Queen Sized - Jessa Kane Page 0,18
mind the chatter.” He pauses in the act of circling the tent, seeming puzzled by his own thoughts. “Actually, I kind of enjoyed listening to them. The older one is kind of a miniature mother to the little one. And that tiny thing, well she just swings wildly between emotions, doesn’t she? One minute, she’s about to cry and then she’s laughing like a loon.” He shakes his head. “Are all children like this?”
“No. Viola and Sadie are special. But I suspect everyone thinks that about the children in their family.” A smile threatens the corners of my lips. “You were really paying attention.”
He seems almost embarrassed to be caught giving a damn. “Well. They were a good distraction, anyway.”
“From what?”
“Wanting to beat the living shit out of whoever invented that competition.”
I can’t contain a giggle. “I’m not too fond of it myself.”
“Then consider it gone,” he says, looking me in the eye. “I’m ending it for good, starting at the next Joining.”
Is there something caught in my throat? I can’t seem to swallow properly. And it’s not just his actions, it’s his passion and directness. This man…I really like him. He’s a king of conviction. A lion among sheep. When I first met him, I thought he was all roar, no bite, but that notion was quickly flattened, building my confidence in him right on top of it. “You would really just eliminate the auction events? They’re tradition.”
“I’d like to eliminate the whole auction, but…” He rubs at the back of his neck, starting to pace again. “These women who are in trouble. I worry what they would do without the chance to strengthen their family through marriage.”
“Women like me.”
He heaves a frustrated sigh that seems to come straight from his soul. “Let me take care of you, Gwen.” His blue-gray eyes burn into mine. “You and your sisters will never want for anything.”
He’s wrong. We’ll want for respectability.
A stable commitment, written in ink.
But I’ve already expressed this to Corbet and I’m not going to do it again. It’s pointless.
Besides…my heart is involved now. It’s starting to really hurt that this man will let me go instead of offering me marriage. If I open my mouth, I’m afraid my feelings will pour out and I’ll be exposed in a way I usually avoid at all costs.
My silence draws Corbet forward and my pulse starts to rap steadily in my veins, anticipating his touch, but instead of pleasure when he places a hand on my shoulder, pain lances down my spine. “Oh. Ouch.”
Corbet sucks in a breath, his panicked gaze darting over my person. “Gwen? What’s the matter?”
“It’s nothing. I’m just a little sore from carrying all that weight.” I rub the spot where he touched, wincing slightly at the rippling ache. “Farm work rarely leaves me sore, it must have been the odd placement of the rod…”
“Or the fact that you placed someone’s success above your own wellbeing. Goddammit, Gwen.” The king’s chest heaves once, twice, his fist mashing to his forehead. “Having you in pain makes me feel sick.”
“It’ll be better in the morning.”
“No, you don’t understand. I need it better now.”
“But…” I don’t bother to hide my confusion. “It’s my pain, not yours.”
He’s rubbing at the front of his throat. “It doesn’t seem to matter,” he says hoarsely, circling around behind me. “Lie down on my bed. I have some salve I can apply—”
“Oh no. I’ve heard of this trick—” His thumb rakes up my spine and digs into the nape of my neck, massaging in a figure eight pattern, and bliss pours through my limbs in the form of tingles and contentment. “Oh my lord. Oh my lord, that feels so good.”
He continues to perform this sorcery with his fingers as he walks me toward the bed—and I can do nothing but go, putting one foot in front of the other, well aware that I’m probably heading for my doom. The king’s bed is not a good place to remember my resolve to fix my family’s problem. Especially when he is working on a decade of knots with rakes of his knuckles and twists of his fists.
“Lay down,” he breathes in my ear. “I’ll get the salve.”
“Uh-huh,” I say, as if in a trance.
Oh God, the bed is so comfortable, too.
I fall straight into it face-down and curl my hands beneath a pillow, sighing happily.
I can’t even remember the last time I laid down anywhere without having to clean the house and corral two young girls