placed a surprisingly gentle hand to her face.
It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him to return her, but she already knew the answer. He wouldn't, and in truth, she was grateful for that fact. She didn't know how Morgen might try to corrupt her, but it could be most painful, and pain was something she would like to avoid if possible.
Kerrigan hesitated as he felt the softness of her skin in his palm. Her green eyes were large and bright. They tugged at the very thing inside him that he'd spurned centuries past. How could this little ragamuffin mouse entice him so?
He brushed her lips with his thumb, wanting to taste them again. But to what purpose?
He'd openly defied Morgen. If he returned to Camelot, he'd have to placate her…
If he could.
But he didn't want to think of that now.
He just wanted to feel the warmth of this woman. Dipping his head low, he didn't kiss her. Instead, he rubbed his roughened cheek against her smooth one just so he could feel the softness of her and inhale the sweet scent of her skin.
"Tell me, Seren," he whispered in her ear. "If you were with a man you loved, what would you do now?"
Seren wasn't sure what to answer to that question. "I know not," she answered honestly. "I've never been around any man save Master Rufus, and he is so old and angry that I never let my fantasies loose."
She felt him smile against her cheek.
"And at night?" he whispered raggedly. "When you dream all alone in your bed, what man do you see in your arms?"
"I've never seen his face," she said in a low tone. "I only see an image of him. A quiet man with a good heart. One who is respectable and charitable to all around him."
Kerrigan flinched inwardly at her words as she described the very things he could never be. A woman like her could never love a thief. A liar.
A beastly animal.
The sudden surge of anger made him want to lash out and hurt her. Punish her for her honesty.
But even as the thought crossed his mind, he knew he couldn't. He'd asked her for the truth and she had given it to him.
His dead heart shriveled as he pulled away from her. "Come, Seren, and I'll show you to your chambers."
"You're not going to just think me into my—" Her words broke off as he did just that.
He watched as her eyes grew round at the lush and beautiful room. The bed was large and gilded. It was the room for a queen, surely, and not one of her status.
"Where am I?"
"You are in Lancelot's chambers." Kerrigan had to force himself not to smile at her gaping expression.
"What of you?" she asked. "Where will you sleep?"
"I don't." At least not more than a few winks at a time. He'd learned long ago that sleeping men were vulnerable to attack. As a youth, he'd been forced to sleep without a bed and be ready to fend off any who wanted to prey on him for either coin or other things best left unspoken. There had been no shelter for him. No safety. And so he'd learned to sacrifice sleep for peace of mind.
Without another word, he started to withdraw from the room, only to have her stop him by laying her hand to his arm. Kerrigan stared at the graceful, delicate touch.
"Thank you, my lord."
"For?"
"Saving me from Morgen and giving me such a beautiful room."
He inclined his head to her even though what he really wanted was to crush her to him, and make use of the bed behind her until the heat in his loins was completely sated. "You should rest, Seren. You will need your strength."
She nodded before she withdrew from him. But as she crossed the floor, he saw her tense unexpectedly as if something suddenly pained her.
"Is something amiss?"
She looked back at him with an expression so sad that he actually felt her pain. "My scarlet cloth. I left it in my chambers…I can't believe it, it's lost now. Gone forever."
He snorted at that. "It is cloth. What good is it?"
She stiffened at his words as tears gathered in her eyes. "It was mine, my lord. I spent much of my life this past year preparing it, and it was all I had in the world. It might seem trivial to you, but to me it meant everything." Then under her breath she repeated