Page 37 of My Hexed Honeymoon

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I’ma bumbling teenager on prom night, not sure when to whip it out.

Not it,it.

It doesn’t help that my heightened senses mean I hear every rustle of Talia’s sleeping bag and the steadily increasing chatter of her teeth.

I thought dinnertime had been cold—and that was with a crackling fire and warm stew in our bellies. Talia ate her food with the type of grim countenance reserved for funeral processions, and without Riven to fill in the blank spaces and pretend we were three friends on a weekend getaway, there was a devastating finality to her silence.

Talia was done with me.

Which is why I’m hesitating to whip out the fact that I can easily get her to stop shivering if she’ll allow me to lend her some of my body heat—just for survival reasons, like warding off hypothermia.

Although my mind’s been plenty occupied with the kind of naked, sordid heat we could generate together…

Greatly complicated by her hatred of me, I wish that were enough to keep me from wanting Talia’s body unceasingly. These past few days have been torture.

We’d only spoken a handful of words since the ax-throwing contest, and she’d used most of hers to undermine my authority in front of my men, insisting on being in on a meeting about pack business and playing the mate card.

So, while she was all huffed breaths, rolled eyes, and giving nonverbal answers with a nod or shake of her head, she wasn’t the only one who was pissed off and regretting all their life choices.

Primarily the one where we got fucking married.

I never asked for her to be my mate. The obstinate, infuriating woman had insinuated her way into my life—into being my bride—and I resented the hell out of her for it.

She drove me crazy, to the point I could hardly focus on anything else as we tromped and climbed our way through untamed forest.

I hated the way she stormed ahead of me on our hikes like she had something to prove, too. Not only was she too slow and weak to be the leader, half the time she also started off in the wrong direction.

Did that prevent her from doing it again the next time we took off? Nope.

And when she fell behind and was obviously struggling, would she let me help by carrying her for a while? Also, no, while glaring at me like she’d shoot me full of silver bullets if she could.

Then there was the way she constantly stopped to readjust her bun. As if she couldn’t do it while walking, because it took too much focus.

We’d all have to come to a complete and utter stop so Talia could stretch up her arms and arch her back, the fabric pulling taut across her breasts as she gathered all that golden hair into a nest of messy curls.

And I’d be stuck sporting wood, adjusting my crotch and pretending I wasn’t staring at the curve of her ass or the line of her neck. Definitely not noticing the way her shirt would ride up, revealing a tantalizing stripe of pale skin.

Inevitably, Riven would catch me looking and raise their damn, almost-invisible eyebrows like we were buddies in the locker room, nudging elbows over ogling my sexpot wife.

Jealousy churned through me like a washer that’d never finish cleaning.

She’smine.

I thought it every single time I caught Riven admiring Natalia, but it’s not just the vampire spurring on my possessive streak.

I’m not even sure it’s even the bond anymore, but I like the idea of that a lot better.

“This is ridiculous. I can’t have you freezing to death on my watch,” I mutter, finally breaking the silence. Well, save the swish of noisy fabric every time she shifts or shivers, which is every single second, and Ineedto get her warm now.

Like on a primordial level, I can’t listen to her endanger herself any longer.

“And who s-says arranged m-marriages aren’t romantic?”

I shoot her a look across the tiny distance, but it’s dark enough I doubt she can see it clearly. “You can climb inside with me, where it’s already warm, or I can come to you. Make a decision.”

My pulse picks up speed at the rustle of nylon, and then Talia’s dark outline scoots closer, until she’s right next to me.

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