Page 56 of Hunting for her Heart
Suddenly, he’s on his knees before me, grabbing my hands and pulling me closer to him. He’s so tall his head is only slightly lower than mine now. He looks up at me, the anger gone, now replaced with sadness as he reaches up and wipes my tear-stained cheeks.
“Why are you crying?” he whispers. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You’re angry,” I say before sniffling.
“I’m upset,” he clarifies.
“At me,” I say, because I’m sure that he was looking at me with disappointment earlier.
“No, never at you,” he says as he continues to wipe my cheeks with his thumbs. “I’m upset the beast got in here and got so close to you. I’m upset you almost drowned. I’m upset you made it chase you.”
“It was going to kill you,” I say with another sniffle.
“Still, you should never put yourself in harm's way like that. I couldn't stand it if something happened to you.”
“That’s how I feel too!” I say with a tinge of frustration. “I couldn’t let it attack you when you were weaponless.”
“You’d rather risk drowning than let it attack us?” he asks, looking confused, and I nod.
“Yes. And I’d do it again.”
He exhales heavily, his lips pulling into a tight smile before he pulls me even closer and wraps me in a hug. He turns his face sideways, where it presses into my chest, and Iwrap my arms around him, dropping my cheek to the top of his head.
“We don’t deserve you,” he mumbles.
“I’m the one who doesn’t deserve you,” I tell him, knowing it to be true. I’m nothing special.
He pulls his head back and looks up at me as my hands find their way to the sides of his face. “Kiss me,” he commands. Feeling the need to do just that, I lean forward and press my lips to his.
He holds me tighter and his lips move against mine, and for a moment, I get lost in the kiss. But he doesn’t let it go on for too long, pulling back to smile at me, looking more at ease once he sees the lust on my face.
Pushing to his feet, he finally passes me my nightdress. “Get changed, my tiny treasure. I’m going to wait right on the other side of this wall for you.”
With that, he steps to the side to give me some semblance of privacy as I hastily change, not wanting to be a burden and take up too much of his time. When I pick my dress up, I see a small patch of grass underneath it. I look around but don’t see any more in this area.Strange.
When I step out of my changing area, Ronan takes my wet dress and my hand, leading me back to our sleeping area. “Will you sit here while we take care of a few things?” he asks.
“Can I help?” I ask hopefully, but he shakes his head.
“I don’t want you skinning animals or risk you being seen at the entrance helping with the traps.”
“What about the fire?” I ask, even though it’s already blazing high from Bo’s efforts.
He glances at it then smiles. “Yes, if it starts to die down, you can add more wood or stoke it. But be careful.”
“Yes, sir,” I say, the word slipping out unconsciously. His eyes darken a little, and I drop my gaze to the fire, unsure why I like that.
“And watch for the greenery spreading,” he adds.
“I saw a little bit of grass where I was changing.” He nods, glancing at the fire before he goes to help the other two.
They take a few hours to reset the traps and cut up the grimclaw. By the time they’re done, we have more meat than we could eat in days.
“We should cook it now,” Bo says as he assesses the giant pile of meat. “So it doesn’t go bad.”
Ronan nods. “It might attract other animals if we leave it.”
Remembering they had gone hunting earlier, I point to the smaller carcass off to the side as I ask, “What about that one? Do you think the grimclaw smelled it? Is that why he came in here?”
