Chapter Eighteen

“Sparrow, do you know where we are?” Completely out of breath and wet to the bone, Rennie dragged her companion to a halt. They had been running for what felt like half the night through dark forest, lashed by rain, raked by thorns and branches, Rennie’s only anchor the strength of Sparrow’s fingers in her own.

Now they paused for the first time, and she heard Sparrow gasp for air. Had they fled blindly, or had he led her to safety?

“We are deep in Sherwood, some distance east of where we need to be.”

“How can you tell?” Rennie tipped her face up so water filled her eyes. She heard the wind in the trees but could not actually see them.

Sparrow admitted, “I am guessing from the direction we ran.”

“We have seen nothing of Martin, with Lil. Do you think they will hunt him down, the soldiers, I mean?”

“Not until morning. They do not like venturing into Sherwood, even in daylight. And Lambert is sore wounded. Are you hurt?” His hands brushed gently over her skin.

“Scratches. You?”

“The same. We were fortunate, all round. Come daylight, I imagine Lambert will organize a search. But, come daylight, we should be able to find our way home.”

Rennie shivered. “Not until then?”

“I fear not.”

Rennie moved closer to him. Just days ago, she would have been terrified, finding herself lost among the trees. Now they had become a refuge, and she worried only about Lil.

“Do you think Martin truly did get away? And what of Alric, who was waiting for us?”

“Alric can look after himself, as can Martin. Trust him for that.”

“Lil is in a bad way.”

“Very bad.”

“I cannot lose her, Sparrow. She is all I have.” Rennie did not realize she wept until he pulled her into his arms. There, all at once, her courage—so bright when she faced Lambert—crumbled, and she sheltered against Sparrow’s shoulder.

“Lil is strong, none stronger. But you are mistaken, Wren. She is not all you have.”

Were those Sparrow’s lips she felt on her hair, moving across her brow to her temple? She could hear his heart beating a deep, strong rhythm under her cheek, and once more his arms seemed as complete a refuge as Sherwood, a place she might stay forever safe.

“Surely you know I am here for you.” His voice was a mooring place in the darkness. “And will always be.”

So great was Rennie’s need at that moment, she did not question his motives or intent, did not ask whether he spoke as had Martin, out of desire for the place at her side, or to hold strong the magical bonds that protected Sherwood. Blindly she lifted her face and his lips found hers, as naturally as a flower finds the sun.

Sensation exploded, one point of heat amid the wet and cold. She felt his emotions as intensely as her own, knew when the fire kindled and raced through his veins like life returning.

Need, pure and raw, engulfed, strengthened, and then possessed her. She pressed herself closer, desperate for his heat, for his essence. She wanted to be inside him; she wanted him inside her.

Helpless against her feelings, she did not protest when the kiss deepened. His tongue belonged in her mouth, searching and caressing. She let her own meet it, slide, and tangle delectably, suddenly wild for the taste of him. This went beyond comfort and even need to a mingling of spirit, the very reason she had been born.

She moaned, and his big hands drew her still closer. Her flesh seemed to leap for his until she barely felt the sopping leather still between them. His heat and the rain both beat on her with equal intensity.

Not until she was desperate for breath did Sparrow break the kiss. She felt his lungs draw air as if they were her own.

Raggedly, he said, “I have longed to do that since last I kissed you, wanted it every moment, both waking and sleeping.”

“Then I think we needs must do it again.”

The fire leaped still more swiftly this time. Rennie lost track of everything but the feel of his lips, his hands when they began to move over her body, exploring, then caressing and possessing. They warmed her flesh wherever they touched—the skin of her back, up inside her wet tunic and, still lower, her buttocks, which they cupped, starting a whole host of new sensations. Rennie raised both arms and wound them about his neck, tasting an abandon never before felt. She buried her fingers in his sopping hair and rode the current of her burgeoning need.

She never knew which of them spoke the words, “I want you.” It did not matter, because their feelings had melded as surely as their tongues.

Sparrow caught her up in his arms and walked blindly through the windy darkness as if directed. Even as they went, she kissed him, little bites of kisses irresistible as comfort. She barely noticed when he set her down. The ground beneath her, though, felt soft and dry.

“Sparrow, where are we?”

“I do not know. Say my name again.”

“Sparrow.” She breathed it into his mouth and accompanied it with a kiss.

He begged, like a sob, “Again.”

Rennie laughed in delight and reached for him. Did she remove his clothes, or did he? And what of hers? The sopping leather should have been difficult to remove, yet it melted away just like Rennie’s uncertainty.

She no longer felt the cold; Sparrow’s body became a shield, a defense, a place to dwell. Heat followed his mouth, exquisite in the darkness. She could see nothing, not even Sparrow, but could feel everything: the calluses on his broad palms, the whispered abrasion made by the hair on his chest when it caught her bare nipples and teased them deliciously, the gentle strength of his fingers that seemed to call something from within her body and lit in her the unprecedented desire to give him anything, everything.

Sparrow. She continued to speak his name in her mind, when her lips were otherwise occupied. And he heard.

Wren. His breath poured into her. She nearly wept when his mouth left hers, but then his lips whispered across her throat and lower still. Aye, Martin had touched her breasts, but that had felt nothing like this. For when Sparrow’s hot mouth found her chilled breast and he began to suckle her, he called forth her very soul.

Time suspended; Rennie died and became born anew, a woman of sensation, existing only for this one man. When his hands moved over her again, when his fingers slid between her thighs, she opened to him eagerly. When they slipped inside her, she knew she had never wanted anything more.

“Wren.” He raised his head from her breast. “I need—”

“Sparrow.” She tangled her fingers in the wet silk of his hair and pulled his mouth to hers. “I need.”

He kissed her with fearsome passion. “I would not hurt you, frighten you, harm you at all.”

Gentle soul, priceless soul, her soul, hers. “You will not.”

“Are you certain? From this, there is no going back.”

She could not see him; he was but heat, sensation, a spirit in the darkness. “I need,” she repeated helplessly.

She lifted her bare legs and wound them around him, drew him in. He slid into her as easily as if she had been made for him.

She had—oh, she had.

After that she did not know where her body left off and his began. She could not tell his thoughts and feelings from hers. His rush of pleasure, when he came, was hers also, triumphant.

Mine, mine, mine.

Her legs still draped around him, she kept him inside her, and felt complete for the first time in her life. Breath sobbed in her lungs, and she could feel his heart flutter, a bird held in her soul.

“Wren—”

“No need to speak, Sparrow. Only hold me.”

He gathered her in, though in truth she could scarcely get closer.

Never let me go, she beseeched.

I will not.

Only after the vow was given did Rennie realize the words had not been spoken aloud. Amazement coursed through her, followed swiftly by delight. Their joining had been no illusion; he was with her, in her mind.

Can you hear me? she asked.

How should I not? She felt his surprise as he grasped the truth. His soul rippled with gladness that matched her own.

By the Green Man’s horns, he said, it is a miracle.

“No,” she told him aloud, “it is destiny.”

“You believe that?”

“I no longer know what I believe in, save you.”

“Wren—”

“Hush, Sparrow. The night is long, and I need you again.”