Page 70 of Ice & Steel

“Because you loved me at my worst. All men have ever done is hurt you and yet you found it in yourself to forgive and trust me. I’ll never forget that.”

“You would never hurt me.”

I brushed her hair back, gathering a soft handful. “You’re too forgiving, too good.”

She swallowed hard. “I never thought I would be married to a man who loves me as deeply as you do, Lucien. I love you because you deserve it.”

Somewhere, deep in all my ice, was a dull ache. Except for business trips that never lasted more than a month, I’d never been parted from my wife. Not since that first night when our vows had been said and I’d bedded her to make her mine.

When I traveled, I called her each night. She sent me pictures of the boys. She sent me little love notes throughout the day.

But this time, we would be totally cut off from each other.

“When will you go?” she whispered.

“When Viktor returns,” I said. “In a week.”

“So he’s going to help you?”

“He owes me a debt and, despite his betrayal of our alliance a decade ago, he’s an honorable man. We’ve spoken and he’ll make good on what he did by assisting me now.”

She sniffed, turning to gaze out over the water. “You changed the outfit, you made it better, fairer. Your men will be there waiting for you.”

I nodded. “I’ll reach out to our family members and to Ahmed and Peregrine this week. Everyone will wait until I give word that they’re to return. But Viktor and I have to do this alone until it’s time to attack.”

She released a long, shuddering sigh, but she didn’t cry this time. I lifted her chin, watching as her shoulders went back. Her spine straightened and steel crept over her dark gaze.

My brave wife.

“You are perfection,” I praised, lifting her in my arms and carrying her to our bed.

I stripped and we slid beneath the covers. Our naked bodies wound together until I swore I felt her heart pattering in my chest. She nestled her cheek into my chest and her arms slid up around my neck. Her fingers stroked the shadow of hair on my head.

“Wait for me,” I said. “I’ll return.”

Her fingers flexed. Like a tremor.

“Always,” she whispered.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

OLIVIA

I cried every day leading up to his departure. He dried my tears at night and ran his fingers through my hair until I fell asleep. Raw and exhausted with emotion. In the morning, we fucked quietly and urgently beneath the covers before anyone in the house woke. I had a feeling we were both experiencing the same things, but we had different ways of expressing ourselves.

Viktor was coming at the end of the week. They would go into the city and start making contact with Lucien’s loyal soldiers. Cosimo would stay back on the island with us and join them in a few weeks depending on what happened.

After that, Lucien didn’t elaborate on his plan. I had a feeling whatever it was, the streets of the city would run with blood. My husband, I had realized over the years, wasn’t necessarily the hero of his story.

Perhaps history would be kinder to him than I anticipated, but I had a feeling he would go down as a villain.

I didn’t mind. That villain had gone down on me too many times for me to care how history remembered him.

No, the only thing that mattered to me was the world we’d made together. Our marriage, our family. Our future that he was leaving to fight for across the sea. What other people called my husband wasn’t my concern.

For a week, everything was perfect except that I couldn’t stop ducking into our bedroom or a closet to take a deep breath and pull myself together. Lucien had left before, but never like this. Never without the assurance of return.

I dreamed he came back in a coffin of ice, floating on the waves and smelling of smoke and flowers.