Page 180 of Upon Buried Embers
“I do.”
“You want to helpme?” he rumbles, eyes darkening.
I say nothing, but he knows, deep down, that I’m doing it for him most of all.
“I do want to help you. Do this… for you. Regardless of the deal we made.”
Rohan lifts a hand to cup my cheek, running his thumb across my lips.
I shiver.
“You need to be careful with your words, Little Whisperer.”
“I mean them.”
“I know,” he breathes, nostrils flaring. “That’s the problem.”
“It is?” My eyes flutter shut as he comes closer, our bodies touching. The heat of his skin reaches me and I sigh, my stomach filling with butterflies. “Why?”
“Because it makes me want to keep you even more.”
My eyes open at that, looking directly into his.
“You meant it when you said that before?”
“That I want to keep you?” I nod. “I meant it. Let me keep you. Have you.”
Do I want that?
Could I stay here with him and his clan? Have a life here? I like his people, I like his horses and his dragons.
I like… him.
Could I have that?
“Let’s make a new deal, tell me, and I will give it to you,” Rohan murmurs.
“What?”
“Tell me what you want. No holding back.”
“I…”
“Show me that fire that you keep hidden.”
“But...” My chest heaves.
“You are more than a slave, so much fucking more than an elf, so tell me what you want.”
“I don’t think I can,” I whimper when his heat invades me even more.
“Yes, you can,” he growls, pushing me to expose myself. “Tell me what you want or so help me—”
“Everything!” I gasp out, emotions bubbling over with the admission. But now it’s out there, I can’t stop.
Everything spills out of me.
“I want everything. I want roses and comfort, happiness and freedom. I want to feel the breeze on my skin without repercussions, I want to eat so much I’ll feel sick. I want to learn to ride a horse on my own and braid their hair. I want to bathe in a lake and go to a market. I want to come back to The Glade and see more dragons. I want Escor to follow me around and Drogonah’s grumpiness!” I gulp in air. “I want to stay here, I want to feel your warmth, and I want…”
