Page 50 of What Lies Within Blood & Heirs

“I…” He hesitated, rubbing the back of his neck without turning to her. “To check the storm.”

One more look at her and he would have completely come undone.

Her voice was torturous enough to walk away from, but if her eyes would have captured his one more time …

He needed to escape the barn. Clear his head. Center himself.

Garrik took one greedy scan of the winter sky as snowflakes flurried. Feeling the air warming enough that the chill did not send him rushing inside. To her.

Good.

But if he was entirely honest, he would have frozen out there so he would not do anything reckless. Anythingmorereckless …

That incredibly exquisite wonder inside was going to drive him to madness.

And he would fall to his knees and beg her to do it. Again and again. Until the madness consumed him and all that remained was her.

At that moment, he would have much preferred jumping in a lake to fight against returning, but it was too far.

One last glance around, Garrik’s eyes locked on the only thing that could keep him from storming inside, ripping the blanket off Alora, and worshiping her as he had promised himself he would do.

Garrik’s chest heaved in uneven breaths as he closed his dilated silver eyes.

And dove headfirst into a snowdrift.

When Alora woke, beams of sunlight replaced moonlight, illuminating the half-rotted bales and floating dust carried in from the broken rafters. A mix of willowherb and glacier lilies drifted insideon a phantom wind as the morning melody of spring trilled from the forest.

Alora couldn’t believe how soundly she’d slept. As if no threats loomed over their heads and impending war didn’t blight the future.

Warm. Safe.

Protected.

Protected by that peaceful presence of Elysian’s most savage.

Only gone for mere minutes, Garrik had returned freezing. His skin and hair slick with droplets of water before he had drifted under the blanket and tucked her tight against him. The moment his arms had curled around her, Alora’s head rested on his bicep and her legs had tangled between his before sleep found her almost too perfectly.

Something she never got sleeping with Kaine.

In the warmth of spring air, Alora closed her eyes and dreamed of the shape of Garrik’s lips. Of his incredible body aligned with hers. The touch of his hands. His tongue… Wishing she felt them again. Wanting to lay there forever. To never return to the camp or the kingdom or anywhere else. Just stay there, in his arms, in safety for the rest of her starsdamned life.

But even with the smile that traitorously crept up her face, a ruthless shiver prickled her skin.

Elysian’s High Prince.

Alora’s heart rose in her throat. Elysian’s High Prince had been with herlast night…Her.

Heart pounding, she fought off a wave of nerves, refusing to dwell on that swelling feeling deep inside her chest. Refusing whatever it meant—because itcouldn’tmean anything.

It couldn’t.

She refused to acknowledge the thoughts and feelings racing through her head. Refused the question that felt like she’d been thrown into his mother’s oceans with ten thousand pounds ofrocks in her gut. Sinking deeper and deeper until only those thoughts remained.

Now what?

Starsdamnit. She was thinking about it.

Biting her lower lip—remembering Garrik’s primal eyes. The way his body reacted to that simple little thing.

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