Page 38 of Mastering their Maiden
It was something far more frightening.
“Hmm,” Umber mused as he came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. I stayed stiff, listening to him hum softly in my ear. He kept hold of me, and eventually I heard footsteps approaching. Umber murmured softly in his native language, and I looked up when Kaiden took my chin, fighting so hard not to lean into the comfort of his touch.
“Our princess doesn’t want us to leave?”
I lifted my hand to push him away, narrowing my eyes at his patronizing tone. “You can go anywhere you want, but if it was me? I’d be cautious about leaving with all your men.”
“There will be soldiers left behind.”
“Soldiers you trust?”
“Yes.”
I narrowed my eyes, trying to find any flaw in Kaiden’s perfect features that would betray his confidence. There wasn’t a hair misplaced. His face was calm, so completely sure that he could leave, and nothing would change in his absence.
He was so sure it made me question my own thoughts.
Perhaps they were right, and I was being paranoid. After all, like Umber said, how much could happen in a day? I’d handled hundreds without them, what was one more?
Umber squeezed me tighter, and Kaiden bent down to give me a quick kiss. “We’ll be back before you have time to miss us, Aria, and when we return, I want you to have had plenty of rest.”
Kaiden’s hand slid lower, to my waist, snaking under Umber’s to hold me as they moved closer, pressing me between their bodies. Caging me in.
Keeping me safe.
I wanted to glower at him, but I found myself leaning back against Umber as Kaiden leaned in to kiss along my cheek before he found my lips. The threads around my heart loosened their grip, but the pressure they’d created sank lower, starting a heavy pulse between my thighs. I kissed Kaiden back, clutching both his and Umber’s tunics as they pressed in tighter around me. I managed to keep my voice silent, but my heart was pounding, whispering words I deeply hoped the two of them couldn’t hear.
If you must leave, come back to me. No one else ever has.
Kaiden pulled back, stroking his thumb over my cheek when he did. I shivered and tilted my head into his touch, letting him slide his fingers into my hair and squeeze softly.
I was lost. Well and truly lost.
CHAPTER 13
Aria
“It’s not such a bad thing, is it?”
Summer was smiling as she walked beside me, her cheeks flushed with more color than I’d seen in months. “I know you have mixed feelings about them—”
“I’m guessing your feelings are decidedly less mixed,” I murmured, and her cheeks turned from soft pink to red, confirming my suspicions that her good mood was born from more than a walk in the sun. She gave me a sheepish look, then shrugged.
“We have mixed feelings about the Elders, too.”
I laughed softly. “I don’t think our feelings about the Elders are mixed, Summer.”
“No, they aren’t. But for what it’s worth, I trust Kaze and Ellis. I don’t believe they would ever harm me. Which is far more than I can say for Micah or any other man in this—”
There was a sharp cry, and both of us turned to see that Lucan had crawled onto a small box and tumbled off the side. Summer gasped and sprinted the few feet to where he was ahead of us, but her arrival at Lucan’s side was met by ginger-haired Ellis. Kaze wasn’t far behind, and the two of them hovered around Summer while she soothed Lucan’s tears away. I could see the tension in their bodies ease when his cries turned to soft whimpers, and I smiled in spite of myself.
But when my eyes moved past them, that smile faded away. The Kavari man who’d insulted me and ended up with Zander’s blade at his throat was lurking around the corner of a shed, staring at Summer with narrowed eyes. Makan was his name, and even across the village square I could see a furious jealousy burning in them. When his gaze met mine, his eyes turned to slits, and he scowled before turning and stalking off.
I shook my head, not wanting to dwell too much on him because it would make me think of Zander defending me.
And Zander was gone.
All of them were gone. They’d left yesterday afternoon with most of the soldiers, leaving only Kaze and Ellis behind, along with the rest of Ryne’s men.
