Page 100 of Highland Ruse

Especially if it might take long.

Impatience scrabbled over Delilah’s nerves.

The four days of being near Kaid, but not touching, not allowing herself to be with him, had been torturous. She’d endured it well enough, but now that minutes separated them, eagerness nearly tore her apart at the seams.

“You don’t have to hide it.”

“Hide what?” Even as she asked the question, heat spread over Delilah’s cheeks.

Sylvi didn’t break her gaze from the two women in the chamber. “That you’re in love with him.”

Delilah tensed. Though she ought to deny the claim, she knew in her heart she could not.

Sylvi was right. Delilah was in love with Kaid.

Who was waiting for her.

Impatience raked over her once more, hot and annoying.

“You’ve a soft heart, Delilah, as I said before,” Sylvi said. “It leads you to bad decisions.”

“This is not a bad decision.”

Sylvi cast her a sidelong glance. “So if he were not part of it, you would still sacrifice everything to save these people?”

“Yes,” Delilah answered without hesitation. “Yes, I absolutely would.”

Sylvi gave a thoughtful nod. “And what will you do after all this is over, if he decides he doesn’t want you anymore?”

The question was so unexpected, Delilah’s heart tripped over the stark prospect before she staggered out a reply. “I hadn’t—that is, I didn’t expect—”

“No, you didn’t expect, of course. But you hoped.” Sylvi turned toward Delilah now, her face unreadable. “Hope is far more fragile than expectation.”

Delilah didn’t reply. She could not. The walls around her, once familiar, suddenly seemed cold and pressing as foreign surroundings do.

She would be unwanted.

Sylvi leaned back against the doorframe and regarded Delilah with consideration. “I will never forget how you looked when I first met you. You were the embodiment of misery, as though you thought your life had ended.” She fingered the black bow tied around her neck. “I’d never seen such a pitiful creature.”

A knot formed in Delilah’s throat. She wanted to jerk away from the conversation and run down the hall.

To Kaid’s room.

Thoughts of the king tangled with thoughts of Kaid. She hated having them in such near association with one another in her mind.

The burn of the humiliated rejection she’d faced with the king slammed into her heart. “We needn’t have this conversation,” Delilah said against the hurt aching in her throat.

Her anticipation to see Kaid muddied into something embarrassing, almost shameful.

“But we do.” Sylvi’s expression eased. “Because you’re not that girl anymore, Delilah. You’re strong, and you’re confident, and you’re beautiful. And I don’t ever want to see you reduced to that pitiful creature again.” She put her hands on Delilah’s shoulders. “You will always have a home with us. We will always love you.”

The ache in Delilah’s throat tightened.

“But if he does ever wrong you in any way…” Sylvi pulled her dagger from her waist and scraped the point along the underside of her fingernail. “I’ll slice off his cock.”

She flashed Delilah a smile, slipped into the chamber, and let the door click closed behind her.

Delilah stared at the wood grain on the closed door for a moment before turning to walk down the hall, her cheeks aflame. All this time she’d thought herself unloved. Unwanted by the large family who’d raised her, forced into the group of women she fought beside. She’d never considered they might truly love her.