Page 150 of Of Rime and Ruin
He says nothing for a moment. Just stands there. I close my eyes as his scent catches in the wind, and my heart aches, missing him even as he stands so close.
“Sunfish, I…” He stops, shuffling his foot through the stones. A few trickle down the slope and skitter onto the ice. With a sigh, he sits, folding his large frame next to mine. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“I fucked up. I shouldn’t have asked Lucas to…” He runs a hand down his face, rubbing his jaw. “I was trying to protect you. Protect everyone. And when I hurt you… Nahla, I hurt you. You trusted me to care for you, to give you pleasure, and Ihurtyou. I couldn’t live with myself. So I fixed it in the only way I knew how. And I’m sorry it’s not what you wanted.”
Tears bead in my eyes, and my chest tightens. I reach for him, curling my hand around his bicep. “I know why you did it. I justwish you would have talked to me about it first. I could have figured something out, but it’s too late now.”
“Is it too late for you to forgive me?” he whispers, turning to look at me. His eyes are moist. The Frost King, getting teary for me. “Please, Sunfish. I don’t know what I’d do without you. My world is so much colder without you in it.”
Sadness pierces my heart with its icy rod. Pretty words can’t undo what he’s done. I cannot make him whole again. How can I pretend the Beast—and the emotional intimacy that came with our connection—isn’tgone? How can we move on from that?
He searches my face. “I have known nothing but frost and snow, yet sinceyouwandered in, I’m the warmest I’ve been all my life. You’ve thawed my frozen heart, and I’d melt the Rime if it’d make you mine again.”
I flick my gaze away, landing on the frozen sea. “Well, go ahead then.”
His brow knits in confusion. “Pardon?”
“Melt the Rime for me, Aethan, and I’m yours.”
I cross my arms. The wind kicks up, whipping through my hair. He reaches out, snatching a strand and tucking it away. He lingers on the shell of my ear as his eyes tighten.
Then he clears his throat. “All right.”
Aethan stands to his full height and removes his cloak, draping it over me. The warm leather interior rests heavily on my shoulders, soft fur brushing my cheeks. I fold into it as my heart races.
I was kidding. He doesn’t need to prove himself to me. But Aethan doesn’t know that.
With a serious glare, Aethan faces the frozen sea, plants his feet into the stones, and raises his hands. A deep, rumbling note emanates from him as his song builds, ricocheting through the night.
The earth trembles beneath him. A loud crack splits the ice, splintering out from where he stands. A chasm forms and water rushes in, swallowing the ice as it breaks into smaller and smaller pieces.
His arms grow rigid and flex with the strength of his spell. Veins ripple across his forearms, straining. He frowns with deep concentration. His Voice thunders louder still, vibrating through my body.
Shit.
He’s like a god, bending the sea to his will. My insides soften and warm until it takes all my restraint not to race across the beach and climb him like a sweetnut tree. I grasp the rocks to hold me in place as he finishes his spell.
He fucking did it.
As the last of the ice collapses, waves rush upon the beach with a hush of silver bubbles. Aethan turns to face me. Sweat dapples his brow. His shoulders sag with exertion. He searches my face for something, and when he finds it, a slow grin spreads on his lips.
“For you,” he whispers, “Nahla, I’d do anything. I hope you know that.”
I can’t contain myself any longer. I jump to my feet and tackle him with the full force of my affection. He catches me with a grunt and swallows me with his arms. His nose tucks into my hair and he inhales deeply.
I tip my head back so I can see his face. The depth of his eyes, searching mine as I search his. “You love me?” I breathe.
“With every crystal of my cold, bitter heart. I love you, Sunfish. I fucking love you.”
“I love you too—”
Before I can finish, his lips capture mine with a wild growl. We gasp and moan, devouring each other like starving animals. His hands twist in my hair as mine tangle in his. I pull him closer,needing more. My heart swells with passion and my skin cries out for his touch everywhere all at once.
We tumble to the ground, and I land on top of him. My fingers hurry to undo his shirt, hands sliding beneath the hem across the hard plane of his abdomen. His chest. He sits up and I tear the shirt away from him.
He kisses the length of my neck, the valley between my breasts. My shirt goes the way of his, soon forgotten. My skirt is next. His pants. I straddle him, naked, as his erection presses against my stomach.
