Paladin's Strength by T. Kingfisher

Author:T. Kingfisher [Kingfisher, T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Romance
ISBN: 9781393909835
Publisher: ​T. Kingfisher
Published: 2021-02-28T06:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Six

Clara spent the rest of the trip to the next village talking to Tolly about trade routes. Istvhan tried to eavesdrop but rapidly decided that it was too specialized for him to make sense of half of it. Tolly, however, ate it up, and the pair were soon lost in conversation about weight-to-profit ratios and currency conversions.

Finally, they reached the field where they would perform the next show. Doc Mason went off to stir up interest from the locals and Tolly set to work on the wagon. Clara ambled over to a tree and sat down.

Istvhan weighed how mad she was likely to be against the fact that the staves had been stowed in the wagon. Was she still mad? He couldn’t tell. She hid everything too well and it was part of what frustrated him. Not that I think she’d be nursing a grudge, so much as I’m not sure she’d let herself be angry if she deserved to be…

Right. Paladin. Stoic warrior, charging boldly into danger, so on and so forth. He walked up to the tree, trying to look harmless and good-natured and also sexy, which was a complicated thing to convey. He wasn’t sure what to do with his hips. “May I join you?”

She raised one eyebrow and then said, “Yeah, go ahead.”

He sat down beside her, back against the tree trunk, in the band of shade offered by the branches. “Don’t worry. Doc Mason thinks we’re both mad as the mist and snow, but he doesn’t hold it against us.”

“He’s probably right. I don’t know whether to apologize for hitting you or hit you again.”

“I think we’re even.”

They were even. That was what was killing him. She was as big as he was and as strong as he was and he couldn’t intimidate her. His black tide was no match for her beast.

Saint’s teeth, but she was magnificent.

And he still wanted her. It didn’t matter that she could turn into a bear, except that turning into a bear seemed pretty damn cool, particularly in somebody you trusted to watch your back.

Don’t assume she knows what you’re thinking.

Could she really not know that I want her? Is it possible?

He tilted his head to look at her and smiled. “Domina?”

“Captain?”

“You hit like a nun.”

“No, I hit like a lay sister. If I hit like a nun, you’d have been laid out on the road.”

Istvhan laughed. “Fair enough. How’s your hand?”

She grimaced. “You’ve got a skull like a bull elk,” she said. “Only without the magnificent rack.”

It was one of his great weaknesses. He had never been able to resist a straight line. “I think you’ve got that covered.”

A long, long pause, during which Istvhan thought, oh hell, much too soon, and then she snorted, which wasn’t quite a laugh but was close enough. “Thanks.”

He reached over and took her hand in his, turning it to look at her knuckles. They were red and swollen, as one might expect. He ran his thumb down the side of her hand, under the little finger.

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