Page 52 of Dare

He breathed harshly. “Cut off my sleeves.”

Because the request sounded like a command, I snatched my dagger. “How about I take your arms with them?”

The prince squinted, not understanding me. “Just do as I say.”

All the same, I knew what he intended. My dagger pared through the fancy material. Threads popped from the seams and bared his arms, hunks of muscle rippling into view. With every movement, those ridges flexed as if he were made of boulders instead of flesh.

My gaze lingered. Worse, my traitorous stomach flipped.

The prince caught me looking. His pupils flickered, the effect there and gone quickly.

“Not me,” he rasped when I moved to dress his wound. “Divide the sleeves into strips and use them to wrap your injuries.”

I stalled, confused. This man couldn’t possibly care about my wellbeing over his own. Maybe it was because I had more cuts than he did, and as a doctor, he was being practical.

In any case, nursing myself would undo the rainforest’s work. So, no.

Tuning out his grunts admonishing me to obey him, I wound the cloth around his leg. As I bent my head to the task, I felt his attention stray to my fingers, his fixation making me restless. Although I’d never been intimidated by him before, now I understood how potently he affected this continent. For such an arctic monster, this man’s stare burrowed deeply.

With so little space from the rain, securing a knot became difficult. Left with no choice, I swung my leg over his lap, keeping my knees bent so that I hovered inches above his frame.

An intake of breath diced from the prince’s lungs. Heat rose from his skin and brushed my inner thighs, my flesh grazing the edges of his pants, my breasts hanging inches from his pecs.

I grimaced, appalled to be this near to him. Yet that wasn’t the only thing I felt. Of its own volition, my body simmered as though someone had lit a match in the humid space between us.

The prince could have shoved me away, but he must have understood the reason I’d straddled him. He went still, allowing me to work quickly. But although I avoided making contact with his bare flesh, my digits faltered against him at one point, the brush of our skin thrusting a hot buzz up my thighs.

Finished, I pulled away. While rain drummed against the treetops, droplets licked a path between my collarbones, and something candid stoked his features.

To my revulsion, the same blasted upheaval from the fig episode resurfaced. Heat seared the cleft between my thighs, agitation throbbing in the folds of my pussy. I swallowed my disgust, and he watched my throat move, his nostrils flaring.

Slowly, his eyes scanned my body, counting the slashes. Then his gaze lifted, the irises sizzling. “I need to check them.”

A trade. His aid in exchange for my help. While the rainforest had done nothing I hadn’t wanted, this would put us on equal footing.

Except when I gave a brisk nod of consent, he spoke in a gritty tone. “Closer.”

21

Flare

Closer.

My pulse jolted in tune with the lightning. The prince glowered as if that word nauseated him. But since the feeling was mutual, we had nothing to worry about.

I could handle this. I could withstand his proximity for a moment.

On bended knees, I sidled into him, yet it wasn’t enough. That much was clear from his annoyed huff. Without looking away, he set his fingers on my hips, the contact pumping me with adrenaline. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea—

I gasped as he jerked me forward, my ass crashing onto his lap, the motion prying my knees apart, my steepled legs gripping his waist. Slabs of muscle radiated under me, around me, against me. Like this, he checked the cuts on my skin, scrutinizing every gash, the magnitude of his gaze funneling to the rift between my legs.

Queasiness assaulted me, born of repulsion and something else, a primal need I hadn’t experienced since Rune. Except this felt harsher, fiercer.

Satisfied with his inspection, the prince craned his head. And our eyes collided. His irises flashed like quicksilver, scorn and spite clashing.

But there was more. Another impulse intruded, hectic and covetous, the combination so potent my head swam.

Shit. Oh, shit.

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