Page 18 of This Frozen Heart

“Even those made to your enemies?”

“Of course.” He says this like there is no difference between friend and foe, between Gaelic and Constantinium, between rebel and soldier. “I was ordered to bring you in, dead or alive, and I have determined it shall be the latter.”

“What happens then?”

“Not to worry; you shall no longer have to suffer my company, for my ambition shall be rewarded. I have been promised a promotion to commander if I can break the barrier and capture the leader of the rebel cell terrorizing it.” Kay glances at me as he lifts the bowl to his mouth again.

My gaze falls on where he drinks from the same bowl I just did, and I feel myself flush— from the warmth of the fire, of course.

“Not to worry.” Kay holds the nearly empty bowl back to me. “This still does not constitute as kissing.”

“Oh, and you’re an expert on kissing, are you?” Too late, I realize how flirtatiously that could be taken. If Biggs heard it, he would spend the next hour propositioning me.

Kay’s gaze drops to my lips. “I could be.”

My entire body prickles as my skin comes alive after so long being numb.

“You know nothing about my life beyond two days ago. I could be an expert in anything for all you know.” With that, Kay places the bowl between my lips like that was the only reason he glanced at my mouth.

I choke down the rest of the soup, if only to encourage him to finally put it away.

Except after Kay sets down the bowl, he draws closer to the fire— closer to me. Once again, too much of my skin is against his as he tightens the blanket around us.

“Wh-what—?” I can barely choke out a word, let alone a complete question.

Kay picks up that I’m asking him something. But instead of explaining how he has the audacity, he answers, “No, I am not an expert, for I have no wife to practice with.”

My mind is racing over too many sensations of touch, so I have no control over the next question that comes from my lips. “You wouldn’t kiss a woman you were not wed to?”

“Or betrothed to, if that is what she wished. Kisses are sacred, powerful things, and one ought not to go around bestowing them with no thought of the consequences.”

I blink as every exhale both brushes his chest against mine and blows his breath over my face. While there have been nights where my company and I abandoned our cots to pile on top of each other for body heat, survival never felt so . . .intimate.

Especially since I seem to be the only person affected. Kay keeps scanning the cabin like a soldier on watch. He does not seem pleased to have his back to the door, but this is the pose that has me closer to the fire.

“You are a strange man, Kay of Constantinium.”

“How so?” He furrows his brows as he glances back down at where I am tucked in his embrace. “Because I have a code of honor?”

“No— because you adhere to it.”

Kay purses his lips, like he has not yet encountered the hypocrisy of the world and is confused to hear of it now. “Do you not have your own code of honor that you adhere to? Surely, it is not for your own health and wellbeing that you live in a cave and live off the scraps you steal from the caravans?”

“You think that because I rob your people, I have a code of honor?”

“I did not say that youhavehonor; only that you have a code that you believe gives you honor and that you adhere to it.”

I wrinkle my nose at his petty distinction, glad to evenfeelmy nose. “My code is that all people deserve to be free.”

“What about criminals?”

“It depends on their crime.”

“So, there are some people who do not deserve to be free?” His face is too expressionless and his tone is too even to be a man holding a woman he has any attraction to.

Which shouldn’t even be a thought that crosses my mind, but I can’t help but feel a little insulted. Both in that and the fact that he is casually trying to rend my so-called code of honor.

“Very well; allinnocentpeople ought to be free.”

---