He woke the next day to her tying a clean dress around her and he grabbed her hands ceasing their movements. "You will stay here and rest, I'll see to your duties," he said softly when he took note of her heavily bruised throat. Her breathing was shallow and she could hardly swallow, the dark purple was the clear shape of a hand.
"I cannot ask that of you," she said hoarsely, her voice cracking with each word.
"He struck you," Thorin whispered when he saw the bruise on her cheek. He cleared his throat and dropped his hand from her face. "I am not asking, you will rest," he said before putting her back in the bed. He leaned into her hand as she cupped his cheek and he turned his head to kiss her palm before standing. "I will bring your records to you," he told her kissing her lightly before leaving.
He continued to bring her the inn's records of profits and spending, going to the next town to trade, helping Sage with the dining hall and cooking.
"Where's Lily?" Sage had asked suspiciously when she saw him cooking the first morning after Lily was attacked.
"She is not feeling well," he answered shortly thinking Lily's cousin had no place to question him.
"So you are taking up her duties?"
"Is that not what it looks like I'm doing?" he told her harshly causing her to give a small "hmm." "What?" he asked gruffly, his eyes on the sizzling pan rather than Sage.
"Nothing, I just didn't realize how in love with her you were," she said simply. And when Thorin turned to her shocked she was already gone, leaving him breathing heavily in irritation.
It was a few weeks before the bruises on Lily's neck faded yellow, the one on her cheek completely disappeared, and she refused to sit in her room any longer. "You cannot keep me here forever," she told him as she tied a scarf around her throat.
"It was worth a try," he said quietly as he stared at her, wanting nothing more than to know she was safe in this room. The look on her face was sweet when she turned to him, her fingers soft on his cheek, her lips warm on his. "Do not tease me woman," he told her pulling away. "I have not had you weeks." Before she had been barely able to breathe and after she hardly seemed to want him, making him think she blamed him. But the way she was looking at him, her eyes dark with wanting, and he could feel his need for her in his veins. He pulled her mouth to his, not kissing her nearly as soft as she had, feeling in the way she pressed against him she needed him too. "You have much to do today," he said regretfully.
"Can you last until sundown?" she asked as she ran her hands along his chest.
He did not want to, he wanted her then; but he also wanted to take his time, tasting every ounce of her flesh before he took her. And so he waited, not touching her throughout the day in the case anyone saw; not willing to take the chance of her getting hurt again. Though the sun set as it always did and Thorin stood impatiently at the door to her study as she finished recording the profits for the day and planning for the next, trying to stop himself from vibrating with how much he wanted her.
When she finally did finish he did not have it in him to wait, to do anything but pull her dress up and take her against the wall; finding the release he had needed for a long few weeks, feeling from how wet she was that she had been in a state of wanting too. He completely removed her dress before laying her on the bed, raking his eyes over her lovely body and then touching her with first his hands and then his mouth; bringing her to several finishes before he finally took her again. He laid on top of her after he came, pressing kisses to her neck; the only way he knew how to apologize for what had happened.
He stared down at her to see her small smile as she stared up at him, his hands in her hair and hers around his back. He kissed her, gently this time – Sage had been right, he was in love with Lily, he just did not know it.