Page 56 of Ties of Bargains

“He can try.” Harm attempted a grin, but it faded a moment later. He slowly lifted a hand and eased a strand of her black hair behind her tapered ear. “I’ll have you. And I know you won’t let anything happen to me.”

“I’ll do my best, but it won’t be that simple.” Val tilted her head, leaning into his hand as if she didn’t even realize she was doing it. “The Wild Hunt leader becomes the leader by being the strongest, the fastest, the best. More than that, he will have the might of the whole Wild Hunt band at his back. It’s no easy thing to defy one’s Hunt leader.”

“Then we’ll need a good plan.” Harm traced his thumb over her cheek. “We have afeeënmercenary, a human prince, a sometimes three-headed dog”—who was currently rolling on what looked like the desiccated body of a dead lizard—“and…”

He caught himself before he mentioned the iron knife out loud. Even now, he couldn’t confirm it to Val.Not when she still needed her deniability for facing Diego.

The iron knife.Feeënvolkwere susceptible to iron. Evenfeeënvolklike Diego. It was the one thing he couldn’t counteract.

And if…Harm couldn’t help but grin. “I have a plan. Or, well, the beginning of a plan.”

“Then let’s hear it.” Val started to pull away from him, the look in her eyes returning to cold calculation.

“In a moment. There’s something I’d like to do first.” Harm tugged her closer still until she was flush against him. “Would you stab me if I kissed you?”

Val blinked at him for a long moment, as if kissing hadn’t even crossed her mind. Understandable, given they’d been talking about death and hopeless battles. Hardly talk that inspired thoughts of kissing. Perhaps he shouldn’t have mentioned it.

But she didn’t yank out of his arms or pull her dagger either. Surely that was a good sign.

“You want to kiss me?” She rested her hands on his jerkin again, as if she wasn’t quite sure where to put them.

“Yes. But I wanted to make sure you wouldn’t stab me if I did. You were quite insistent about the whole stabbing thing previously and…”

She stretched onto her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his.

He dug his fingers into the silken strands of her hair as he kissed her. Her hands worked their way up his chest to wrap around the back of his neck, pulling him in tighter as if she was desperate to keep him close. Thatdesperation lent an intensity to the kiss Harm hadn’t expected, but he responded in kind.

Something slammed into Harm’s side, claws pawing at his arm.

Val pulled away from him as that same muscular body wiggled between them, licking and jumping. “Daisy!”

Harm laughed, shook his head, and scratched one of Daisy’s heads behind the ears. “Feeling left out, were you, girl?”

All three of Daisy’s heads had their tongues lolling, eyes slightly crazy as she licked their hands.

“I, uh, guess we should keep moving while you tell me this plan of yours.” Val bent, picked up the cord, and stuffed it into her pocket, too pointedly not looking at him. Though her cheeks still seemed a bit more pink beneath her bronzed skin tone than normal.

Not necessarily with discomfort. More with the stiff posture of someone who didn’t quite know how to handle the emotions she was feeling.

As Val marched into the desert as if she was trying to outwalk her feelings, Harm grinned and fell into step beside her, even though he wasn’t bound by the cord to stick close any longer. Daisy loped along before she broke off to chase a lizard, which scurried under a rock before the dog could chomp it.

Harm swung his arms at his sides, feeling lighter than he had in a long time. Perhaps it was the kissing haze, but he wasn’t even all that terrified of the painful bloodshed and possible death in his future.

“So. The plan?” Val kept marching forward with that same ruthless pace.

Harm’s grin widened until his cheeks hurt, though that could have been the sun burning his far-too-pale skin. “Well, I’m not sure if you’re going to like it. It involves more kissing. And being stuck together. And it’s rather permanent.”

Val shot him a quelling look, reaching for her knife as if she was contemplating stabbing him after all. “Then why do you look so happy about it?”

“BecauseIrather like this plan.” Harm resisted the urge to pull her close and kiss her again.

Though, he probably should do it now, before he told her his idea. Afterwards, she was just as likely to stab him as she was to kiss him.

“That is what has me worried.”

“You will probably get to stab someone. Likely not me.”

Val raised her eyebrows. “You should have led with that.”

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