Without me willing it to do so, my body pushed back into his.

When it did, his arm again tightened, and he leaned into me so he was partially covering me.

He was so big. So warm.

Another hundred men could come surging through the windows, and in that moment, I felt not a one of them would get near me.

That was lovely too.

“Now sleep,” he urged.

“You are very…skilled with your sword,” I noted. “This being so, how did you get those scars on your face?”

“Silence?”

“Yes?”

“My queen.” He squeezed me again, this time hard. “Sleep.”

Oh dear.

Was that a sensitive subject?

Had I mucked things up?

“Do you not want to, erm…talk about that?”

“No. I will share anything with you. I will tell you all you wish to know about me. You but need to ask, and it’s yours. Though in the now, I want you to sleep, and I do it hoping you do not move much while in slumber, as if you do, we’ll both be hopelessly caught up in satin and I’ll likely have to call for my sword to slice through it to extricate us.”

I giggled.

“Thank the gods,” he whispered in a manner that I did not think he was referring to gratitude he’d made me laugh.

Therefore, I asked, “What?”

“This morning you were not yourself,” he answered. “It troubled me. All day, you were withdrawn. And it was not simply that you were weary, grieving Sofia, or times were trying. It seemed your light was out.” He fell deeper into me so I was nearly buried under him. “But your light is not out. And for that, I thank the gods.”

I’d tried but knew I had not fully hidden where my mind was all day, this being everywhere and none of it was good.

I did not know I had “a light.”

I found it both promising and disconcerting that he was as attuned to me as he was.

And simply lovely he thought I had “a light.”

“You’re not sleeping,” Mars noted.

“Well—”

“Your arse is in my groin. Your perfume in my nostrils. Our time in this bed last night fresh in my mind.” He gave me yet another squeeze, this time with a warning. “You need to sleep, Silence.”

Yes.

One could say with that warning I did, indeed, need to find sleep.

“All right, Mars,” I muttered, sighed, and closed my eyes.

I tried to even my breathing.

I tried to still my mind.

I thought I accomplished the first, but I did not accomplish the last.