. “You said my name, moaned it, actually.”
Her cheeks flush a little, and she clears her throat. “No I didn’t,” she says, pushing against my chest, trying to get me to put her down.
Nice try, brat.
Shifting my hold on her, I free one hand and wave it, igniting a rune on my skin.
It’s just a minor spell that projects images, including sound, in the air beside us.
She watches with wide eyes as the last few minutes are replayed.
The moment she hears my name leave her own lips, she starts to struggle in my hold.
I let her slide down my body until her feet are back on the ground.
She steps back, intent on putting distance between us. “Shit, I need to get home,” she says, looking around as if searching for a way out.
“I can take you,” I say, opening the portal again.
She shakes her head, taking another step back. “I’m good.”
I chuckle as she nearly throws herself through the portal. “You’re free of our oath for today. We trained while you slept,” I call, deliberately taunting her.
She breaks into a run, and I laugh for real.