I froze in the doorway, standing on the cusp of a full-blown fit of temper. Seriously, how arrogant was this guy? I asked myself incredulously.
“Before you feed my prized possession to the lycanthrope at the front desk, hear me out,” Bahlin said. I shot my eyes to him, wondering if he was kidding about the wolf. Apparently not, because he never even paused. “It was this or two rooms on different floors. The sofa is a pullout, so I’ll sleep on it. You’ll take the bed, and it will keep us close, Maddy. If something happens, there’s a balcony I can launch from. It’s our best chance for getting away clean. I don’t expect anything from you tonight. Just…just accept this, okay? It was the best I could do for you.”
If he’d dug his toe around in the carpet and wrung his hands he couldn’t have been more sincere…or slightly pathetic. I may have been bitchy for a variety of reasons, but even I didn’t kick puppies. It made me feel like an ass for jumping to conclusions.
“It’s fine, Bahlin. Thanks for thinking of all those things. Frankly,” I said, smiling at him slightly for the first time since he’d picked me up, “I’m exhausted and not thinking entirely clearly. It’s nice to have someone cover the details for me.”
He glanced up, smiling tentatively, and took our bags into the enormous bathroom. I sat on the edge of the bed and pulled my shoes and socks off. I looked up and found that Bahlin was watching me with hooded eyes, leaned against the doorframe. I froze, then rose stiffly, kicking my shoes out of the way.
“I need a bath,” I said, clearing my throat as I tried to speak around the lump forming there, my broken heart aching like a bad tooth. He’d hurt me so badly when I’d wanted so desperately to believe he’d be different than all the other disappointments in my life.
“I’ll just grab a shower then hide out in the bathroom while you soak. How’s that?” he asked, turning to pull my bag out of the bathroom. He set my bag on the edge of the bed. “Here’s your stuff. Call me when you’re done. Maybe then we can talk about the elephant in the room.” He shut the bathroom door quietly.
It was so symbolic of the trouble between us that I couldn’t stop the small sob that escaped me. I was disappointed to find that hate was easier than forgiveness, and even more disappointed in myself for having considered taking the easy way out.
I soaked for nearly a half hour before Tyr’s voice interrupted my relaxed state of mind and said, “Forgive him.” I jerked back to consciousness, splashing water over the edge of the tub.
Bahlin, voice muffled by the door, called out, “Maddy? Everything okay?”
“Yeah,” I said more loudly than was necessary. “Give me a minute and I’ll be finished.”
“Take your time, mo chr…” He cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable. “Just take your time.”
I couldn’t stand the thought of him in the bathroom any longer, waiting on the other side of the door and listening for my movements. I drained the tub and dressed in the jammies he’d kindly packed, though it wasn’t lost on me that he’d picked the nicest satin slip-style nightgown I’d brought to London. I crawled into bed and pulled the covers up around my waist and called out to him that it was okay to come out. Seconds later the door opened and he padded into the room wearing satin lounge pants and nothing else. Bahlin’s lower abs flexed as his hips rolled, carrying him across the carpet, and his skin was flushed from the heat of the shower. His hair hung in thick ropes around his shoulders, damp and more wavy than normal. I stared, taking him all in with hungry eyes. My libido had clearly forgiven him. I snorted then shook my head at his confused look.
“Don’t ask,” I said.
“Okay. Let’s start with this. Hi,” he said, coming over and sitting on the edge of the bed.
“Hi,” I said back. My hands involuntarily fisted the covers.
We stared at each other, neither wanting to be the first to freefall into the chasm between us for fear that the bottom was far enough away to be fatal.
“Maddy, I’ve got to know. Have you sought out the rest of the prophecy?” he asked, his voice strained as tight as piano wire.
“There’s more?” I definitely didn’t need there to be more. The damage done with the amount I’d heard was bad enough.
“The second part pertains to me now, and is as important as the first. It’s why I sent first Brylanna and then Aiden after you. Brylanna didn’t find you, and when Aiden came back all he’d say was that you wouldn’t forgive me.” His brow creased, and he looked up from his lap. “Is that true? You won’t forgive me?”
“I don’t know if I can, Bahlin.”
He turned away but not before I saw the first tear break over his lower lashes. “Fair enough.” He stood from the bed and moved to the sofa, pulling up the cushions and setting them neatly on the floor.
“Bahlin?” No response. “Bahlin,” I said more firmly.
He stiffened, then turned. “Yes?”
“This isn’t a simple yes or no discussion. As much as it kills me to think I might end up worse off, I think we’ve got to discuss it. I’ve got twelve years to serve as Niteclif and you’re apparently going to end up as the head of the Council.” He flinched. “No need to dress it up, Bahlin. I have to know, though, was it worth it?” I couldn’t help the bitterness that leaked into the last part.
“Worth it? Worth it?” he growled, chucking a cushion to the side as he stalked toward the bed, his fury suddenly a mirror image of mine. “I’d go back and do it entirely differently if I could, even if it meant lettin’ the bleedin’ faerie bring yeh happiness, Madeleine. And that, that thought near kills me, woman.” He’d reached the bed and leaned over me, shaking with emotion. “For yeh know the second part of the prophecy, mo chrid? For my heart yeh are.” He spun away from me, the muscles of his back so tightly ridged they cast shadows upon themselves in the lamplight, the hollow of the length of his spine like a trench between them. “Yeh’re to find another, Maddy. It’s the most bitter of revenges for yeh, isn’t it? And the worst part? I’ll be there to watch the whole bleedin’ thing. Because I’m yehr fucking familiar on top o’ bein’ yehr lover.”
“Bu-but—” I stuttered, realization slamming into me with the weight of a thousand waves. I didn’t want another.
Before I could process this new emotion and sincerely consider the last thought that had raced through my mind, he turned on me. Tears had coursed tracks down his cheeks and the raw rage in his face made me truly frightened of him for the first time, his humanity folding in on itself as his eyes flashed to ice blue. “But what, Madeleine?”
I didn’t bother to correct him. I recollected Tyr’s most recent admonition and trembled at the thought. But there was no other option. “I forgive you,” I whispered, my voice harsh with emotion.
“Come again?” he said, stunned into immobility.
“I forgive you,” I said more strongly. “But I need to know why you never told me about the prophecy and why you went through with it anyway, knowing you’d break my heart.”
He sank to his knees at the end of the bed, crossing his arms and laying his forehead on them. His shoulders shook and so did the bed. I threw the covers back and crawled to the end of the bed, reaching out a tentative hand to touch his bare shoulder.
His hand whipped out faster than I could track and he gripped my arm so tightly I knew I’d be bruised later, but it didn’t matter. He pressed my hand closer to his shoulder and stilled, the silent, wracking sobs diminishing to heavy breathing.
“I’m so sorry, Maddy,” he said, his voice muffled by the bedding and his arms. “I’m so damnably sorry.”
“Bay, I forgive you.” Every time I said it, it got easier and I believed it a little more. “But that doesn’t answer my questions.”
He looked up, his eyes still ice blue, the whites reddened, and he said, “For love, Maddy. I did it for the chance at love. Because that’s my curse in all of this. I’ll truly love yeh, and yeh’ll love me back. I could only break your heart if yeh loved me. But I’d hoped that we’
d circumvent the bloody cursed part of the prophecy and for once, just once, I’d have a proper chance at happily ever after. I’ll settle for whatever time we have together, and when yeh find your heart’s desire, I’ll wish yeh well, Maddy. I’ll bloody sodding hate it, but I’ll wish yeh nothing but happiness. Even if it’s only friendship between us from now until then, tell me yeh don’t hate me, Maddy. I can’t bear this loss if I know yeh truly hate me.”
With my free hand I pried his fingers from my forearm and laced our fingers together. “I don’t hate you, Bay. I don’t. You’ve ripped my heart out a hundred times since I heard that prophecy, but I don’t hate you. I never did.”
“Please, goddess, tell me I can touch yeh. Because I won’t, not if yeh tell me to stay away. But my fingers ache for the feel of yehr hair, and my hands hurt at the remembered curve of yehr hip. My lips burn with the memory of the taste of the salt on yehr skin, and my heart, Maddy, my heart aches for yehrs,” he said, burying his face in the covers so I was unsure whether he was waxing poetic or pleading with me. Either way, it didn’t matter.
“I love you, Bahlin,” I whispered, reaching out to stroke his hair. My stomach felt like it was plummeting into the abyss, and my heart pounded so hard I knew he heard it.
Bahlin froze, even his breath stilling. “What did yeh just say?”
“I said I love you,” I whispered again, afraid to say it too loud lest the words somehow break apart, so fragile did they feel.
“Why?” he breathed, still not moving any more than to speak.
“Because you did it for love, not for power. You took a chance at being happy, when I’d decided to do the same. You’ve cherished me every night together, and respected me every morning after. You didn’t use me, Bahlin. You truly didn’t. But I expected you to—oomph!” I gasped as he threw himself on top of me, wrapping his arms around my waist and burying his face in the bend of my neck.
“Maddy, Maddy, my Maddy,” he chanted over and over again. “Tell me again, mo chrid, tell me you love me.”
I laughed, the relief of love casting aside the burdens of life. “I do, you silly dragon, I do love you.” I wiggled down under him so that we were face to face. “I have a request, though.”
“Anything, a stór, anything for you,” he murmured, raining kisses all over my face.
I placed my hands gently on the sides of his face and made him look at me. “I want to go slow this time, Bay. You were awfully hard on my morals before, and while I don’t regret physically loving you, my heart is still tender. A bruise is a bruise is a bruise, after all.”
His eyes were grave when he said, “I will wait for you forever, Madeleine Dylis Niteclif. When the day comes and you leave me, I will continue to wait for you on the hope that one day you’ll return. But until then? I’ll love you with all that I am. What is mine is yours, from home to hearth to lair.”
“What does that mean, exactly?”
“It’s a marriage proposal when you’re ready for it.” I jerked beneath him. “No, Maddy, I’ll no’ let yeh go.” His brogue was again thick with his emotion. “Know that until that day it means I love yeh. And whatever need of me yeh have, it’s yehrs.”
Shaken to my soul, I couldn’t help but try to lighten the moment. “So does that mean I’m rich?”
He grinned wickedly, and his eyes flashed back to dark blue. “Beyond yehr wildest dreams, my love.” He rolled me over so I was lying across him, then shifted so I slid down to rest with my head on his chest. “I’ll agree to take it slow, but I’ll ask that we still sleep together, Maddy.”
I stiffened, thinking he hadn’t heard anything other than what he wanted to hear and I tried to sit up but he wouldn’t let me move. He laughed, and the sound boomed as it echoed through the ear I had pressed to his chest. “No, my heart, just sleep. I want yours to be the last face I see at night and the first I see in the morning.”
I relaxed, smiling softly and snuggling into the crook of his arm. “Deal.”
He reached across me and pulled the covers up over us, flipping the lamp off when we were settled in. “Sweetest of dreams, Maddy. I love you.”
I yawned. “I love you, too, Bay.” And then sleep claimed me. Thankfully it was a dreamless night.
I came to consciousness feeling smothered. Then I realized Bahlin was sprawled across me, a rather impressive—if mildly frightening—morning erection pressed into my side.
“Bay,” I moaned, elbowing him and trying to get him to move.
He rubbed his hips against me suggestively and grumbled something.
“Bahlin,” I hissed, struggling harder.
“What, love?” he mumbled, slowly waking up. “What is it?”
“Get off me,” I groused.
“My apologies,” he said, rolling over and pulling the covers over his waist. He actually looked bashful having been caught with the horse out of the barn. “I, uh—”
I laughed, reaching out to smooth his hair off his forehead. “It’s okay. I just didn’t want to let it get too far out of hand.” I blushed like mad, and he laughed so hard he wiped tears from his eyes.
“Oh, Maddy. I’ve missed you so.” He leaned over and kissed me good morning. “Let’s get put together, round up some breakfast and get back on the road. We’ve got between five and six hours left, barring any unforeseen trouble.”
“Do you expect any? Trouble, that is,” I asked, crawling across the gargantuan bed, wondering idly how horrid my ass looked as I crawled away from him. Ah, vanity, you’re dear to my heart.
Bahlin chuckled and reached over and slapped me on the rump, hard, and I squeaked, launching myself off the bed and landing in a heap on the floor.
“What the hell was that?” I yelled, scrambling to get up.
“Alternate morning entertainment,” he said, still chuckling. “Go and have your shower first. I need a moment to, ah, collect myself.” He grinned mischievously, and I ran for the bathroom, afraid to ask what he meant.
We were in the lobby when an eloquent voice behind us said, “You should have chosen another name to register under, Bahlin Drago.”
Bahlin clamped his arm around my shoulders, stopping me as I began to turn around. He pulled me close to his side. “Fancy running into you here.”
I plastered myself even closer to Bahlin’s side, and he turned us both slowly so we faced the High Council member.
“Hellion?” I asked, looking up at Bahlin. He nodded, never taking his eyes off the wizard in front of us.
“I’ve been seeking an audience with you for days, Niteclif. Seems you’ve been avoiding me.” Hellion, rocked back on his heels, head cocked to the side as he considered me and Bahlin. “And since you won’t come to me, I decided to come to you. I do hope you’ll forgive the delay, though. I have been scrying for you when all along I should have been scrying for Bahlin.” He took a step toward me, and I instinctively stepped back. “I seek only to shake your hand.”
I shook my head, wrapping my arm tighter around Bahlin’s waist. Hellion wouldn’t cause a scene here, in public. Too many mundies about.
“If you’re so anxious to speak to her, why don’t we have a seat in the restaurant and we’ll have breakfast. It’s where we were headed,” Bahlin said, inclining his head in the general direction of the dining room without ever releasing his hold on me.
“Very well, if you’re not worried about us being overheard.”
“Oh come now, Hellion. A simple auditory occlusion spell and our voices will be muffled and indiscernible. I’ve not been around you so long without learning a thing or two,” Bahlin said, all joviality with an undertone of menace.
This time Hellion inclined his head and he turned to walk ahead of us into the restaurant. It felt like the high noon scene in a spaghetti western. Once again I found myself pinching the bridge of my nose in an effort to keep from losing my cool.
“Hold on to it, Maddy,” Bahlin said softly, gripping the back of my neck.
I nodded.
We wer
e seated in a half-circle booth at Hellion’s request, forcing either me or Bahlin to sit immediately next to him. Bay took the hot seat and left me on the edge. I was torn whether or not to scoot closer to Bahlin’s side or sit on the edge where I had the best chance of getting to my feet if I needed to defend myself. I split the difference and sat in between the two options. Was it a good idea? I suppose that depended on whether I was in a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty kind of mood.
The pleasantly oblivious waitress took one look at the two gorgeous men I was with and nearly lost her ability to speak in coherent sentences. I wanted to offer her Hellion, but that seemed too pimpish. I giggled, fighting panic. Hellion looked at me, his black eyes knocking the inappropriate humor right on its ass. Bahlin grabbed my knee and squeezed, the pain bringing me back to my senses.
The waitress left, and Hellion took out a pen and drew a small symbol on the tablecloth and then pricked his finger with the point of the pen, dropping a fine spot of crimson in the center of the design. Suddenly the background noise of the restaurant died off and we were sitting in near silence despite being surrounded by people.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t demand my fair due of a life for a life and kill you right this minute,” Hellion asked me.
I stared at him, and Bahlin shifted his position. I assumed he scooted away from Hellion in case he needed to get to his feet, too, but proximity to the bad guy didn’t allow me to ask.
Instead, I employed an age-old diversionary tactic used for millennia. When put on the defensive, take the offensive.
“No, you explain to me why I shouldn’t believe you ordered Gretta to kill me.” I did my best at giving him equally cold eyes with my return verbal volley.
“What nonsense are you spouting?” he demanded. “Gretta may have been manipulative, but she wasn’t violent.”
“Not violent, huh? That must be why she attempted to poison me first. It’s a much cleaner kill. Is that it? Did my unfortunate recovery force her hand, making her act out of character?”
Legacy: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 1 Page 24