Again with the big eyes and, “Wow.”
He couldn’t believe it with all that had happened that eve, but he felt his lips twitch.
“Yes…wow.”
“Do you heal fast?” she asked.
There was his Satrine.
“I do.”
She arched into him and replied on a grin, “Excellent.”
And there was his save.
His savior.
His Satrine.
Chapter Sixteen
Loose Lips
Loren
At first, he felt Satrine moving.
And then came the pain carving into his side.
He opened his eyes and saw a dark that shared it was still the dead of night but felt Satrine fidgeting.
“Are you not comfortable, sweeting?” he murmured, his voice thick with sleep.
“Okay, honey, I get why you felt the need for barriers, but you try to sleep in a corset.”
He roused at that.
“I need this dress off,” she finished.
He had decreed they’d sleep in their clothes, an effort to fight temptation.
Therefore, he’d tugged off his boots and socks, she had slipped off her slippers.
And they were on top of the bedclothes with the duvet pulled over them that usually lay folded at the foot in case an evening was uncommonly cold.
He’d forgotten she was daily tortured with that item of apparel.
“Never understood why you women suffer that contraption,” he remarked.
“I knew I was falling in love with you.”
Startled, Loren was powerless to do anything but allow her words to flood through him, the light of them momentarily, but brilliantly, illuminating places that had long been dark.
He did this before he moved his hand to the top button at the back of her neck.
He released it from its loop, the next, and then, with practiced ease, he angled his fingers just so, in order to slide them down and release all the buttons in one go.
Nary a second after he accomplished this, she shivered against him and remarked, “Maybe we should keep our clothes on.”
He grinned into the dark then pulled them both from under the duvet and onto their feet.
He heard the silk of her dress rush to puddle on to the floor. He then used her hips to turn her and found the ends of the satin laces at her back. He tugged them and loosened them, thankfully unable to see what he was doing. It was bad enough being able to feel it.
He stepped away to allow her to pull the corset over her head, which would leave her in nothing but her shift, and he turned his attention to the buttons on his breeches.
He pulled those down so that he was only in his undershorts, then reached beyond her to tug back all the covers.
With a hand at her hip, he guided her in and followed her.
With ease, he turned her into his arms, but this was because she was already heading there.
“Much better,” she decreed.
His lips curved, he pulled her closer and tangled their legs.
Much better, yes.
And much more dangerous.
Nevertheless, his fingers found themselves wound into her soft hair.
She melted into him.
“How’s your side?” she asked quietly.
“I’ll live.”
“The goal should be not to allow them to cut you,” she teased.
“There were five of them, and only two of us. I can promise you, my lady, I did try.”
“Okay, let’s stop talking about that,” she returned.
He gave her a squeeze and reassured, “They were rough. Hooligans. No training. We were never in any real danger. I delight you still want me regardless of the flaws I know you sense in my character, so I feel relatively secure in sharing, in situations like that, Marlow and I work well together.”
“Did you two learn that when you were quashing dissidents in Lunwyn?”
Loren froze.
Entirely.
“Uh-oh,” she whispered.
“Who told you that?” he all but barked.
“Honey—”
He shifted, cupped her jaw on both sides, tipped her face to his, even if he couldn’t see her, and shared, “You are not in trouble. I’m not angry at you. But I’m angry. And I’m angry at whoever told you about that.”
She made excuses instead of answering him.
“I think he might have done it so I would know you a bit better, and maybe, um…have a care should things happen like…erm, tonight.”
Since Marlow was with him when they went to attend Tor, that only left his father, unless Middleton, Holton or Rycroft came to visit her, which, considering none of them were close, was unlikely.
Though they were possibly getting closer due to the announcement of his betrothal and the knowledge they could rightly assume they were all to attend his wedding, something not one of them would miss.
And Ansley undoubtedly did it for the reasons she stated.
But considering this knowledge threatened the realm’s security, it still was the wrong thing to do.
“This is highly confidential information, Satrine, do you understand me?”
“Yes.”
“We took pains not to leave any trace. Men died for that. What is done is done, it’s been years, but what happened was not with the knowledge of the ruler of Lunwyn. She has since passed. A good queen. Even more clever than you, which means she’s the only woman I’ve known who is such.”