Page 210 of Lady for Embers

Not again.

He didn’t know how to make himself known without startling her, so he lightly cleared his throat, hands shoved deep into his pockets. Predictably, she jumped, tugging her feet quickly from the water, eyes ?ying to his face.

“Callan?”

“I am sorry to intrude,” he lied.

“No. I mean, you aren’t.” She reached for her slippers.

“I can go.”

“Please don’t.”

She stilled, ?ngers hooked into her slippers. He gestured to the space beside her. “May I?”

“Of course.” She tucked her hair behind her ear, not looking at him as he made his way over, settling down beside her and moving the slippers aside. He toed off his boots, pulling his socks off too, and dipped his toes into the water, ?sh darting away.

She glanced up at him brie?y before slowly lowering her feet back down, painting ripples alongside his. “How long have you been here?” she asked softly.

“Not long.”

“I needed some air after the events of the night. I have only seen this place during the day,” she said. “I asked Magdalena to show me the way to it in the dark.”

“And she left you here?”

Tava shrugged. “I ?gured it was close enough to dawn. I could ?nd my way back in the light.” Her foot paused as a curious ?sh swam closer before darting away once more. “What about you?”

“Me?”

“What are you doing out here in the night?”

“I returned an hour ago,” he said. “I needed to unwind after allthe festivities.” She hummed in acknowledgment. “You seemed to enjoy yourself,” he ventured.

“It was lovely,” she conceded. “Proper and formal and yet somehow not.”

He couldn’t have described it better himself.

He hadn’t been alone with her since the night she had bandaged his wounds. Before that, it had been when she’d slept in his arms. They had never discussed that night. She had woken shortly after he did, ?ngers skating across his chest brie?y. She’d looked up at him, holding his gaze for a long moment, and then she’d slid silently from his lap. When she had disappeared into the bathing room, he’d slipped out of the room, Drake still sleeping in her bed. They’d gone back to what they’d been since that throne room.

That fucking throne room.

Would he forever measure time by the events of that night now?

Before the throne room and after?

“Did you enjoy yourself?” she asked after a moment of stilted silence.

“Well enough,” he replied. “I sat with Eliza for a while.”

“I saw. She is healing?”

Gods, he hated this small talk between them. They had spoken so freely while she’d tended to his injuries that night. That’s what he wanted, but he didn’t know how to get back to it.

I cannot handle only having you when you allow me to.

“Callan?”

He shook his head, clearing his thoughts. “Sorry,” he said in a rush. “Eliza is healing well, yes. It appears they have an exceptional healer.”

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