XLVI

Illarion's breaths were ragged. His back was shivering cold, but his body was sweating as if he was hot, and his hands were shaking uncontrollably.

"Are you all right?" Amanda asked worriedly. The candlelight hit his pale face on the nightstand. He was creating a beautiful silhouette on a shabby mossy wall.

Illarion's eyes gleamed at the soothing, serene face, and Amanda was immersed in the man's broad chested arms with one embrace.

"Sir?" Amanda squirmed in the man's arms, begging him to breathe. But Illarion's shaking hands behind Amanda's back and his ragged breaths in the crook of her neck seemed to say, 'I'm scared.'

Amanda brushed the hair above Illarion's nape with her slender fingers gently. 'Everything's fine…,' she said but only inwardly, not daring to utter any reassuring words for Illarion. 'Inappropriate, I am a girl who does not deserve to comfort him.'

But that only made Illarion's embrace even more intense. The firm grip on the girl made Amanda's breath even tighter. T