Page 70 of A Bride for the Winter King
“Told you so.”
The sizzle in her impetuous gaze goes directly to my cock, and my heart beats in my throat as I give chase, sinking inside the hot spring until only my head pokes out of the surface. We play cat and mouse around the small natural pool, Lori always staying one step ahead. My ice magic is too dangerous to use inside the healing springs—not if I don’t want to ruin their properties for centuries to come.
She splashes water in my eyes with the heel of her palm, and the giggle that escapes her as I rub my face off with a dignified huff wrecks me. Still laughing, she lets me catch her.
My chest heaves in victory as I wrap my arms around her slippery form, caging her in. Smooth, wet skin glides against mine.
“You should see your face. It’s like you’ve never played tag in the water before,” she says.
Every movement makes her breasts brush deliciously against my torso, and a dark chuckle rumbles through my body. “I didn’t have that kind of childhood, I’m afraid.”
Her scent tickles my nose, a subtle aroma both elusive and dark, as if she's part human, part shadow. Goosebumps rise on her skin as I drag her back to the shallows, settling her gently onto my lap.
The sight of her chest—bare and wet—destroys the rest of my good intentions.
With a defeated sigh, she presses her forehead to mine. “I thought you never wanted to touch me again.”
The broken promise riddles me with doubts and self-loathing, but I need this. “I changed my mind.” I trace her back, mesmerized by the shape of her spine.
Her mouth finds mine, warm from the springs and yet tormented, like she battles the same demons I do. She tastes like the embers of the fire that blazes inside of her, and I long for her to burn me the way she did in the hall of mirrors.
This…intimacy could choke me. I’d rather turn it into sex. Sex, I know how to navigate. I can make her feel good.
I spread her thighs so she’s straddling me and caress the valley between her breasts up and down. “As long as we’re here and naked… Might as well make the most of it.”
She lets out a low, frustrated grunt. “I almost died of frostbite. I’m not in the mood.”
I caress the underside of her breasts in turn. Her nipples are taut and dark, begging to be kissed. “No?”
Like all mortals, she lies. She lies and never stops to think of the damage it does around her, and I can’t forgive her for that. We’re no longer strangers or enemies, but we could never become more than we are now, reluctant allies who lust for eachother because of some annoyingly persistent magic. There are a million reasons for me to stop this from happening again.
She shouldn’t even be here, all mortals are banned from the Ice City.
She risked her life to save mine.
She looks exactly like my dead wife.
She’s a spider, and I still don’t know what she’s after.
No matter what, I can’t marry her.
I don’t deserve this.
Some of these reasons sting more than others. A few have become so deeply ingrained in my soul, they might as well be part of my flesh. Yet none seem sufficient to rob me from hearing Lori cry out my name in pleasure. We’ve already crossed the line once; a second faux pas won’t change the fact that I have to marry any one of them but her.
It might make it harder to walk away,a small voice whispers in the back of my mind. Walk away now before you start to care.
Our gazes lock, and Lori tightens her hold on my neck like she sensed my hesitation. Her eyes are so expressive and wide and open… I want to learn their language. Her fingers travel to my shoulder, her thumb resting in the small dip beneath my collarbone. Whether she intends to pull me closer or push me away, I can’t tell.
We’re tethering on the edge of a precipice so deep I fear we’ll never reach the ground.
I’m terrified that if we tip over, we’ll just fall and fall and fall. Fall so thoroughly and for so long that we’ll start to think we can fly.
But death will be waiting. Death is patient, if not merciful.
Walk away now. Walk away while you still have the chance, or it’ll hurt more when you do. Your duty is to the kingdom. To the souls. You can’t falter now.
You can’t change your destiny, Elio. You still have to marry someone else.
