My favorite 'missing moment' from my favorite LC chronicles... I would happily read a whole other book devoted to this couple!
I don't own any of these characters.
Scarlet settled into her makeshift bed and sighed, feeling more comfortable than she should have been, on the cold floor of Maha Kelsey's home with nothing more than a thin pillow and a threadbare, scratchy blanket. However, it was more than she'd had in her small cage while she spent over a month in captivity – compared to that, these accommodations were downright luxurious.
It was also much more than some of her friends had, she realized, as she looked around the small room. Thorne was sprawled out beneath the window on his back, with one of the lumpy couch cushions rolled up beneath his head and some kind of clothing (a sweater? A shawl? Scarlet couldn't tell) draped over him as a blanket. Cinder was curled in the opposite corner on a second couch cushion with a blanket that was not long enough to cover both her shoulders and her feet, but she was doing her best to cocoon herself anyway. Princess Winter had reluctantly accepted the only other actual pillow in the room (at Thorne's insistence), but refused any sort of blanket and was sleeping flat on her back, hands folded neatly over her abdomen in the center of the room.
And Wolf… was sitting against the wall, staring at her intently.
She blushed furiously at the sight of his eyes fixed so intensely on her. He responded in kind, by turning away with the slight smirk that she'd grown to love in such a short time. The "bed" she slept in now had been his for the previous few nights, but he had insisted that Scarlet take it tonight. It was the most forceful, most demanding he had ever been with her, and normally she would have been indignant and irritated with his tone. However, his eyes gave away his underlying tenderness and she acquiesced after very little argument.
She swiftly buried her smile in her pillow, which had appeared on its own accord after meeting Wolf's eyes. Then she turned her head back slightly so one eye was pointed in his direction only to find him staring at her again, completely unapologetically. After maintaining eye contact for a few seconds, Scarlet extended her arm and rapped her knuckles gently against the ground next to her.
He took her cue, bounding to his feet and swiftly closing the short distance between them. He landed softly in a casual sitting position next to her, and greeted her with an uncharacteristically gentle "Hey," as he swept a stray curl from her brow. "Are you going to hide from me all night?"
"Depends," she replied, turning onto her back to face him. "Are you going to stare at me all night?"
He smiled coyly, knowing he was caught. "Probably. I need to convince myself you're really here." He stared off into the distance, zoning out momentarily before continuing, "I can't believe you're not sleeping."
"I know," Scarlet agreed. "In all truth, my body is more exhausted than I ever thought it could be. But mentally, I'm just racing." She shifted slightly beneath the covers. "Where are you going to sleep, now that you've given up your spot?"
He grinned his bright, wolf-y grin. "I just told you - I plan to stare at you all night."
Scarlet felt the heat return to her cheeks again. "No, really…"
He leaned back on one elbow, facing her. "Trust me, I've slept in way worse places. I can doze off just about anywhere."
Her eyebrows rose in a suggestive way and she propped herself up on her forearms, her face inches from his. "How about a compromise?"
His eyes drifted to her lips before he whispered, "What do you have in mind?"
Scarlet's gaze softened, her breath caught in her throat. Her typically snarky tone vanished, replaced with a more vulnerable one. "Stay with me," she whispered.
A bubble of apprehensive silence passed between the two, and for a split second Scarlet wondered if he would turn her down outright. But after studying Wolf's face, she knew there was no question about whether or not he wanted to stay.
Whatever he was questioning, it WASN'T that.
She felt him relax beside her as he slowly reclined to the floor, and before she knew it she was wrapped securely in his arms, her head pressed against his chest and his face buried in the mess of (now clean, thankfully) curls atop her head.
She drank in his scent and released a resigned sigh, finally allowing the day's exhaustion to catch up with her. As her eyelids fluttered to a close, she found herself pondering the change she'd recognized in Wolf. On board the Rampion prior to her abduction, he had been shy and stumbling around her. It was cute, in her opinion, and although she'd never admit it, she sort of enjoyed pressing his buttons – making suggestive comments and watching him blush, or listening to him stammer through a conversation. As of the time she'd last seen him aboard the Rampion, she felt it was clear that they were attracted to one another, but they had taken several steps backward from their kiss on the train.
She had certainly not expected a reaction like the one she got in that alleyway today.
The ravenous look in his eyes as he'd stalked toward her was an image burned into her mind eternally, and the way he'd swatted her hand away and pulled – no, crushed - her to him without a second thought, it was clear that his confidence level had increased ten-fold in her absence.
Not that she minded, of course. But their relationship had accelerated so rapidly in the past few hours, Scarlet found her head spinning.
No wonder Wolf was apprehensive, she mused, as she recalled the look on his face when she'd asked him to stay.
No matter, though. The most genuine truth, as far as Scarlet was concerned, was that being on this hard floor tucked beneath his chin with her face buried in his chest was the ONLY place she wanted to be. Everything else would sort itself out eventually.
HE was here, and SHE was here, and in this moment, that's all that mattered.
With that thought, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Stay tuned... More to come! Reviews and constructive criticism appreciated!