Part 2 Birthmark
Lorne brushed his fingers through my hair. One of the shell roses fell out and broke on the floor with a small crunch.
"I want to kiss you," he said. His lips were gentle at first, but grew demanding and he pulled me up tight against his body and left me gasping for breath. He smiled down at me and stroked my hair again, and then his fingers dropped down to my shoulder and slowly traced a line along the upper edge of my bodice. When I didn't object, he bent his head and traced that line with soft kisses.
"Gods, you smell good."
"Rosewater," I murmured. He chuckled.
"My mother smells like rosewater," he said. "You smell like something else. Delicious." He nuzzled my neck. He had a good smell too, Retta's herbed soap on top of healthy male. Mmm.
We ended up on the couch. His warm, calloused hands cradled my face and I could feel his heat soak into me all the length of my body where he pressed against me. He was always feverishly warm like there was a fire burning inside of him. Hot eyes, hot hands, hot everything. For a moment I wondered what it would feel like to have that heat burning all along my bare skin and my eyes fluttered closed. Lorne laughed as if he had read my thoughts and he toyed with the tie to my bodice.
It felt so good to have somebody touch me. I know Daeghun loved me in his own way but I think the sky would fall before my father would, oh, hug me, or touch me in any way other than to correct my grip on a tool or weapon or to silently draw my attention to animal tracks. I had always accepted this without question and only now, with Lorne's breath warm against my ear and his arms so tight and possessive around me, did I realize I was starving, absolutely starving for his touch. I kissed Lorne almost desperately.
"Rose," he said urgently. "Gods, Rose." And then in a different, more conversational voice, he said, "Rose, what is that? I didn't know you had a tattoo."
My sleeve had slid down my left shoulder, showing my birthmark in all its glory.
"It's not a tattoo," I sighed.
He traced the edge of the mark and jerked his finger away as if it had stung him.
"I feel it," he said. "Gods, it feels so strange—what is that thing? Is it a picture?" The glyph was stylized but his eyes opened very wide when he finally made sense of it. "It's the hammer of Tyr."
"Yes."
"But Rose, Rose, I don't understand. You don't worship Tyr, do you? You never said."
"Someone in my bloodline must have been awfully close to him." Lorne stared at me.
"Oh, Great Mother, you're an aasimar," he said. "Rose, was your father an angel?"
"I don't know," I said in a small voice. Lorne pulled me close and I laid my head on his broad shoulder. "I'll never know." Lorne held me quietly and I could feel the heavy thumping of his heart against my ear. We stayed like that a long time. The lamp flickered in a sudden draft. Then his hand brushed along my shoulder and he whispered into my hair.
"Take me up to your room."
I turned my face up to his, and then I jumped halfway out of my skin when I heard my father say, "No, Rose, you will not."
I yanked the tie to my bodice tight and I am sure I looked nine kinds of guilty. Daeghun's voice was cool and his stance was relaxed, but there was something strange in his eyes, a look I had never seen before. He was angry. He and Lorne stared at each other and I had an insight in the thick uncomfortable silence. They did not like each other. They did not like each other at all.
"Go to bed, Rose."
Lorne's grip tightened on me.
"She shall do as she pleases," he said. And then, almost paradoxically, "I am going to marry her."
"No," my father said.
"I will," Lorne said. "I don't need your permission. Who are you, anyway, ranger? You are nothing to her."
"You are very much your father's son," Daeghun said. "A pity. I will not see my daughter dragged down to your level."
Lorne pushed me aside and rose slowly to his feet. He towered over my father and his eyes burned hot with fury.
"Hey," I said and when he didn't listen, I punched him hard in the shoulder and gave him a shake. He blinked down at me. "That's enough, both of you." I glared at my father. "I don't know what you are talking about and you know what, I don't really care right now. Lorne, go home. Father, go, oh go do something. I'm going to bed." As I swept up the stairs, I said over my shoulder, "And I better not find any bodies on the floor in the morning."