Page 30 of An Archer's Reckoning

“I love you, Ayden, with everything I am and ever will be. I love you with my heart and soul. I will love you until I draw my lastbreath. There are few things certain in this world, but of this, I am unshakably, undeniably, one thousand times sure. You are mine, and I am yours, this day and every day thereafter.”

I felt like the entire cavern had crawled into my throat and somehow expanded. I tried to swallow. I couldn’t breathe. My eyes watered, and my hands suddenly shook.

Declan’s gaze never wavered.

His eyes remained fixed, steady and sure. The set of his jaw held fast. His breath drifted over my lips, and I tasted the need of him.

“I . . .” My voice rasped, as though it strained beneath great pressure, soon to shatter for good. “I love you, Dec. Fuck if I know why, but I do.”

His hand found my ribs, and fingers dug mercilessly.

“Peace!” I shouted, then quieted as his fingers stilled, gripping me gently. “Dec, I have never known a man who could capture my thoughts as you do. I wake to your eyes smiling down in my mind’s eye. Every task reminds me of you, makes me wish you were there with me, sharing the moment, smiling and laughing and . . . whatever.”

“So eloquent, lordling.”

“Fuck you.” I grinned. “I am trying to answer your . . . what you said. Spirits, you rattle me unlike any other.”

“That’s a good thing, right?”

I pressed my lips to his. “It is a very good thing. Please rattle me for the rest of my life?”

He pulled back, surprise written on his features for once.

“Are you asking me—”

I grinned. “I am not asking anything. I am telling you, as your lordling, that I expect your service until death. Nothing less will do. Am I clear?”

Declan hesitated, then his mouth split and teeth shone brightly. He pushed me into the cave wall and stepped back, then dropped to one knee and bowed his head.

“I am in my lord’s service. To him, I pledge my fealty and troth. To no other shall I serve or . . . um . . . sheathe my sword . . . unsheathe? Wield? Fill thy cup? Fill thee up? Fillest? Pokest? Be the pokee? Do the hokey pokey?”

I laughed so hard that tears trailed down my cheeks.

“Shut up, you idiot.”

He looked up, horror and offense scrunching his nose and forming a sneer—for only a heartbeat—before he stood, closed the gap between us, and pressed his whole body against mine.

“Fair warning, my new magic gives me a healthy dose of stamina. You may want a glass of that wine before I do what comes next.”

“And what comes next?”

The question had only just left my mouth before Declan’s hands were fumbling with my tunic and our lips and tongues grappled like wrestlers in a ring.

My arms were above my head with my shirt halfway off when a thought struck.

“What if Órla comes back right as we’re—”

He cut me off with teeth to my nipple.

“Oh, shit. What owl?”

He bit harder.

“Fuck!”

I tore my shirt off and threw it across the cave, then grabbed fistfuls of his and yanked it up, forcing his teeth off my now-throbbing pap.

“You. Naked. Now.”

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