continued from x:
@unchainedgiant
In the dark warmth of their bedchamber, lit only by firelight, she was a vision. Sawyer watched the light playing off her hair, her cheek, glinting in her black eyes as she compelled his gaze, even as her words sank in like daggers. Not the revelation that she had lived and loved before him -- that was no surprise, though admittedly his heart seized a little at the thought of anyone else possessing hers -- but the promise she asked of him.
He sank against her, noses grazing as their foreheads touched. It always amazed him, even now, how small her hands were; how easily his could envelop them.
“I’m sorry. You’ve lost your share of people,” he murmured. “As have I. A brother, a father, more friends than I can count. War took almost everything I have, everything I hold dear.”
Bracing himself, he pulled back just enough for their eyes to meet. “But I still have you, and our home. This life we’ve built together. And I’d do anything to protect it, Elain. Just as any Northman should. I can’t sit by and watch other men go off to die for their homes, their families, while I stay behind like a coward. I don’t have that right. Please --” Drawing in a short breath, he gave his head a hard shake and forced himself to continue. “Please. Do not ask me to make promises I cannot keep.”
