Talon turned to look at her. She lay on her side, facing the wall. Her head looked small against his king-sized pillow and she looked so tiny and womanly against the blackness of his bed.
Most of all, she looked delectable.
He lay down beside her. Before he could stop himself, he pulled her into his arms, spooning up behind her.
"Mmm," she breathed sleepily. "I really like it when you do that."
Pain ripped through him as he closed his eyes and inhaled her unique scent. She felt so incredibly good in his arms.
Nae! his mind roared. He couldn't do it. He couldn't let himself care for her that way.
There could never be anything between them. Tomorrow he would have to let her go back to her life while he returned to his.
That was the way of things.
Kissing her gently on the back of her head, he sighed and forced himself to sleep. He could never have her; she could never be more than a passing whim for him.
Never.
Sunshine lay there for quite some time listening to Talon breathe. There were no words to convey exactly what she felt lying beside this man. It was as if they fit. As if they were meant to be together.
Why was that?
She wasn't sure how long she lay there before sleep overtook her, but when she finally slept, she found herself having the strangest dream...
She saw Talon as a young man, probably no older than twenty. His long golden-blond hair was braided down his back while the two shorter, thinner braids dangled from his left temple. His youthful face was covered in a thick dark blond beard, but still she recognized him.
Recognized him as a young man who meant the entire world to her.
He held himself above her, his hard, masculine body naked and pressed against her own as he slid himself in and out of her with such tenderness that it made her heart soar and ache at the same time.
"Oh, precious Nyn," he breathed in her ear. He drove himself deep and hard into her, punctuating each word he spoke. "How can I leave you?"
She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him, then forced him back so that she could look into his amber eyes as he made love to her. "You've no choice, Speirr. You've fought too hard and suffered too much to be heir not to do this. This will ensure that the clan will take you as their king when your uncle dies."
She saw the anguish in his eyes and felt his body grow rigid around hers. "I know."
They loved each other so much. They always had. Ever since the day when she was six and he eight, and he had nobly saved her from a flogging by a rooster.
He had been the hero of her heart.
They'd grown up apart and yet never parted.
Even as children, they had known their friendship would be stopped or ridiculed, and Speirr had suffered enough ridicule to last ten thousand lifetimes.
She would never hurt him more.
So they had never told anyone of the times when they would sneak away from their famines and duties to be together.
For years their meetings had been innocent. Meeting to play a game or to fish. Sometimes to swim, or to share the heartbreaks they felt.
It had only been during this last year that they had dared touch each other's bodies.
She was the daughter of a fishmonger-the lowest of the low. Even so, Speirr had never treated her as the others did. He never mentioned that she smelled of fish oil or wore clothes that were threadbare and patched.
He'd respected her and treasured her friendship as much as she treasured his.
She had given him her virginity gladly, knowing there could never be anything between them. Knowing the day would come when he would have to marry another.