Page 85 of Of Rime and Ruin
Her responding smile is as bright as the sun. “Thought so.” I could dissolve in that expression and I’d die happy.
With the last push of my self-control, I release my hold. Grab the reins. I squeeze my heels, urging the snowbear faster. The sooner we make camp, the better. Cold wind bites at my face as I tear my gaze away from her. Focus on the horizon. The stretching white plains. The teetering rump of the snowbear ahead of me in line.
Anything to distract me from the female in my lap, dragging her nails on the skin of my back.
Nahla is my prisoner. Someone else’s princess. Fucking her would be wrong. I could lose control, explode into the raging Beast. I could hurt her. Maul her.Or worse.
But of this much I’m certain: resisting her will be my undoing.
The animal jostles beneath me, and Nahla’s legs shift. With a growl, I snare her waist. Trap her against me.
“Still.”
“N-no,” she whispers, tucking her nose into my skin. She inhales and moans quietly. “That s-s-smell. I c-can’t.”
My ears burn with rejection. I’ve always found her smell to be intoxicating. Enchanting. The fucking bane of my existence. It’s ridiculous to expect the same to be true for her. “You’ll have to deal with my scent, sorry. I can’t fix that.”
She shakes her head, dragging the tip of her nose across my chest. “Ilikeit.”
My stomach drops. “Oh.”
“It’s soothing.” She wiggles again, nudging right into my erection. Finally, she grows still. “Oh,” she says. “I’m sorry, are you…?”
“Don’t worry about it,” I growl, clenching my teeth.
She lifts her head with searching eyes. “I thought you hated me.”
“Nahla, there’s an objectively attractive female sitting half-naked on my cock. What did you expect?”
A wry smile spreads her lips. “The terrible Frost Kingdoeshave feelings,” she says.
“And the troublesome Brine Princess is immune?” As I hold her gaze, I slide my hand down her back to circle the crest of her thigh. She trembles in my arms as my fingers itch and crawl over her tight travel leathers, reaching for the heat that tempts me so. My thumb brushes the seam of her pants.
It’s soaked through.
She inhales. Her eyes flood with need.
“I’m not the only one.” I bring my thumb down, retracing my path. Her smile falters, and she whimpers. Her hips tilt and she presses into my touch. “Admit it, Princess. You want me.”
She grinds her hips into me, slowly, with devastating pressure. I grip her ass. Hard. Pressing her into me as she grinds once more. Twice. She gasps, and her eyelashes flutter. Her body tightens and arches, bending to her need. And then I release her.
She moans. “More.”
I lean closer until my lips brush her ear. “When I fuck you,” I begin. “And Iwillfuck you, Nahla. But not like this. I’ll fuck you the way you deserve.”
“And what do I deserve, Aethan?” she whispers.
Warmth blooms through my chest. I inhale the scent of her hair—sunshine and snow—and commit it to my memory. Because there’s no going back, once the truth tumbles from my mouth. My lips move, forming the words. “Everything I can give.”
Chapter thirty-six
Nahla
Iburrowmyfacedeeper into the snowbear’s fur, press my frigid feet and fingers into her blubbery skin. She growls and squirms, wrenching from my grasp. I pursue her relentlessly, searching with my toes for her warmth.
“Dammit, Nahla,” a deep voice rumbles in my ear. “Be still.”
I open my eyes to a smooth male chest. My fingertips scour the surface of him, tracing the rough topography of his scars—not a snowbear then. A Frost King. I tilt my face and meet his darkened grimace.
