Page 78 of Possess Me at Midnight
My hoarse, warbled cry echoes around the room. A harsh male groan rumbles from Ice’s chest as he empties every bit of himself—breath, heart, seed—deep into me. I feel the warm rush of his seed and his very essence claiming me.
In this perfect, stolen moment, wrapped in his arms and tangled in our sheets, I glimpse what life as his mate could be. Not just the passion, but the bone-deep rightness of being with him, the way he makes me feel both cherished and powerful.
The realization should terrify me.
Instead, it fills me with a hunger that has nothing to do with magic and everything to do with my heart…which now belongs to him.
Wrapped in Ice’s arms, still trembling from our joining, the Binding words hover on my tongue like an unspoken prayer. I ache to speak them. But…I have to consider Bram.
Ice raises on his elbow and peers down into my face with eyes so green and tender, my heart melts all over again. “Princess, something ails your mind already?”
I force a smile. How simple it would be to tell him that I’ll become his mate. But there’s no sense deceiving myself. Getting my brother’s blessing will take time and require my most persuasive arguments because I want Bram’s approval. Giving up my family and all I’ve ever known for a wizard I’d never spoken to until a few days past, a man clearly haunted by secrets… It hardly makes sense. Yet every fiber of my being screams that he’s right—that what’s between us is right, despite all logic.
Again, I wish I had a wizard’s mating instinct. They have the luxury of knowing in a single taste if the female they’re with is right for them. Witches have nothing but their hearts. Still, something tugs at me, telling me that, without Ice, I’ll live a bleaker life.
“I don’t know what to do,” I confess. “About this. About us.”
Ice’s face turns guarded. “You know what I want. My wishes have not changed. But if you won’t Bind to me, say so. Then do what you need to.”
“I can’t make myself Renounce you. I’ve tried, for my brother’s sake.” Tears break my voice, and regret wells deep inside me, a burn in my chest I wish I could ignore. “But my heart…”
“Wants more than a loveless political marriage.” He cups my face. “You deserve so much more, princess. Become my mate. Everything else, we will work out together. But I will worship you until my dying breath.”
I stifle a cry. Ice makes the matter sound so simple. “I cannot do that to my brother. I owe him my respect and allegiance. He removed me from the clutches of a selfish mother. When I was six, she was already seeking to sell my future to the highest bidder, promising the most powerful wizards that I would mate with them or their sons upon my transition.”
He blanches before thunderous anger crosses his face. “You were a child! Bram rescued you?”
“Yes. Before he came for me, I had never met or heard of him. But I knew what my mother plotted, and it terrified me. Wizards who were five hundred years old or more, many of whom had acquired their power by nefarious means, all openly vying for the chance to mate with Merlin’s only granddaughter. They knew nothing of me, merely my bloodline.”
“I understand you owe Bram a great debt, yes, but the rest of your life?”
“Today, my brother may finally be well again.” I glance out the window to see pale edges of gray creeping through the lace-draped window. A fist-tight tension grips my stomach. Soon, I’ll know if the dark healer was able to save Bram. “Then I’m hoping to speak to him.”
With a sigh, Ice rolls away. “It won’t do any good.”
His reaction reminds me again that I know nothing about their enmity. “Why? Why do you hate each other so much?”
Ice rises and pads to the bathroom. His shoulders are rigid with tension, every line of his powerful body radiating hurt and frustration. I hear water splashing, then the sharp crack of his fist against tile. A muffled curse follows before he reappears, a white towel wrapped around his waist.
Suddenly, I feel exposed, too naked. I grab the bedsheet and cover myself.
“He will never let you mate with a Deprived, especially me,” Ice growls. “I’ve been foolish to hope, but?—”
“How do you know that? If I tell him you make me happy, maybe he’ll listen. I’ve never seen my brother treat anyone differently because of their birth.”
“Then you haven’t seen the true Bram.”
My brother, prejudiced against the Deprived? The man who’s spent decades fighting for their rights behind closed Council doors?
No. How can there be a side of Bram I’m unaware of? He raised me, protected me, shared his ambitions with me. I know my brother. Ice is the one who doesn’t.
With that ugly accusation, Ice returns to the bathroom and slams the door. I scowl and bound from the bed, before dashing across the room. I’m determined to unravel this issue. But when I lift the latch to the door, it’s locked. I could let myself in with a bit of magic, but Ice has spoken without uttering a word. I won’t invade his privacy, no matter how desperately I ache for answers.
Besides, dawn is breaking, painting the room in a pale gray light. I need to check on my brother after he spent the night with Shock’s dark healer and face whatever awaits me—whether that’s Bram’s recovery…or a catastrophic loss.
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
