Iron Knight - Clan of the Rim Chronicles #2

19

I SEARCHED ALL OVER the palace for Calder and couldn't find him, so I decided to wait for him in my chamber, knowing--or at least hoping--that he would come find me eventually. The healer caught up with me earlier to tell me Calder's therapy went ok, accept for the fact of the muscle weakness.

He stumbled and fell a few times during the session, something I knew he wouldn't want to talk about. I only hoped he would continue it despite that though, because if I knew Calder at all, the simplest mistakes he made today had him frustrated. He relied who he was so solely on his knighthood, and I didn't want him to feel his identity was taken from him now.

It wasn't until nightfall when the rest of the palace had gone to sleep that Calder quietly snuck into my chamber like he used to do.

"Hey," he greeted, quietly shutting the door behind him and removing his sword holster.

"You know you don't have to be so secretive anymore," I told him from where I sat on the bed. "Everyone knows."

Calder smiled softly and walked over to sit down next to me. "I've heard. Gossip does not stay quiet when it's being spilled, especially while I'm walking by. But no matter that everyone here knows of our dalliance, I still want to protect your honor. I believe they think I've taken it from you. I'll continue to be vigilant when I come to stay with you at night, regardless."

I snorted, "My honor? How knightly of you."

Calder smirked and bowed his head. "At your service, My Queen."

I placed a hand agaisnt his cheek that caused him to raise his head and look at me again. I brushed his bruises and cuts, speaking quietly over the crackle of the flames in the fireplace.

"Your Queen. It sounds so silly to me," I said. "But you're my knight, aren't you? My Prince."

"I am no prince, Eerika," he replied quietly. "I am barely a knight. All I am is a man, as. . .broken and imperfect as I am."

"But you are mine," I delcared, just barely brushing my lips agaisnt his.

"Always," he breathed against them, entangling his hand into the back of my hair to connect us.

I pulled apart with a smile, leaning my forehead onto his and running my fingers through the silk of his hair as the air between us grew still. His thumb traced circles onto my hip, his other hand cupped agaisnt my face. I breathed in his strong scent, the frosty lavender musk and pine that had haunted my dreams for two months sparking through my senses like a drug. I had almost forgotten what he smelled like being away from him for so long, the aroma making me dizzy.

I melted into his hard arms holding me so gentle and his fingers dancing up and down my hips and back that had been nothing but imagination until now. I wanted to tell him how much I had missed this, missed him, to reassure him about the things he said to Thorne earlier. I knew that conversation was going to have to come up, and I needed to do it now as much as it might cause tension between us.

"I missed this," I say after a while of laying down with him, my head on his chest with his heart drumming in my ear.

"As have I," he agreed softly. "I. . .thought about it a lot while I was in that dungeon. I would dream that I was here laying with you, kissing your lips and touching your skin. But each time I woke you'd be gone, and back there on the stone floor I would be."