AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Arianna couldn’t help but smile.
Rion. The general of Brónach’s army. Her greatest enemy and the most feared warrior in Alastríona had just kissed her.
Chapter Sixteen
Arianna
Much to Arianna’s disappointment, Rion had other matters to attend to when they returned to the cabin. He’d walked her to the door and for a fleeting moment, she thought he might forsake his duties. Instead, he’d cleared his throat and stalked off, leaving her to watch his retreating form before closing the door.
Arianna leaned against it and touched her lips. Her body trembled with giddy delight and she smiled to herself, replaying their recent exchange over and over again. Come evening, he’d return and her heart raced at the thought. What would happen when they were alone together this time?
The ancient texts were wrong, that’s all there was to it. Whoever had written them had done so without knowledge or interest in the truth. He wasn’t a demon, and he wasn’t incapable of love.
She took a breath and set to her normal duties, though they felt more intimate now. She didn’t feel like a slave. She felt more like a—she couldn’t form the word.
Arianna dusted, scrubbed, changed the blankets, and made dinner, passing the time with mundane tasks to distract her from thoughts of Rion.
Another thought slipped in from her subconscious, dampening her spirits and Arianna stopped scrubbing. She sat against the nearest wall and leaned her head back. What would she tell Talon?
He loved her and a part of her loved him too. But her feeling toward Rion were different. Deeper. She didn’t know him well. In fact, all she knew about Rion were the stories she’d been told as a child and the contradictions she’d seen firsthand. Was staying the right decision? Was she just being a child who’d become infatuated with the unknown?
Arianna threw the brush into the bucket and crossed the room. She sat on the edge of his bed and cradled her head with her hands. What if staying, despite her heart yearning to, was wrong? And what if she regretted it for the rest of her existence?
Rion opened the door that evening, and Arianna’s heart fluttered when those beautiful, emerald eyes met hers. He stood on the threshold, studying her, seeming to scent the air in the room before he closed the door, removed his boots, and went to the washroom.
She’d heated the water for him, something she hadn’t done before, and noted that he spent longer cleaning up than normal. Was he nervous? She certainly was, and her trembling hands proved it.
Arianna half wondered if he’d emerge wearing a shirt, but Rion opened the bathroom door with only those black pants hanging from his waist. She let her eyes roam over his torso this time, taking in the lines of muscle he’d spent decades honing.
She noted the faint scar still lining his lower abdomen and then other, smaller ones beside it. Four of them, all jagged and deep as if made by some crude instrument. Rion stilled, but when Arianna realized what she was doing, she turned away to study the fire, a blush rising on her cheeks.
Rion walked around her, his steps soft, and seated himself on the edge of his bed. She poured them two bowls and just as she’d always done, Arianna tasted a spoonful from his before handing it to him. She tried not to watch him lift that same spoon to his lips.
“Come sit.” Arianna stood awkwardly, inching her way around his body to seat herself at his side. They ate in silence and she caught him staring more than once. Her heart never slowed and if it wasn’t for him, she’d have skipped dinner altogether.
Once he finished, Rion set his bowl on the floor and angled his body to face her. She did the same.
“A while ago, you apologized for touching me without my permission.” Arianna recalled the moment but couldn’t do so without also imagining his body on top of hers. “This is...new to me.” His brow furrowed. “If there’s something I do that you dislike, I’d like you to verbalize it.”
All desire vanished, replaced, instead, by that ache in her chest. She nodded. “And you’ll do the same?” She couldn’t even begin to imagine the depth of scars he carried. Not like the ones on the outside of the body, where they’d heal and be little more than a memory, but scars that went so deep they rooted themselves to the soul.
His brow furrowed as he studied her hands. “I’m…not especially fond of touch.”
She’d assumed as much. His request to keep her hands in a certain position, the way his magic always seemed to wrap around her wrists, and his accelerated heart rate whenever she’d touched him before.
“Does it frighten you?”
He gave her a look that said nothing frightened him before answering. “It… I’m not comfortable with it.” Rion shifted. “With that being said, I’d like to touch you. Is that—can I?”
Gods yes.
Arianna nodded and swallowed hard. Those emerald eyes locked with hers and she saw the same blazing desire reflected in his dark pupils.
If he didn’t like touch, then—gods help her.
She’d never been with a male, never wanted it, not like this, but if he wanted it, gave any indication, Arianna wasn’t certain she’d possess the willpower to say no.
She sat straighter. Ever so slowly, Rion reached toward her face and with the lightest touch imaginable, ran one warm fingertip down her cheek. She didn’t flinch away from that calloused hand. That same finger trailed across the racing pulse in her neck and Arianna’s breath quickened.
