“You think it a fair trade, then?” Machrus asked, drawing her close as they ventured farther away from watchful eyes.
Renna hummed, resting her head against his chest. “No,” she answered determinedly. He glanced down at her in some concern, and she could not contain her grin. “I got far more than they did.”
Machrus sighed, a suffering, tired thing, even as he leaned down and brushed his lips against the top of her head. “Insufferable,” he complained. “And with most peculiar taste.”
“Quite right,” she affirmed. He might not think himself a worthy prize, but that was not for him to decide—it was her opinion that mattered, and she loved every bit of him.
And from the answering fondness on his side of the bond, he felt quite the same way about her.
She didn’t know what would become of them, if a child might join their little family of two. Or if perhaps it would simply be them, their family comprised of nieces and nephews, brothers and sisters, no children of their own.
But she thought of her blood that had not yet come, and allowed herself a hope. It still seemed incredible to her that she could wish for such a thing, to want what before had terrified her so deeply.
Yet she did.
It was probably too soon for that anyway. There would be time yet, an enjoyment in the possibility. And even if it never happened, if all they had was the family they had already met...
It would be a full life.
And to her surprise, her bewilderment, her thankfulness...
It was hers.
To be shared with a man that loved her, stern and surly as he so often could be.
And it was good.
Also by Catherine Miller
THE DERIDIA SERIES
Mercy
ADDITIONAL WORKS
Destruction of Obsession
A Rose in Winter
A Civic Duty
A Nymph Without Mercy
The Making of a Lady
The Phantom’s Witness
Trade (Deridia Book 2) Page 39