Someone to Watch Over Me

Chapter Twenty- Seven

Candles flickered to throw long, dancing shadows along the walls and as Seren lay in Thorin's arms, her head on his chest, she realized she'd never known happiness such as this before. Things had begun so rocky for them, and yet there they were.

"Thorin?"

"Mmmm?"

She rose onto her elbow to gaze down at him. His eyes were closed, his dark hair spread across the linens. The cuts on his face were almost completely healed, and without thinking, she traced her fingertip along his cheek, moving along his cheekbone, then down along the edge of his beard. Her handsome dwarf. If she could go back to that day on the promontory, when she saw him face off against Alfryd, and tell herself that one day, she would be lying in his arms, there is no way her younger self would believe her.

It still didn't seem quite possible to her.

"You're staring at me," he murmured, and his eyes opened. "Why?"

"Because I like the way you look."

A sleepy grin curved his lips. "You like the way I look?"

"I do." She shifted slightly to trace the curve of his lower lip now. His lips were soft, far softer than she ever thought a man's lips could be, and must have been ticklish, for as she passed along it, he jerked his head to the side, catching his bottom lip between his teeth.

"Thorin?"

"That felt odd," he said, rubbing his bottom lip with a finger.

"I'm sorry."

He caught her hand in his and brought it to his chest. "I'd rather you stick to petting me, if it's all the same."

"Petting you?"

"You do, you know." His eyes closed once more. "At least, that's how it feels. Not that I mind, that is. I rather like how it feels, actually. It makes me sleepy."

"Is that so?" She slid her fingers up toward his collarbones, then back down, smiling as he let out a lusty sigh.

"Oh, it is, indeed." He stretched with a soft yawn, then settled back into the pillows. "I look forward to many nights like this."

"Is that so?"

He nodded, a smile playing at his lips once more. "Absolutely."

"It's nice to see you smile. I wish you did so more often."

"I could say the same about you, you know." With that, he came up and over her, covering her body with his.

"Until recently, I'd not had much to smile about. Bounced about from place to place, never knowing where my next meal was coming from, or if I did manage to find a place to pass a night of two, never knowing when the man of the house was going to try something." She slid her arms about his midsection, her fingernails skimming first up, then down his back. "That's why I began pretending to be a boy, you know."

"I didn't. I assumed you did it from the start, knowing it would make things easier for you."

She shook her head, gazing up into his sleepy blue eyes. "I don't wish to bore you, so—"

"No, you aren't boring me at all. Why would you think that? I'm fascinated that you managed to pull off your disguise so thoroughly and for so long."

"I had to if I didn't want to go mad. It happened every time, you know. Maybe he'd accidentally brush my shoulder or my hair, but then, he'd get bolder. Skim along a breast. Or graze my backside." It became more difficult to hold his gaze, seeing the hints of anger creeping into his eyes. "And sometimes, he would try more, he'd get bolder and his wife would get suspicious and then, I'd be out on the street."