The Mercenary: A Sequel to Hwarang: The Saga of the Sooks Book #2

Chapter 16: A Tender Emotion

Eventually, he reluctantly released those luscious lips. He sighed and rested his forehead against hers. "I missed you," he murmured again.

"Did you really?" she asked, still insecure.

Something vulnerable quavered in her voice, and he suddenly remembered how terribly young she was.

"Did you have a father?" he asked abruptly.

"What?" She drew away from him. "Of course, I had a father! How else would I be?"

"I mean did you have a father who bounced you upon his knee? A father who was here for you? Who held you in his arms and loved you?"

She sniffed and glanced away from him towards the fading rays of the sun. "I cannot remember such a one," she whispered. "He died long ago."

He tightened his hold on her as his heart bent towards her. He couldn't remember such a one either. Only the cold tone of his own father's voice when he repudiated the beautiful, tiny baby with the snow-white hair. And then beat his son for hiding behind his mother's screen. The night she died bringing that indigo-eyed baby girl into the world.

He slid his other arm around her and drew Sook Myeong even closer, burying his face in the crook of her neck while a sob bubbled up from deep within him. He tried to choke it back, but it resisted his every effort. So he tossed it up against the soft skin of her throat and squeezed her tighter.

He wasn't a man given to crying. But something about this girl had always reminded him of the soft woman who had given him life. And tonight was no different. The princess still made him recall the gentle voice that had guided him as a small child.

He was also raw from a week of missing the princess. And wondering if he would ever have the pleasure of talking to her again. In his heart, she had been with him for the past seven days. Even after she'd fled from him. In his imagination, she'd been lying in his bed next to him all night long. Refusing to touch him. Or to allow him to touch her. She'd kept her heart closed to him even in those encounters in his mind's eye. But that phantom girl had seemed nearly as tangible to him as the woman he now held in his arms. Making him crave her presence even more.

She stood, frozen, as the heat of his sob exploded against her skin. Stirring the scent of the ocean waves again and making her heart flee towards him this time. As his arms tightened around her, his chest convulsed. And she wondered at a man who would weep in her arms. Such a gentle creature existed?

Her heart spasmed and wished to wrap itself around him. To find any way at all of comforting him. So her arms twined around his neck. And she moved her face towards his. There was only one thing that she could think of to solace him.

"Jong Su?" she whispered, for the first time dropping formality and calling him by his true name.

He slowly moved his head upward, and as he did so, the tip of her nose skimmed his cheek. And his heart lurched. He came nose to nose with her after another couple of seconds. And she leaned towards him. Her eyes seeking out his lips. A fraction of a moment before her own embraced his.

Take comfort in me, her heart was crying out. Love me. Wallow in me.

Her sweet offering was all the encouragement that he needed. Even missing the light in her eyes – which had fluttered shut at the touch of his lips against hers – he felt the heat of her ardor embracing him, and he happily gave in to it. His lips sinking into the softness of her own. It was like coming home after so many years of wandering in the cold. Her warm hands were clinging to his neck too, and she seemed to be making an oddly sweet humming sound. Like her passion for him was vibrating. His lips curved into a smile as he listened to it.

I love you, Sook Myeong.

Of course, he didn't say it. But he thought it. And he felt it. And his lips communicated it. As his arms wrapped it around her, tugging her ever closer to his heart.

I love you.