Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Forest Cottage
Nightfall
Dravic’s lips settled softly on hers, warm, tender, then with a slightly more pressing need. It lingered for a few heartbeats. Long enough for the warmth between them to deepen into something neither had expected.
Adira’s breath caught. Every touch they had shared until now had carried comfort, protection, or reassurance. This carried something else. Something that stole through her with startling surprise, leaving her wanting… more.
Dravic felt it too.
He had meant only to silence the longing that had overtaken him. Instead, the kiss awakened something far stronger.
Reluctantly, he lifted his head.
Neither moved.
Dravic stared at her, every instinct demanding he step away.
What had he done?
He had kissed her. Not as her king nor as her protector. Simply… as a man.
Adira slowly lifted trembling fingers to her lips and looked at him with quiet wonder. She had never imagined she would ever experience a kiss, and never had she imagined it could feel so magical.
Nor had he.
Dravic took a step back. The distance between them felt both welcome and unwelcome.
He pointed to the bed.
Adira’s fingers lingered against her lips one last moment before she nodded and hurried to obey him. She settled herself beneath the blankets and looked at him.
He turned away from her.
It stung her heart that he turned his back on her. But what had she expected him to do? He was the king and she had embarrassed herself in front of him.
Would he punish her?
The sudden thought had her turning her back to him. She did not want to look at him any longer. She did not want to see or feel his regret or anger for kissing her.
The chair creaked softly beneath him as he sat and stared at the fire.
What had possessed him to kiss her?
It was not a stolen kiss meant to amuse himself nor one born of passing desire. It was a kiss that had stirred something deep within him. Something he had no intention of allowing to happen again.
He dragged a hand over his face. Nothing good could come of it.
He was king and she was… Adira.
He turned to look at her. She had turned her back to him. He had no idea what she thought, though he had seen no embarrassment or regret in her eyes. Only a quiet wonder that had nearly undone him.
He looked away again.
She suffered enough, locked in a world of constant silence. She deserved more than becoming a king’s convenience. More than whispered visits in the night. More than being hidden away while another woman wore the crown beside him.
Anger flared in his eyes. He would never do that to her.
Yet marriage… was impossible.
The thought had scarcely formed before Tavish’s voice answered it.
“You cannot risk placing an heir on the throne who cannot hear the cries of his people… or the warnings of those sworn to protect him.”
Dravic closed his eyes. Whatever happened between them could go no further.
It must not.
He could not allow it.
The weight of the unexpected situation settled heavily on his shoulders as he turned his head and cast a glance at the bed.
Adira still lay with her back to him, wrapped tight in the blankets almost as if she wished to bury herself in them… away from him. Only her hair was visible, the fire’s light turning her auburn hair a brighter red.
Had he frightened her? Had she retreated to the fearful woman she had been when he first laid eyes on her? Did the unexpected kiss hurt the trusting relationship they had established?
The thought unsettled him more than the kiss itself.
He did not want to lose what he had with her. He refused to, and besides, he was king, his word law.
He slowly rose from the chair.
Adira squeezed the blanket tighter around her. Fear crept over her recalling the terror she had seen in Eunice’s eyes after the king had summoned her. And how she had begged on her knees to the king. She had never disobeyed the king, never had given him reason to punish her, until now.
He was the king, but he was also an experienced man with women, having seen the different women leave his bedchamber with smiles the next morning when she had been summoned to return to him. He would know. He would have seen for himself that she had wanted him to kiss her.
What punishment awaited her now?
She could not stop her tears from falling or stop the worry that churned her stomach. And she could not stop thinking what a fool she was for having enjoyed the king’s kiss. And worse, she thought how she would hold the memory of it in her heart and mind forever.
More tears slipped silently down her cheeks, and for once she was grateful that no one could hear her cry.
A hand touched Adira’s shoulder.
She flinched at the gentle touch and turned without thinking.
The glimmer of tears on Adira’s cheeks struck Dravic like a hard blow.
He didn’t think. He simply pulled back the blankets and slipped into bed beside her.
Adira stared at him in stunned confusion.
He drew her into his arms. Then with a gentle touch, he wiped the tears off her cheeks.
He was king. He issued commands not gentle words.
So, he ordered, “You will not cry.”
He felt her stiffen in his arms and realized she had felt the sternness of his command and most likely thought he was reprimanding her.
He wiped at her wet cheeks again and shook his head. “No more tears.”
He did not like, not at all, that he had made her cry and he did not like how much her tears tore at his heart. Women had cried in front of him before this, but their tears had not mattered to him.
Adira’s tears mattered.
The problem was… he did not understand why.
With a hand to his chest, Adira pushed herself to sit up.
Dravic let his arms fall away from her, then he sat up as well.
Adira quickly began to gesture. She was desperate for him to understand she was sorry for overstepping her bounds. And that she would not do it again.
It took Dravic some time to understand what she was trying to tell him, her gestures quicker than usual. And when he finally did, he shook his head.
“You cannot think this is your fault,” he said, and she wrinkled her brow.
“She cannot hear you,” he reminded himself and began to gesture.
It took some doing but she seemed to finally understand, though what she gestured in response made him think otherwise.
Adira used her fingers to demonstrate shearing her hair from her head just like what had been done to Eunice. She had caught a glimpse of her being led out of the village barely any hair left on her head.
Dravic narrowed his brow and then he realized what she had been saying all along. She thought she had done something wrong and would be punished for it.
He shook his head and, not knowing how to explain it, he copied her… his fingers chopping away at his hair.
Adira was startled, realizing he blamed himself for the kiss. She was quick to gesture, pointing to him, tapping her lips, then patting her chest. After doing so she wondered if she was wrong in letting him know she liked the kiss.
Dravic was not sure if he understood or perhaps he did understand and that was what surprised him. Was she telling him she liked his kiss? Enjoyed it?
Before he could respond, she gestured again, tapping her lips and shaking her head.
It was obvious she was saying he could not kiss her again.
She was right, of course. So why did it anger him?
And why did a single tear slip down her cheek?
He was king. He did as he pleased. At least that was the reason he gave himself for what he did. It had nothing to do with how rapidly his heart began to beat or how suddenly he ached to kiss her again.
He leaned his head toward her. Her eyes widened some, but she did not pull away. Nor did she pull away when he took hold of her chin before he captured her tear with his lips.
The tear had fallen far too close to her lips, and he was far too eager to kiss her to ignore it.
He brushed his lips over hers, telling himself one kiss, one last kiss before he never kissed her again. A kiss he and she would always remember.
It started gently, a slight press of lips, a warmth spreading through him and he could feel that it spread through Adira as well. They lingered in its innocent pleasure, and then… it changed.
Dravic wasn’t sure if it was him or Adira, or if they both felt it at the same time, that the innocent kiss wasn’t enough. It became more demanding, hungrier, needy.
Not thinking, just responding to a sudden ache she could not explain, she wrapped her arms around his neck, and his arms went around her waist, and he tipped them to the side, shifting her body just enough so that he came to rest over her as they landed on the pillows.
Adira clung to him, a feeling of such pleasure overwhelming her that she never wanted to let go of him. It spread through her, warmed her, opened her to feel in ways she did not understand but completely embraced.
His kiss, to her, was magic.
Never had Dravic experienced a kiss that so overpowered him, he feared he would get lost in it. It tore through him with an intense pleasure he had never known. Or was it that he finally felt… felt everything.
Her pleasure and his own.
A wicked wind suddenly howled down the chimney, sending the flames soaring, sending a brilliant light into the room.
Dravic’s lips left hers and he turned, shielding her with his body, without thought to his own. When the bright light faded, he turned to see nothing amiss in the room.
Had fate made its hand known?
Adira could not be anything more to him than a trusted companion. One he could talk to and never worry she would betray him. Would always be there for him no matter what. With Adira, he would never be alone. And he could not lose that.
He got out of bed and surprisingly saw understanding in her eyes and in her soft smile. She knew there could never be anything between them and she accepted it.
So, why did he feel as if he just lost the most precious thing in his life?