The Robber Knight's Love (The Robber Knight Saga #2)(64)

Yet when she opened her mouth, no rebukes, no plea for him to leave her alone passed her lips. Instead, she stretched out her arms.

“Hold me?” she whispered.

The dark shadow from the door moved closer. Wordlessly, she let herself fall forward, and then she was in Reuben's arms and the world, which just a minute ago had seemed to have descended into the madness of eternal night, was making a little bit of sense again.

“Oh Reuben,” she whimpered, pressing herself so hard against him that she felt sure she would give him a bruise or two. Well, he probably wouldn't even notice if she did.

Reuben returned her embrace and pressed his lips against her cheek—a gesture any passing observer might see as nothing more than simple comfort. But Ayla knew better. And she was proved right just a moment later when his lips wandered down from her cheek, over her jawline, down to her exposed throat.

“Ayla…”

His voice was like molten steel—hot and deadly.

Ayla felt a shiver run through her. Grief? Pleasure? Both, so tightly entwined as to be indistinguishable?

“Do you know what I want to do right now, Milady?” Reuben murmured against her skin.

She managed a shake of the head.

“I want to take advantage of your grief and vulnerability to seduce you.”

A small “Oh!” escaped her. That was all she said. All she could say.

“But I can’t!” he growled, not sounding very pleased at the fact. “Because I lo— care about you, and I can’t just use you like that. Damn!”

By the Apostles! Was he going to say that he loved me?

But then…why hadn’t he? She had been waiting to hear those words again ever since she had found out his secret, had been waiting for him to tell her that it hadn’t been all just lies to ensnare her, that his feelings were real. Why couldn’t he come right out and say it?

She almost asked him. But instead, she pressed her face into his oh-so-soft, messy black hair and pulled him closer, the hint of a smile playing on her face.

“I care about you, too, Reuben.”

“Now you’ve just made it worse! God’s teeth! You little vixen!” He pressed another lingering kiss on her throat. “Feelings are about as convenient as a fork in the ass, sometimes!”

She gave a half-sob, half-chuckle. “Feels nice, though, doesn’t it? Having someone to hold you?”

His grip around her tightened. “Yes, damn you! It does.”

Those words were like a brightly blazing torch to her, driving the cold out of her heart. Yet even though she didn’t feel empty and cold anymore, even though Reuben was holding her, she suddenly started to cry again.

It was too much, simply too much for her not to cry. Too many brave men had died, too many souls had been violated.

“Shh, Ayla, shh, don’t cry!” Quickly, he came up from the level of her jaw and pressed her face into his shoulder, sheltering her. His hand started to lightly stroke her hair. “Everything is going to be all right. Just wait. Everything is going to be all right.”

“It is, is it?” she asked, with a tearful little chuckle. “So you have found a plan to get rid of the army in front of my gates, have you, Sir Knight?”

“Well,” he sighed. “I wasn't going to talk about it, but since you ask…promise you won't tell anybody. It's a secret plan—my last resort.”

“I promise.”

“Well, if they don't simply vanish or turn into robins and fly away, I'm going to go have to go out there and kill every last one of them myself.”

Ayla couldn’t help it, she had to smile again. “What a brilliant plan, Sir Knight.”

“I know. I’m a genius, aren’t I?” He gave an exaggerated sigh again. “Of course, it's going to take some time, and I'll probably need to come back for fresh swords when I've hacked my own to pieces once or twice. But I think I should manage it in about three or four days. Then I'm going to ride to the Margrave's castle, kill everybody there, too, so you can be safe forever, and I'll bring you the Margrave's head on a spike. Would you like that?”

“I should very much like to be safe,” Ayla murmured into his shoulders. “But you can forget about the head on a spike. I've seen enough heads to last me a lifetime.”

“Oh?” He was grinning. She could hear it in his voice. “Am I to infer that the sight of my own nut is displeasing to you, Milady? Should I cover my head with a cloth from now on?”

Ayla couldn't help it. She giggled. It was unbelievable! She had just lived through what probably were the five worst minutes of her life, and he managed to make her giggle!

“I meant dead ones, silly!” she sniggered.

“Well, that's a relief.” She looked up and saw that she had been right. Reuben was indeed grinning. A full-blown I'm evil, know it, and enjoy it grin. It made her melt inside. “There are certain things you cannot do with your head covered. Particularly your mouth.”

At those words, Ayla felt her heart speed up. Damn him! He was so good at distracting her!

Abruptly, she realized how close she was to him. Very, very close in fact. He was clutching her in his arms, and she felt every hard line of his body pressed against hers in a way that probably wasn’t very decent.