Page 114 of Fortress of Ambrose
“Somewhere under my mother’s thick skin is love for me. I see it when she looks at me now. And I loathe it. It’s too late. But it made me realize that if she couldn’t find love for her daughter because of the Pact and she damaged me the way she did, how is there hope for us? I don’t have hope, Yagrin.”
“You don’t need hope. I have enough hope for the both of us. You just need trust.”
She sighed and tried to look away. But he gently pulled her by the jaw back around to face him. “I know you like no one knows you.”
She blushed.
He smiled as he let his fingers trail her neck. His throat went dry. “ImeantI know you have what it takes to beat this. I will fight for you to remember every day.”
She kissed each one of his fingertips. Somewhere behind those steel eyes, the girl he loved was still in there.
“Let me help you remember.”
“Please.” She slipped her shoulder out of her gown. “I want to remember it all.”
Forty-Six
Nore
Yagrin stared so intently at Nore, it felt like the sun shined on her bare skin.
This was probably foolish. But she couldn’t pretend she didn’t wish she felt something for him. Maybe he was right. Maybe her body remembered. More than anything, she wanted to believe being together again with him, like this, would make her feelsomething.
They stood, and he pulled the tie out of her hair. His scent wrapped around her as his arm brushed past her cheek. She inhaled deep. Rosewood and something soft, like vanilla, with a spicy bite underneath. Cinnamon. Tiny bumps rose on her skin. Her natural curls, which had returned since her shower, billowed over her shoulders.
As they stood there inches apart, flooded with memories of the life they used to share and questions about the life they had now, she searched herself for some effervescent flutter, some bubbliness in her stomach. But there was no first-time feeling as they stood there more honest with each other than they’d ever been. What she felt was much deeper: a secure, confident knowing unlike the uncertain flutters of frilly love. This was rock solid. Whatever it was between them would not be easily moved. Not because it was new. She’d never been excited by that. It was because it was confident and certain. Their bond was unshakable. Not even her losing her heart could take this man away from her.
His arm snaked around her back, the touch of his fingers trailed the base of her spine. There was a promise in the way Yagrin touched her, every moment anchored, not by adventurous infatuation, but by a steady love that was impossible to break. Even if she couldn’t feel it. She knew. And tonight, she hoped knowing would be enough.
He savored her with his fingertips, trailing them across her collarbone, down her shoulder, stopping every few moments to stare into her eyes. She cupped his face, the warmth of his breath on her hand.
“You are real,” he said. “You are here.”
“I am.”
Her body burned with want to feel him. But for the moment he only hugged her, burying his face in her hair. He nuzzled against her neck, dragging his mouth across its hollow, back and forth. Her breath shortened as he teased her. When he finally pressed his lips in the softest kiss on her shoulder, it hit her like fuel on fire.
A demanding warmth pooled in her. She searched for that same want in her chest. But it wasn’t there. She gripped his arms tightly, suffocating any space between them.I love him, she told herself as he lifted her off her feet. She wrapped her legs around him and tossed her arms over his broad shoulders, trying to recall how this felt before she’d been locked in this prison. She felt her covers at her back. But when he opened his mouth and kissed her properly, the world disappeared.
Their tongues danced. And her body tingled all over. They kissed until her lips were swollen. She came up for air and searched herself for some sentiment. Some feeling.
But there was nothing.
Only passion.
Fiery passion.
And for someone else, maybe it would be enough. But passion wasn’t what she craved. Intimate emotional love was. She went in for a kiss again, holding him close as he gently bit her bottom lip.
“I love you,” he breathed between kisses. The words to reciprocate tried to form in her mouth. But they did not come together.
“Is something wrong?”
“No.” She pressed his mouth against her neck again, wishing it were true, wishing she couldn’t feel her hope fading that this could work. But her heart, that hum of love in her chest, the sweetness that could bring tears to her eyes when he held her, wasn’t there.
She pulled away.
“Nore?” He set her gently on her feet.
