Page 20 of A Kiss of Flame

‘Is that a command, your highness?’

‘Does it have to be?’

He let out a long breath of air, and closed his eyes in defeat. ‘If you did command me, you know I wouldn’t have any choice, don’t you? That’s the real nature of our relationship. You, being who you are, with the powers you have at your beck and call…’

Wren sucked in a breath. Elodie had suggested as much. And Finn knew that it was a possibility. The thought of it though, of doing that to him… no.

‘I wouldn’t do that to you.’

His eyes opened again, so beautiful in this light. ‘I love that you think that, Wren, but we can never be sure, can we?’ He sighed and turned away. ‘And here, no one will ever forget that I’m the youngest prince of Sidon. They called me Ward and still no one forgot. Even that’s a reminder. I came here as a hostage, a prisoner really. I was lucky that Roland had the keeping of me. That he trusted me, and that I had seen the nature of my family first-hand and knew that, if they did ever get their hands on me, I’d be as good as dead. But the court here know who I am, and they remember what my people did to them, and they hate me for it.’

Wren shuffled back, letting him rise a little so that they sat face to face. Something had changed. Something fundamental. ‘What happened?’ she asked. ‘What is it?’

He shrugged, but didn’t pull away. He gazed into her eyes and spoke softly. ‘I have to leave.’

She framed his face with her hands, running the pads of her thumbs along the high cheekbones, like blades beneath his skin. He was more beautiful than anyone had the right to be, she thought. And he was hers.

‘What do you mean, leave?’ He didn’t mean now. This was more. Much more. And she dreaded the answer. But it didn’t come. He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple moving in the column of his throat and she longed to kiss him there, and feel his shudder.

And do so much more. To make him gasp out her name. To make him wrap his body around hers.

‘Just that, my love. I can’t help it. Roland can explain.’

No, she wasn’t having this. None of it. He wasn’t going to pull away from her because of who his father was and what others expected of him.

‘You’re mine,’ she told him. ‘Didn’t we already decide that?’

‘When you saved my life? Does that mean you own me now?’ He was trying to be harsh, trying to drive her away and horrify her. She could see that now. Oh the pain inside him was cruel and sharp, and so very bitter. It was all turned in on himself. Great light, he tortured himself all the time, didn’t he?

‘Long before that, Finn. You’re mine and I am yours. Nothing is going to change that. I won’t let it. Neither should you.’

‘They’ll use me against you, Wren.’

Who? She didn’t dare ask. Everyone perhaps.

She pulled his mouth to hers again and kissed him, softly now, longingly, not a kiss of wild desire but one into which she poured all her love, all her fear of losing him, all her hopes and dreams.

She pulled back only far enough to speak, lips still touching, their breath intermingled. ‘Let them try.’

Finn leaned his forehead against hers and closed his eyes, defeated, broken, but still hers. Forever hers.

‘Your father is waiting.’

She ran her hand down his chest, under the fabric of his shirt and then lower. Finn sucked in a mouthful of air and his head fell back, eyes closing.

‘Let him wait.’

CHAPTER 11

ROLAND

What on earth could be taking the girl so long?

Perhaps sending Finn had been a bad idea.

Roland had thought she wouldn’t completely ignore him as she had all of the other messages he had sent. And it would give Finn time to explain what was about to happen. He owed the boy that much, surely.

He was half thinking about going to Wren’s quarters himself and giving her a piece of his mind about manners when a soft knock sounded on the door.