He walks me deeper into the stone passage. Above us, the old masonry is dark and damp, somewhere a ghost would haunt, and there’s a dead-end alcove just off the main passage where the carriage path bends. Out of the sightline of either entrance.
He puts his back to the stone and pulls me in against him.
“I keep thinking he can smell you on me,” I whisper.
Mat’s hands move into my hair. “You did good. You handled it. You’re here. He doesn’t know anything.”
“Can you make me forget for a minute?”
I don’t even have to explain what I need. He understands me. He always has. His mouth finds mine, slow and warm, and the shaking in my hands starts to ease. He kisses me like Raymond doesn’t exist. Like I was made for Matvei alone and he was made for me, and everything that brought us here was n
