Page 8 of The Stag & The Owl
“What did you say?”
“You’re beautiful too.”
“No.”He shook his head.“I’m not.”
Alina tilted hers.“I think you’re a handsomeman,” she said truthfully.
“You don’t have to say that.”He flicked hisfingers at his cheek.“I know these freckles don’t appeal.”
“They do to me.”Alina lifted her hand andhovered it over his cheek.“May I?”
He nodded and visibly braced himself.Alinatouched her fingertips to his cheek and down to the edge of hiscropped beard.His skin was warm and his beard soft.She grinnedand met his watching gaze.“Why would you think you’re not ahandsome man?”
“Because women have been shuddering at mymarked face and crawling over me to get to Leif since we wereboys.”
Alina scoffed.“Men like Leif are as commonas grains of sand on the beach,” she said.“You, with yourearth-kissed skin, hair of fire, eyes of rain, and soaring mind,you’re as rare as the pearl I wear, Roark.”
“You called me Roark.”
“It is your name.”
“Yet never have I heard it spoken so.”Hesmiled slow and easy, and melting.“Thank you,” he said.“For yourwords.How you see me.”He laughed, short and harsh.“If only Icould trade Gwyneth for you.It would be like trading the poorestweave of burr-ridden linen for the finest of worm weave.”
Alina’s heart skipped a beat, or three.“Shedoesn’t think you special?”
“She thinks me ugly and above myself.”
Alina laid her hand over his on the bench.“I’m sorry for you then.Is there no way out of the marriage?”
Roark shook his head.“Not without destroyingthe alliance between my family and hers, an alliance responsiblefor the peace, wealth, and well-being of both our families andhundreds of others.Our alliance requires me to do many thingsagainst my will and better judgment.”He turned his hand and twinedhis fingers through hers, then he lifted their hands and placed hislips on the back of her fingers.“I’ve never wished it otherwise asmuch as I do now.”
Alina’s fingers warmed where his lips hadtouched and her heart had yet to resume anything near to a normalrhythm.“What if you could say or do whatever you wanted rightnow,” she asked him earnestly, “without consequence orrepercussion?”
Roark held her gaze for an eternity, his raineyes pouring into hers, and then he held their entwined hands tohis chest and lowered his mouth to hers.
His kiss was hungry and demanding whilegiving, stoking Alina’s hunger and causing an insatiable need tosurge through her veins.She moaned into his kiss and he let go ofher hand and scooped her up onto his lap, one large hand cuppingher backside and the other roaming the length of her back, pressingher close.
He kissed her as if he couldn’t get enough ofher, and she held nothing of herself back, clasping his arms andkissing him with everything she had until they were both panting.He took her head in his hands and broke their kiss.
“Marry me, Alina,” he said, his voice asragged as his breath.
CHAPTER 3
Taken
Alina swayed in Roark’s arms and focused herdesire-hazed eyes on his.“What?”
“If I could say or do whatever I wantedwithout consequence or repercussion,” he said, his voice low, hiseyes shining silver in the moonlight, “I would ask you to marryme.”
Warmth flooded Alina.She smiled and laughed,feeling light and happy.“If I could do or say whatever I wantedwithout consequence or repercussion,” she whispered, “I wouldanswer you ye-mmpphh.”
She clawed at a hand holding a cloth overmouth, staring wide-eyed at Roark, silently pleading with him tohelp her.He stood there looking ashamed and not at all surprised,and Alina realized with a sinking feeling that he was in onwhatever this was.She threw her head back, hitting whoever wasgagging her from behind square on the chin.Their hold slackened,and she reached for her waist blade, but another pair of handsgrabbed her by the wrist and wrested the blade from her grasp.
“Restrain the bitch,” Leif ordered in theGreen Isles tongue.
A third pair of hands grabbed her from behindand pulled her off the bench.She landed on her back with a thudand tried to roll over on her side and get her hands and kneesunder her, but was pushed down and held there by three men whosefaces loomed over her, cursing her and each other as she kicked andthrashed.The gag fell out of her mouth and she took a big breathin to scream out, only to have the gag stuffed harder and deeperinto her mouth.Breathing furiously through her nose, she waslosing air and strength, and the fear that had surged through herveins and given her a burst of energy was turning to cold,blood-freezing dread.
“If you’d be quiet and take it like a goodgirl,” Leif said in her Northern tongue while standing over herwith a gloating grin, “it would go much easier on you.”
