Chapter 33 #2
He cracked a smile as he disposed of the cloth and readied the needle and thread. “This may not hurt as much, comparatively.”
Jade sat straighter, though her hands remained in tight fists in her lap.
Nicolas grasped the back of her left upper arm to hold it steady, the pressure of his fingers delicate enough that Jade could pull her arm away if she wanted.
The touch of his warm fingertips on her bare skin sent goosebumps rippling down her arms.
He leaned in close to the injury, and his body heat radiated off him in intoxicating waves.
With squinted eyes, he studied her wound, preparing to make the first stitch.
From this angle, Jade looked down at him, something she had never done before.
He appeared younger in this moment, his face not quite as hardened.
Dark lashes flickered with the movement of his eyes, and Jade was struck with a wild desire to run a hand through his thick hair.
“Talk to me,” she blurted out as he brought the needle to her skin. “Take my mind off it.”
To Nicolas, of course, she failed to identify what it she referred to.
“Okay,” he said, drawing out the word as his eyes lifted to her. Dark stubble shadowed his jaw. Jade imagined the roughness of it under her palm.
She pushed the thought aside as quickly as it had come, and she met his gaze instead, though that was no better.
“What were you doing at Lesseine?” he asked.
His question effectively eliminated all other thoughts from her mind. Jade narrowed her eyes at him. “I could ask you the same thing. I did, in fact.”
“Making sure you didn’t get into any trouble,” he answered without hesitation, returning his focus to her injury. “Which was clearly the right call.”
The needle stabbed into Jade’s skin, sending a streak of fire through her wound. She inhaled sharply and her eyelids snapped shut, but she breathed through the pain and soon returned her mind to their conversation. She needed answers from him.
“How did you even know I was going there?”
“I saw you saddle the horse.”
Another stab of the needle. Somehow, it hurt marginally less than before.
“And you followed me on foot to Lesseine?”
Nicolas glanced up at her. “I never said I only had one horse.”
He pulled at the stitch, the tight, inflamed skin screaming in protest. Jade pushed the ball of her foot into the floor.
“Now it’s your turn to answer my question,” he said simply with another jab.
Jade cleared her throat. She had to decide in that moment how much she wanted to tell him. She claimed to trust him, but she hadn’t shared everything she knew with him. The letter from Arthur to Arabella still remained a secret, so perhaps this should too.
But if she truly believed him—that he was doing all this to see the true heir established as king and bring a swift end to this conflict, same as her—why was she withholding information?
Was it because she had yet to see how he was handling any of it?
He’d said he would use her information to bring down Lord Grannam, but as far as she was aware, nothing had happened to him.
Jade decided to start small and see where the conversation led before she revealed all. “You told me to turn my focus to Lady Arabella. So I did.”
“What was your plan?”
Her mouth went dry. “I was searching through her morning room and library to see if I could find any kind of evidence . . . ” She took a beat to figure out the end of her sentence.
“To take her out of contention. If we can get both her and Lord Grannam out of this, it should effectively bring the conflict to an end. The only other living contender is Lord Marchand, and his claim is too weak to prevail over Prince Reynauld.”
“Hmmm.” Nicolas kept his eyes zeroed on in his work as he jabbed and pulled and jabbed again.
His lack of response made Jade wonder if he knew she was keeping things from him.
He said nothing in reply, though, and continued.
“So how did you end up in Reynauld’s sitting room if you were there looking for evidence on Arabella? ”
“I . . . I noticed a window had been opened in the sisters’ morning room and assumed the assassin was there.
My first assumption was that he was going for Arabella.
I snuck into her suite and found her sleeping.
Prince Reynauld was the only other likely target, so I went to his rooms through the escape tunnel.
But he was awake, and he thought I was the assassin. ”
“It stands to reason from his point of view,” Nicolas stated, continuing his work.
Jade shrugged with her free shoulder. “Yeah. Ironic, though, that I was there to make sure he wasn’t about to be killed.
I would have handled him better if I hadn’t smacked my head so hard on the floor.
” Jade raised her right hand to rub a tender lump on the back of her head.
“And then you . . . you were the one who came through the window?”
Nicolas pressed his lips together, still not bringing his eyes to her. Was he simply concentrating, or was he trying to figure out how to answer her?
“Yes.”
A slight sound of irritation came from Jade’s throat. “So why didn’t you let me know you were there? We could have worked together.”
“I told you, I was just there to make sure you didn’t get in over your head,” he said, his voice lined with something akin to a growl.
It returned to normal when he spoke again.
“I didn’t want to interfere with your work.
This mission wasn’t anything you discussed with me—or your commander, considering you had no backup—and I didn’t want my presence to inject any bias or alteration to your plans. ”
Jade blinked a few times, a sudden clouding of her mind making it difficult to think straight. It didn’t matter why he hadn’t revealed himself. He had been there with all intentions of keeping her safe, and it turned out she had desperately needed it.
Needed him.
He finished his work, tying the thread and cutting it off. Jade winced as he tugged at the tender skin, but she rolled her lips and bit her tongue to keep from making a sound.
Nicolas ran his thumb delicately over his completed stitches. “How does it feel?”
Jade swallowed past her dry throat as she raised her arm to examine his handiwork.
A row of neat black stitches held together the puffy red portion of her brown skin.
“It’s throbbing like hell.” She lowered her arm and met his eyes.
Her insides somersaulted at the tenderness on his upturned face.
“But thank you. I know it’ll heal well now. ”
Nicolas’s hand trailed down the length of her arm, coming to rest on her fingers before he reached up to touch the spot on her neck where Reynauld’s blade had pierced.
“This one has stopped bleeding, and it’s not as deep.
” He dipped another cloth in the water and washed off the crusted blood under her chin and down her neck.
Setting the cloth to the side, he returned his thumb to the wound, wrapping his fingers around the back of her neck as he ran his thumb under the cut. “It will heal on its own.”
Nicolas didn’t move his hand while his thumb traveled up Jade’s neck and along her jawline. He had to have felt her hammering pulse.
Jade released a held-in breath, starkly aware of their closeness. Nicolas’s lips parted, drawing her gaze. She wanted to feel them against hers. A warmth swirled in her middle at the thought.
When she found Nicolas’s eyes again, she found a hunger that hadn’t been present there before.
A deep yearning. Jade’s chest heaved as the space between them became charged and potent, intoxicating her.
She was closer to him, realizing she had inclined her head toward him, but Nicolas was the one who closed the distance.
His lips crashed into hers, taking Jade by surprise, but she quickly settled into his kiss. Time stilled, noises ceased, and Jade couldn’t form a thought outside of him.
He seemed to wait to see what she would do, pulling back only enough to break the kiss, their noses almost touching and their breath mingling.
Jade grabbed at the front of his shirt and brought him back, craving the pressure of his kiss again.
Nicolas responded eagerly, placing a hand on her waist and rising from his knees in front of the sofa to join her on it.
He tugged her closer, and Jade twined her arms around his neck.
Her fingers found their way to his hair—that luscious, thick hair that she had so longed to touch—and Nicolas made a low sound in his throat.
He gripped her waist harder, each pressure point sending waves of fire through her abdomen and banishing all rationality from Jade’s mind.
She hadn’t realized how much she wanted this. Nicolas was more than her informant; he was her guide, her protector. His scent overwhelmed her senses as his touch set her aflame.
He’d saved her life tonight. He’d been there when she needed him most. Jade’s heart stirred with gratitude, and she felt safe in his arms. Guarded. She believed in his promises to take care of her, to not let anything happen to her. Jade trusted this man with her life.
The tease of a tongue swiped across Jade’s bottom lip.
The swirling in Jade’s lower belly sent a jolt straight to her heart, sending it into a frenzy.
She answered Nicolas’s request. A new intensity came with it as his mouth met hers over and over, exploring her mouth with his tongue and tugging her lip with his teeth.
Jade shivered, a fresh wave of goosebumps rushing over her skin.
Nicolas had ignited something within her, and she didn’t know how to stop. She didn’t want to stop.
Something shifted under her arms where they wrapped around his neck, and it took until the bare skin of her arms met his uncovered shoulders for her to realize his shirt was gone.
She ran her fingers along his broad shoulders and down his toned arms, tracing the ridges of his muscles.
Nicolas released a shuddering exhale as she brought her hands back up to either side of his jaw and around the back of his head.
He pressed his chest against hers, and Jade’s breath caught in her throat.
His hands trailed the curves of her hips and waist before climbing up her back.
The unfettered wildness of his heartbeat crashed against her own ribcage as he brought his hands behind her and leaned her back onto the sofa.
Nicolas hovered over her, their lips never disconnecting. Jade had thoroughly lost herself. No thoughts of Reynauld, of Nicolas following her, or of the conflict entered her mind. Nothing even stood the chance of taking her attention. In this moment, all her focus—all of her—belonged to him.
His rough thumb brushed over the length of her collarbone, slipping the strap of the shirt to her shoulder, as his mouth broke from hers. Nicolas pressed delicate lips to the hollow above her collarbone, then continued up her neck, murmuring her name in between his tender kisses.
His kiss, his touch evoked such powerful emotions from her. How had she ever doubted this man? How had they not ended up here sooner? Jade wanted nothing more than to live in this moment forever, entwined with Nicolas, hearing her name on his lips.
His own name was on the tip of her tongue as his mouth met hers again, drowning her in another kiss. Jade barely registered the pain of her wounds anymore, and it was impossible to determine whether her lightheadedness was a result of her head injury or the euphoria of the moment.
Nicolas ran his hand down the curves of her torso again, stopping at her rear end and hiking her leg up around his waist. Jade lifted the other leg automatically, and her boots smacked together behind his back.
She would have to take them off, which was more work than she cared for in the midst of what was happening.
She’d been tying the laces extra securely ever since she lost one in a training mission as a cadet with Theo.
Theo.
Oh blazing plague, what was she doing?
Jade’s hands flew to Nicolas’s bare chest, and she pushed against his firm muscles with a sharp inhale as their mouths separated.
“What’s wrong?” Nicolas’s dark eyes, only a hand’s breadth away, fervently searched hers. “Did I touch your wound?”
“Uh . . . ” Jade used the excuse as she scrambled out from underneath him, sitting upright once more. Her hand flew to the back of her head, where her braid had started coming undone. “No. A sharp pain in my head. I don’t think it’s quite all right yet.”
Beside her, Nicolas panted heavily. He rolled his lips together and shut his eyes for a moment as if to reset. “Here, let me take a look.”
“That’s okay. I can handle it.” Jade shot to her feet. The world tilted, and she staggered, but Nicolas was right there, steadying her by her arm.
“Clearly.” He stood squarely in front of her, examining her face as he held her still. His voice was a gentle murmur as he added, “There’s a bed in the next room. I can set you up in there to rest.”
“No,” Jade responded, a little too quickly.
She readjusted her tone and tried again.
“Thank you. It’s very kind. But I have to go back to base.
It has to be close to first light, and if I’m not there, they’ll send out a search party.
And I’ll get in heaps of trouble. The last thing I want is for them to think I deserted. ”
Nicolas brushed his knuckles over her cheek. “You’re always welcome here, you know.”
Jade nodded. She did know, in some innate way. But that didn’t mean she was agreeing to stay.
“I’ll help you out.” Nicolas leaned down and kissed her once more. The intensity was gone, but his passion remained. Jade allowed him the kiss, partly to keep from creating any suspicions in his mind and partly because a portion of her wasn’t ready to give him up.
He released her and retrieved her jacket, handing it to her before going to the bunker door.
“No blindfold this time?” Jade asked, not hiding the snark in her words as she stopped in front of him at the door.
Locks of tousled brown hair danced as he shook his head. “Not this time.”