Page 40 of Hymn of Breath and Bone

He rolled from the bed completely bare and strode unashamedly to the bathing chamber. I stretched out, feeling warm and sore and far too boneless to get up yet.

Caspian returned a minute later, rousing me from the doze I had slipped into without him.

“Medicine first, Urchin,” he commanded, pouring the contents of two of the vials Mira had prescribed for me into a glass and handing it to me. The contents were green and viscous and unpleasant looking, but it tasted faintly of mint.

“You remembered my medicine?”

“Of course.” He stoppered the vials and placed them on the small ledge next to the bed. “We should have enough to last until we get back to the cliffs, but you need to tell me if you’re having a hard day so I don’t destroy you in training.”

I kissed him before he could say more, so moved by this seemingly inconsequential gesture that I didn’t think words would do it justice. Theonly thing I had really asked Vitulus or my father for when they had agreed to my mating was the ability to fight. To learn to defend myself. My illness had been a barrier and a reason for them to say no.

But Caspian expected we’d train regardless of my lungs and assumed I would know how much I could handle.

The gesture of trust, so freely given by him, was one I ought to have demanded from my own family.

“Not that I’m protesting,” Caspian murmured, pushing me back into the pillows as he prowled over me. “But what was that for?”

“Nothing,” I replied a little breathlessly. It had nothing to do with my lungs. “And everything.”

Caspian gave me a searching look, and I reassured him with another kiss. “When do we resume training?”

“Well I rather hoped we could lay in bed all day and make love whenever the mood struck,” Caspian said wistfully, eyeing me like I was about to ruin all his fun. “But today, if you insist on being industrious.”

“Hmm,” I mused, pretending to think my options over. “You’d have to be very convincing.”

“I’m a persuasive person.” My stomach chose this moment to rumble loudly, and Caspian laughed. “Breakfast first?” He kissed me lightly before rolling off the bed and pulling on trousers.

“Shame,” I teased, feeling warmth rush into me at the look of molten heat he threw over his shoulder and arched wing. “I was enjoying the view.”

I rolled out of the bed after him, pleased to find that someone—likely Zephyr—had made sure I had changes of clothes in the drawer under the bed. I warred with myself for a moment over a loose gown for easy removal,or trousers and bodice for maneuverability and training. The bodice won out.

“The true shame is the loss ofmyview,” Caspian rumbled, moving to stand behind me. He had donned his boots and pauldrons and sword, but it wasn’t the weapon I felt pressed against my backside as he bent to kiss my neck.

“Seas, you’re a distraction,” I hissed, struggling to untangle the laces of the bodice and trying not to think about his perfect body.

“Let me.” Caspian took the bodice from me as I squirmed from his arms to don a shirt. By the time I was mostly decent, he had the laces untangled and held the supple leather out to me.

“I didn’t realize you were so handy with a bodice,” I teased, pulling it over my head and turning to face him as I began to adjust the laces.

“I’ve had some practice.”

“Too much practice, I’d wager.” The spear of jealousy caught me so off guard I felt my stomach lurch.

Caspian laughed, taking my shoulders in his hands and pressing a kiss to my brow. “Prickly urchin,” he teased, scooping my hair over my shoulder and weaving it into a loose braid. “I felt that.”

I raised my brow, trying to push the jealousy away. Caspian didn’t begrudge my earlier romances, so I wouldn’t begrudge his. “You have practice braiding hair too?”

“I dabble.” He tugged the finished braid once before tipping my chin up to kiss me properly. It was slow and consuming, a promise of what—or who—would come later.

Again and again and again.

“I have eyes only for you, Urchin,” he murmured as he broke away. “And lips.” He brushed a kiss across my mouth again. “And fingers.” Another tug on the braid, then his hand trailed to my backside to pull me close. “And,” a press of his hips, so hard and insistent against my core I gasped, “other things. All only for you now, my beautiful mate.”

“Those other thingsdointerest me,” I murmured, trying to remember why exactly we had gotten dressed. Heat was pooling again low in my core, and the completed bond between us magnified my desire with his tenfold. It was almost enough to make me come undone right then and there as he nipped the tip of my ear with his teeth.

My stomach rumbled again, and I remembered the purpose of the clothes.

“Breakfast,” I gasped, pushing out of his arms before he could melt me into a puddle on the floor. “Food.”