That felt nice.
Oh man.
“Tor?”
“Yes, Cora.”
The trees rushed by, Salem took us around a curve and the road started to follow the river. The new moon shown on its translucent waters, my breath caught in my throat and I forgot what I was going to say.
“Cora?”
“What?”
“You called me, my love.”
“Oh, right,” I whispered and rested against him. “I forgot what I was going to say.”
He rested his jaw against the side of my head.
“It’ll come to you,” he murmured.
“Okay,” I replied on a whisper and relaxed completely against him.
His thumb stopped stroking but all his fingers tightened into the flesh at my side.
I sighed and gazed at the view.
Chapter Eight
Princess
“Holy crap! Look at that!” I cried and pointed straight ahead at the vision that lay before me.
A village at the base of the river. A quaint, adorable village with thatched roof, timbered buildings that hugged the riverside and crawled partially up the mountain, their windows lit warmly and, I leaned forward and peered ahead, an abundance of colorful lanterns hanging from the roof ends. There were short piers jutting into the river with small, charming wood boats attached to the piers that also sported lanterns.
It was unbelievable!
And as we got closer, it got more unbelievable for it, like my (or the other Cora’s) house, was filled with flower beds, window boxes and planters burgeoning with thriving blooms everywhere. Not only that, there were glistening cobblestone streets and sparkling diamond-paned windows in the buildings.
“It’s gorgeous,” I breathed.
“It’s a village, Cora,” Tor informed me and I twisted quickly to look at him.
“No, honey, it’s gorgeous,” I whispered, watched him blink, slowly again, then I turned back in order not to miss anything.
We made it to the edge of the village and even though night had fallen, people were wandering the side of the road.
“Heya,” I said on a smile when a man looked up at us and started.
“Well, uh… hullo there,” he replied hesitantly as we trotted past.
“Cora,” Tor said low.
“Yep,” I replied then a woman lifted her head, looked at us and she started too but I caught her eyes and called, “Hello!” and capped it with a wave.
I turned, looked around Tor’s body and kept waving until I saw her lift a hand and a tentative smile hit her face.
“I’m seeing we need to make a deal,” he remarked.