Page 79 of Bound to a Warrior
While the food was appetizing, she found she wasn’t hungry, which seemed to concern Duncan.
“Just eat a little,” he cajoled offering her a small piece of hard cheese.
She was about to tell him she just wasn’t hungry when she realized that if she did he would stop eating so that she could sleep.
“Maybe a little,” she agreed.
He smiled as she took the cheese from him. “A little will do you well, while a lot will do me even better.”
She nibbled on the cheese as they sat in bed, his back braced against the thick, hand-carved headboard and her head rested on his shoulder. She thought about how irritable they had been tonight and then about their first bout of grouchy angriness and how it was settled.
She laughed softly. “You and I were grouchy tonight.”
“And you find this humorous?”
“I recalled how we decided how to handle such a situation,” she said and cuddled in the crook of his arm.
He lifted her chin and planted a soft kiss on her lips. “If only you were up to it, I would make love, oh slow and gentle to you, until sunrise.”
She sighed knowing she didn’t have the stamina, already sleep was creeping over her. “I wish it could be so, but sleep will soon claim me, though I would prefer your touch to claim me.”
He quickly disrobed using the knife on the table to cut away his shirt from the shackle. Then he slipped beneath the blanket easing her down on the mattress with him.
“Close your eyes,” he whispered, “and my touch will take you into dreamland.”
And it did.
Mercy slipped into a gentle slumber as Duncan’s fingers worked their magic on her warm skin.
Chapter 24
Duncan hadn’t expected to sleep so soundly but he had, his eyes drifting open with the sunrise. Mercy didn’t stir, hadn’t all night, since they were in the same position they had fallen asleep in.
He stared at her, the bastard-daughter of the king. He had never given such a possibility thought. That she was daughter to the king had stunned him, especially since he was fighting for the true king to claim the throne.
What did trouble him was why the king had changed his mind about wanting his daughter dead. He couldn’t help but think that it might have something to do with him. Had the king discovered their mission? Did he think his daughter could provide him with information? And how did he confide the truth to Mercy when he’d been sworn to secrecy?
Also while it had disturbed him that she hadn’t told him of her identity, he could understand why. It was just that he wanted to know that she trusted him enough to confide anything to him and yet…
He couldn’t offer the same…he had taken an oath.
Falling in love with her had come so naturally and he had assumed the rest would follow just as naturally, even though he had his mission to tend to. But now it was all different.
Now he had fallen in love with the king’s daughter. A king he intended to dethrone.
She stirred in the crook of his arm and then settled once again.
He brushed a strand of her dark hair away from her face, a face so lovely that he never tired of looking upon it, and never would.
Today they would be free of each other, though not truly. It wasn’t these metal cuffs and chain that bound them. No, love had somehow sneaked in and fettered them more than any shackle could.
He only hoped that the chains of love were strong enough to overcome the obstacles they were about to face.
A soft rap on the door drew his attention and he called out in a relatively low voice, “Enter.”
He wasn’t surprised to see his mother, garments draped over her arm and her stitching basket on the other. She had never missed hearing a thing he and his brothers had said through the years, even if she had been across a room or field. For awhile they had believed that she had possessed magical hearing, but then her sight had also been magical, since she had caught them at just about every trick and tease.
“She slept well?” his mother asked.
