“Lucus…” she said, shaking him gently. “How long have you been here?”
The blacksmith’s face crossed with pain — an emotional agony that made her immediately regret the question. Lovingly she stroked his arm. Brushed the hair back from his cheek and then kissed him there.
“Lucus…”
“I don’t know,” he murmured finally. “I… I can’t ever know. Not until the end. Until the moment when…”
His voice trailed off. This time she let it go. Melody went back to the broken contents of the strongbox. She rattled them in her hand.
“You took this from him?”
“It broke,” said Lucus.
“How?”
“While we were… fighting?” His expression went strange again, like he was struggling to recall. “He attacked me, at the very end. When he was trying to get…”
Lucus’s eyes went foggy as he shook his head. For a long time he was silent.
“It’s not my fault,” he said finally. “It’s just the way it is. The way it has to be, and now I’ll be punished for… for…” He looked up at Melody. “For interfering…”
“Hey, hey,” she said. “Shhh. It’s okay.” She stroked his hair. His face. “No one’s going to hurt anyone.”
There was a lot she didn’t understand, didn’t believe. Right now wasn’t the time for it. Melody drew him near again, enjoying the closeness. She began planting soft kisses on the smith’s face, first his forehead, then one cheek, then the other.
“I’m here,” she said. “I’m with you…”
She kissed his lips. Felt his body go rigid with a rising excitement. His hands came alive again, reaching out for her. They gripped her firmly but still gently around the waist.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she murmured into his mouth. “I promise.”
Lucus took her in his arms. Laid her back into the softness of his makeshift bed. Melody squirmed into him as his hands began wandering her half-clothed body. They traced over her naked stomach. Slid around the small of her back, cupping her ass as they drew her into him.
She inhaled his scent — salty and musky and full of raw, untamed masculinity.
She could taste him on her tongue.
She could have him…
I didn’t want to sleep tonight anyway, she sighed, pulling him into her.
22
Melody fell back into the soft, comfortable bed… and Lucus slid right on top of her. His chest was hard and unyielding, his arms like two tree trunks jutting up on either side of her supple body. His lips pushed sensually against her own, parting them, making room for his tongue as it penetrated her willing mouth.
I want him…
It was an admission she wasn’t the least bit afraid of. A guilty pleasure, taken in a moment of closeness and emotional intensity. A physical need, satisfied beyond fulfillment by a man both stunningly handsome and ruggedly well-built.
He pushed his way between her legs unapologetically, without hesitation. And Melody spread for him. She spread her thighs wide in the pale moonlight of the cozy loft, hooking her ankles around his slim waist to draw him even harder into her.
Lucus nuzzled her neck… kissed his way down to her breasts. He still had his pants on, and Melody’s hands shot downward to find his waistband. Any clothing the smith was still wearing constituted an issue she meant to remedy immediately.
He’s risking everything for you, the little voice in her head told her. He’s told you things he wasn’t supposed to.
Maybe.
Probably.