Page 86 of Of Rime and Ruin
We’re lying in a nest of furs, in the dead of night. Our legs tangled together. I press my toes into his leather-clad calf, spreading them to take full advantage of his warmth.
He hisses through his teeth.
“Did we make camp?” I ask.
“Yes. Hours ago. You slept most of the day, after you got settled.” Then he drops his voice low and adds, “Don’t know how.”
The wind howls outside, shrieking against a hollow bowl of ice. I lift my head and survey the cramped shelter. A snow-packed ceiling forms a dome overhead, curving into walls that meet the ground. The bed is in the center of a small round room. Moonlight streams through the tunnel that branches off the sleeping area, just large enough to crawl through. The cold does not reach us here.
The king must have summoned this shelter, thank the gods. That wind is fucking brutal. If not for the chill it brings, I could have made it on my own. I was prepared. I had a cloak, pants, and a thick wool sweater.
But it wasn’t enough. And he needed to save my sorry ass.
My ears burn with embarrassment as I recall our little ride in his saddle today. I press my hands to my breasts. They’re still bare. His pupils widen with hunger, watching me. Warmth floods my center. This whole body-heat-keeps-you-warmer thing is messing with my head.
“Am I still hypothermic?”
His brows knit, and his arms tighten around my waist. “You’re not chattering like a rattlefish, so that’s a good sign.”
“So we can give up this charade?”
He chuckles, the sound reverberating through me. “I’m afraid not,” he says.
“Why not?” I press. If I’m better, then I no longer need his chivalry. I pat the furs, swinging my arm wide to locate my sweater in the dark. He catches my wrist and folds me against his chest, where his chin nuzzles the top of my head as he holds me.
“Nahla,” he cautions.
I shiver at my name dropping from his lips like a forbidden sweet. The scales rise along the base of my spine.
“Bestill,” he says through clenched teeth. I wiggle one more time, for spite, andoh.
His erection presses through his tight leather pants. Yesterday’s words float from my foggy hypothermic memory:When I fuck you, and Iwillfuck you, Nahla. I’ll fuck you the way you deserve.
I can’t help the mewl that escapes my mouth. That wasn’t a dream. And now the Frost King holds me half-naked in his arms, all evidence of his arousal prodding me.
His hand slides up my spine, brushes my neck, and tightens around my hair. “Make that sound again,” he growls.
“Is that an order?” Desire builds deep in my gut, twisting around the base of my spine. Drawn by the magnetism of his presence, I arch my back, and my nipples brush his chest. A ripple of excitement flutters in the pit of my stomach.
“I want you, Sunfish. To bend you over till you’re soft and crooning and begging for more.” His breath spills over my face, tinged with the sweet peppermint smell I’ve come to crave. “No more defiance. No more trouble.Mine.”
My body responds to his claim with a shiver of delight. Wetness slicks my thighs, and I clench them together. My breath comes in a harsh, uneven rhythm. Desperate for him to make good on all his promises. A hot ache burns in my throat as I stare into his eyes, seeing him with full certainty.
The curve of his lips, the quirk of his irritated mouth, it’s all the same. The Beast’s scales, the king’s temper, his fear of the water. That fucking nickname.Sunfish.There can be no other explanation.
The king and the Beast, they’re the same.
I don’t know how or why, but it’s him. The kind, generous, cocky fool of a Beast—it’shim. He’s in there somewhere. And I’ll make it my life’s new mission to drag him out of his self-made cage.
He tightens his fingers in my hair, yanking my attention. “Tell me no,” he demands. There, swimming in his hardenedexpression, is a splash of careful uncertainty, that wild hope—a glimpse of the soul I’ve waded deep within.
“Do your worst,” I whisper.
With the brute force of the Beast, he rolls me. My back presses into the furs. He yanks my hands above my head, holding my wrists together. His muscular frame looms over me in the darkness, a shadow hovering out of reach. A familiar shiver of awareness traces the length of my body as I lie before him, on display.
His Voice rumbles deep in his chest, and his eyes glow. A thin tendril of ice slips through his lips, threading through the air to wrap around my wrists. He freezes them to the ground. I tug against the cuffs, thrashing with theatrics. In the dim light, his white teeth glint as he grins.
“You’re trouble, aren’t you, Princess?” His knees settle on either side of my hips, caging me in as his erection presses against my heat, and I feel him lengthen within the leather.Oh gods.His cool hands slide over my belly, leaving a wake of rising scales. I shudder as his thumbs stroke the undersides of my breasts. “I’ve wanted to do this since I saw you in that night-robe.”
