Free Web NovelChapter 163: Chapter 163
Circe woke in a cold sweat, her heart thundering in her chest as though it wanted to tear its way out. Fear gripped her so tightly that she could barely breathe, forcing her to take sharp, uneven gasps just to steady her racing pulse. Her hair clung damply to her skin as she bolted upright, eyes darting about the room.
Her thoughts churned as she tried to recall the details from the dream she just woke from. But it was blurring fast, and was slipping through her hands like sand.
She tried to recount all the details before it became nothing more than a blurry mess in her mind.
The dream had felt too real, like she just finished reliving a moment from the past that she had no recollection of. Memories that she never knew existed.
It was true that there had been a time in the past when her brother, Torben, had come close to dying but Circe didn’t remember ever sneaking into the physician’s workstation to see him nor did she remember seeing those glowing threads that haunted her.
The dreams had stopped after she found that dead rabbit with Rowen in the garden and for a while, she had allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief, thankful for the respite it gave her for the time being when she didn’t have to wake up disoriented each night.
But now that it was back, she wasn’t sure if her subconscious was playing tricks on her or if it was her mind’s way of trying to fill in the blanks by pushing locked and forgotten memories to the surface.
The room was dimly lit and the only source of illumination was from the flames of the flickering candles. It was just enough for her to see the person sitting on the armchair a short distance away.
Ragnar’s head was thrown back, his eyes closed as he no doubt endured what was sure to be another night of uncomfortable sleep.
She found his presence in the room with her to be oddly reassuring, like nothing could possibly touch her with him sitting only a short distance away.
In that very moment, she felt anchored knowing that there was someone else in the room with her. Though it was hard to tell if it was the sight of another person that calmed her racing pulse or if it was him and the effect he was starting to have on her.
And as she continued to focus on him, her initial fear melted away and was replaced with something entirely different as she felt a pang in her chest.
The feeling that seeped into her chest was one that resembled sympathy but it also wasn’t it. It was something even worse than that, something she never thought she would be feeling when it came to Ragnar two months ago.
It wasn’t like she had forced him to take up sleeping on the chair each night. If he wasn’t so stubborn and just let her have one of the guest rooms, he could go back to having his bed all to himself.
He was a grown man capable of making his own decisions and he had chosen to keep her close at the expense of his own comfort. That was no one else’s fault but his.
" Is there a reason you are watching me like that, princess?" Ragnar spoke suddenly and it was such a shock that Circe almost jumped out of her skin.
Her eyes widened. She thought he was asleep. frёewebnoѵēl.com
How long had he been awake? Did she somehow wake him when she jerked awake from her dream?
"I usually don’t appreciate being gawked at but I can make an exception for you." He said, turning to glance at her. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
Circe felt heat creep up her cheeks.
" I wasn’t gawking." She tried to argue. The dim lighting barely illuminated his entire body but she was still able to make out the smirk he unashamedly wore on his face.
" Then what were you doing?" He asked, and Circe could hear the teasing lilt in his voice.
Her lips parted to argue some more.
" I was just..." She started but soon trailed off when she realized that she had nothing to say in her defense. So she decided to change the topic instead to distract him from probing further. " Why aren’t you asleep?"
Ragnar immediately saw straight through what she was doing and her poorly executed deflection but chose to play along instead. Anything to keep her talking to him, anything to keep her mind from wandering back to the restless sleep she just woke up from.
It seemed like they had both set out to distract each other.
" The same reason you are." Ragnar answered. "I couldn’t get comfortable enough."
Even in the almost dark, she could still feel the weight of his gaze on her. It wasn’t heavy or stifling. It was like a tender caress against her exposed skin.
" You don’t have to sleep on the chair if you don’t want to." Circe said, unaware of the trap she had just walked into.
" Is that an invitation to join you on the bed?" He asked and for the second time that night, Circe’s eyes widened.
How on earth did he even make that leap? There was nothing in her words that could have been misconstrued into an invitation and yet somehow he had still done the impossible.
It wasn’t until she heard him chuckling that she realized that he was joking but it didn’t stop her heart from skipping a beat at just the thought of laying beside him each night.
She quickly shook away the thought before it could gain root in her mind. This was why she had to put a stop to whatever this was between them. It gave the traitorous part of her mind free rein to entertain foolish thoughts like this.
" But I do miss sleeping on a bed." Ragnar said, sounding wistful.
" Then get a bed. You can buy a hundred beds if you want to."
"But according to you, I was teetering close to destitution." Came Ragnar’s retort and Circe bit her lip, a smug smile taking over her face when she recalled how she had tormented him after he commissioned all those dresses for her.
