Page 68 of A Baron of Bonds
My chest heaved up and down and I laughed, looking up to the wood beams above us, satisfied, but likely not for long.
I pulled on the back of his neck, kissing him hard, my tongue lazily sweeping over his. I ran my hand down his leg, ready toreturn the favor when he caught it, squeezing my fingers and placing them on the table.
“Oh, so you can touch me in a tavern, but I can’t return the favor?”
“What was it? Absence makes the heart grow fonder?” He shook his head and took another bite. “I’m trying it out, remember?”
I laughed, scooping more pie. “And what was that just now? You abstaining?”
“You can’t expect me to abstain completely, Karus. Besides, I’m enjoying this place. Happy to make some first memories here.” He winked at me and took another bite.
I laughed and shook my head, loving The Salted Herring now more than I ever had before.
Chapter 35
Rev
Karus led me outside,her fingers woven through mine, laughing as she pulled me toward the music of the square.
Her eyes reflected in the descending sun, and her breath came warm and sweet when she stopped in the middle of the street to kiss me.
She stretched her hands through my hair, the pads of her fingers pressed into the roots, like her heart pressed into my soul.
She laughed for no reason at all other than loving me, and I grinned, knowing why my own chest rumbled with hers.
“Do you hear it?” she whispered on my lips, looking into my eyes as if I was about to be introduced to something magnificent.
“Yes, I hear the music, Karus.”
My beloved.
She brushed her lips along my cheek, whispering in my ear, “Will you feel it with me?”
The violinist streamed her music into the cool air, her arm moving the bow rapidly across the strings as her body swayed and hummed with the music.
The fountain behind her was massive, filling the square as water shot from raised spouts across each end, timed to thesong. The square was full of people darting in and out, calling to each other or stopping to dance on the marble tiles laid in a pattern of a golden sun.
I stood in awe watching the fountain play with the notes flying high and low across it.
It really was magnificent.
She laughed again, her arms sliding around my waist. “Gears under the fountain. When a musician is chosen to play, they come each day for seven days, and their songs are timed to the sprays.”
“And there’s no magic involved?” I pulled her closer, watching how effortlessly plucked notes of the violin synchronized with the spray flying through the air to the spout on the other side.
“No magic. Just a beautiful invention. This only happens every other week. It takes another seven days to get the gears set up for the next musician’s set. Do you love it?”
“Yes. It’s…incredible.”
She quirked a brow in my direction. “How’s your dancing, Baron?”
“Not the best, I’m afraid. Didn’t really have the time or means to learn in the Hallow Marshes. You?”
“Good sir, you are speaking to the ward of the Queen of Hyrithia. I was formally trained since the age of six.”
“Are you any good?”
“Absolutely not.”
