Lucy’s POV
Later in the day, whe the sky had gone dark and the moon had risen, Shaun came over to my bedroom again. I briefly thought about not letting him inside at first, but later decided against it.
When he entered, he stood by the doorway, looking a little out of place before I gave him permission to step further inside.
I slid into bed, watching him from under the bed covers, and waiting for him to join me.
He didn’t seem to understand my invitation, and instead went over to the couch by the corner of the room. “I understand if you still want to be alone. I’ll be fine over here,” he said, taking off his shirt and lying down on the chair.
In the dim lighting, I couldn’t see his body, and maybe it was a good thing, because I didn’t need it to haunt my sleep.
I said nothing to him, but I didn’t need to, because soon after that, a haze of sleep came over me, and I welcomed it.
–
In the middle of the night, I woke up to find myself drenched in sweat. My skin stuck to the bedsheets, and my clothes felt like hot, wet nylon against me.
Even before I sat up, the awareness of Shaun’s presence slid into my mind, reminding me that he was still around. From the soft moonlight filtering in through the open window of the room, I could see his long figure curled up on the couch, chest rising and falling with sound sleep. The same sleep that eluded me because of the hellish heat bothering me.
With a grunt of annoyance, I took off my robe completely, leaving myself in only my sheer nightdress.
Still, it wasn’t enough.
Nearly crazy from the sleep disturbance, I got out of bed to get myself a glass of water.
As I returned to the room, sipping from the glass I had filled, I caught a shadow shifting away from the window. The movement was so swift that I almost missed it, but the person’s body had cast a shadow into the room, and once they moved away, light continued to enter as usual.
In my shock, the glass I held dropped from my hand and shattered on impact with the ground, immediately waking Shaun from his slumber. He hopped out of the couch like it was on fire and came over to me, holding me gently by the shoulders.
“Lucy, what’s wrong?”
I pointed to the window, ashamed at the way my finger trembled. I just didn’t do well with shock and had little knowledge on how to handle it. “I saw someone by the window. They were watching us.”
Shaun went over to the window, inspecting every angle, but ultimately, he found nothing. “How long do you think they were there?”
I wrapped my arms around myself, finally feeling a little chill run through my body, shifting my weight on each foot. “I don’t know. They weren’t ther when I got out of bed.”
He contemplated this for a moment.
In my fidgeting, I lost my balance for a split second, shifting my foot too close to the shattered glass on the ground. As the bottom of my foot made contact with a shard, I hissed loudly.
“Damn it!” I cursed, lifting my foot away from the danger zone. Being clumsy was not a good look.
Shaun was right in front of me again, and somehow, he was perceptive enough to keep himself from enjoying the same fate as me. He took one look at my pained expression and bleeding foot, before gathering me into his arms with barely any effort and taking me to my bed. During the very short journey, I couldn’t help but enjoy the warm sensation of his naked chest pressed against my shoulder.
“Stay put,” he said softly, and went into the bathroom. He came out shortly after with a bowl of water and a rag, and settled down on my bed, lifting my legs so that they were spread over his thighs.
“I’ll have to pull it out,” he said, looking at the shard in my foot with all concentration. His eyes glowed as he inspected the wound, not caring that a little bit of blood was getting on his hand and even his shorts.
“Okay,” I said uncertainly, unable to believe that he was so close to me because he merely wanted to clean my wounds. “But I can do it myself, you know,” I said, looking at his face.
He didn’t even seem to acknowledge my words, and instead took hold of the glass shard embedded in my foot.
I already knew what he was about to do, so I clutched the sheets and pressed my mouth shut because otherwise, I would have screamed.
He pulled out the shard so fast that I almost didn’t register the pain, and then he pressed my foot a little to get a little more blood out of the wound, before he then cleaned my foot and wrapped it in a neat bandage.
When he was done, I regarded his work with a little awe. How had he managed to do all that so quickly?
“Thank you,” I said, remembering a little while back when I had gotten hurt by that arrow and he had been there to clean up my wounds as the doctor had told me. My memories during that time were hazy because of the Wolfsbane poison, but in recent times, I could swear that I remembered the very moment with sufficient clarity to make out his face and the sure movements of his hands as he cleaned up my wound.
He always seemed to be present to clean up my wounds. How strange.
He was looking at me now, but not saying anything. It was as though he could sense that I had questions for him, and was waiting for me to summon the courage to ask him.
“Where did you learn how to do this?” I gestured to the bandage on my leg.
His gaze momentarily faltered, going far away to a distant time, and another place. When he focused on me again, there was a little change in the tone of his voice. “My mother was a doctor. I grew up watching her tend to wounds.” A small smile pulled up the corner of his mouth. “She used to enlist my help when I got bored just sitting and watching her work.”
I nibbled on my lower lip, unsure about how to ask the next question, but did it anyway. “Back then . . . after the arrow incident. Why did you clean my wounds if you hated me?”
His eyes softened as he leaned in a little, but close enough that I could make out the slight dilation of his pupils. “Princess, I never hated you, no matter how hard I tried to convince myself that I did.”
Speechless, I could only look at him with lips slightly parted. Never. He never hated me.
His eyes dropped to my lips, and the only thing that crossed my mind was the desire I had been holding inside of me, even if it was like hot coal that would have found its way out eventually. I wanted him to kiss me like he had done back then when I was in the room he shared with his brothers. I wanted him to seize me until I was nothing but his.
The intensity of my own thoughts shocked me, but they didn’t deter me from my longing.
I bit my lip again as the stared at my mouth, trying to convince him without words to go for it. ‘Go ahead. Kiss me,’ were the words that moved around in my mind, over and over again in a loop.
When he started to lean in towards my face, across the bed, I held my breath, happy that my subtle invitation had worked. He placed his hands on either side of me, pinning me in place and holding me captive. But I was a happy captive.
Unfortunately, he didn’t reach my lips. No. He went past them and pressed a soft, demure kiss against my cheek.
Surprised and more than disappointed, I let myself fall back into the bed with a little frown on my face.
As he got up from the bed, I saw a smirk dancing on his lips, and I just knew that he had done that on purpose. He knew what I had been hoping for, and just . . . disregarded it.
“Get some sleep,” he said as he got up from the bed, gently placing my legs back on it. “I’ll go and see how things are outside.”
As I watched him leave, I was reminded once again of the danger looming over our heads. Worry pierced through my heart, and not just for Tessa or Rosa, but for him as well.