Endure - Sara B. Larson Page 0,91
could explain my thoughts, he said, “You’re right,” and pulled my tunic back into place. He reached up to brush some hair off my cheek, before lifting himself up onto one elbow so he could look down at me. “I apologize for getting so carried away.”
“No apology necessary.” I was sure my cheeks were bright red — both from the cold and from what he’d just done to me. My lips throbbed, and I was already chilled without his body pressed to mine. He must have noticed my shiver, because he immediately got to his knees and bent down to grab some of the blankets and pull them over my body, tucking them around my shoulders. I noted that he didn’t cover himself with the blankets, though.
When he noticed my questioning frown, he smiled ruefully. “I don’t want anyone to ever question your honor or purity. I will go sleep with some of the other members of the guard. It’s a cold night; they won’t mind the extra body heat, I’m sure.”
“I … I don’t …” I trailed off, uncomfortable and embarrassed, especially after he had just been so kind as to think about my honor and purity. I, who had been living with men for the majority of the last few years.
“What is it?” he prompted, still kneeling beside me, his vibrant blue eyes still slightly darkened with need and his breathing ragged, which made me think that he might not have been quite as cool and collected as he seemed.
“I don’t want to be alone,” I finally admitted.
His gaze softened, and he reached down to brush his fingers across my jaw, sending another shiver of want through me. “How about if I lie with you until you fall asleep, and then I’ll go.”
“But you need to sleep, too,” I protested.
“Not tonight, I don’t.” He lifted the blankets and stretched out beside me. I turned my back to him, so he could wrap his arm around my waist and pull me in tight to his chest, curling his body around mine.
We were silent for a moment, so that all I could hear was the thud of my heart echoing through my head, pulsing in my ears. Perhaps this hadn’t been the plan most conducive to helping me sleep, I realized. Despite the exhaustion that weighed me down, all I wanted to do was roll over and kiss him again and, this time, never stop.
“Why did you come here?” I asked to distract myself. “What did King Osgand’s letter say? I thought Blevon declared war on us.”
Damian’s arm tightened around me, and he sighed against my hair. “General Tinso’s missive did, yes. But I’d already sent someone to King Osgand to ascertain his thoughts on the situations we’d heard about before that — the attacks on the villages, supposedly made by the Blevonese army combined with black sorcerers. I received the letter back from him a couple of weeks after you left, shortly after my scouts had returned to tell me that they couldn’t find General Tinso, that his castle was abandoned and the town outside of it ransacked and pillaged, confirming my fears that something else was going on, beyond what we knew.
“King Osgand first wrote to tell me that he feared Dansii was bringing great evil through the jungles of Antion to Blevon, and that he had reason to believe my uncle was preparing to attack us very soon. He told me what I already knew through you — that no black sorcerers would ever have come from Blevon, which meant that Dansii was behind the attacks, disguised as Blevonese soldiers, probably just wearing their uniforms, or forcing the Blevonese soldiers to act on their orders on pain of death.”
I wove my fingers through Damian’s, squeezing tightly as he spoke.
“The letter you saw, beneath the one I left you, was the second missive he sent me. I had responded and told him of the declaration of war from General Tinso and what Rylan told me when he returned — that Armando was amassing his entire army to march through Antion and destroy us before moving on to Blevon. He recommended exactly what you had — that I send notices to my people to evacuate to Blevon, and to bring my armies and those who wished to fight to his castle and there make our stand against Dansii together. I’d already done as you suggested and had as many of my people who were willing come to Tubatse, where