With a shaking hand, Snow slipped one hand under his chemise and lifted it over his head. He’d never been bared in front of anyone but the betas who served him in the castle, and most definitely not a virile alpha in his prime. Once his chemise floated towards the floor, he untied his short braies and allowed them to slide down his hips and puddle around his ankles.
Vor stared at him with a hunger Snow had never witnessed before but knew on sight. He sensed he’d be consumed, mind, body, and soul, if he’d allow it. Maybe even if hedidn’tallow it—though any denials he spoke would be lies.
Just him giving the façade of being a good, chaste prince.
Was he still a prince, though? Perhaps not after he’d run away from death itself. He’d left that life behind and been reborn in a new one. What that new life would become, he wasn’t sure. All he did feel certain of, that new life was tied to this alpha in some way.
“Come,”Vor demanded, his voice deeper and rougher than Snow had yet heard.
The roughness of it rubbed against him, sending spirals of need throughout his body. Vor held out an expectant hand, bidding him to near. When Snow didn’t move, he lifted a brow in challenge.
“Come,”Vor barked.
Snow moved before he even realized he had. He reached for Vor’s hand as he stepped into the tub, steadying himself as lifted his foot high over the edge. The tub was massive—though it looked smaller because of the giant inside it. Snow struggled a bit to enter. Vor was only too eager to help.
Before Snow could sit down across from the man, Vor led him closer, placing him between those huge, muscled thighs. Vor’s hard staff pressed against his lower back, throbbing with life.
“We need to wash all your wounds, so they don’t fester,” Vor murmured, soaping a clean cloth.
When the cloth landed on his shoulder, Snow startled. Vor’s touch was again tender as he washed Snow’s back, but the touch was too much all the same. Overwhelmed, he closed his eyes and focused on the breath coming in and out of his lungs, prayingfor control over his senses. Opening them, he thought he’d mastered his emotions. He was dead wrong.
“I’m not a child. I can wash my own body,” Snow insisted as his eyelids grew heavier with each swipe of Vor’s large hand.
He didn’treallywant to do it himself. Vor’s hand massaged as it cleansed him, relaxing him as it traveled. It felt incredible in its wickedness. The virtuous thing to do would be to stop him.
Snow wasn’t feeling very virtuous, though.
“I assumed that Snow White, Prince of Kleeves-Burgh, would be accustomed to being tended to by others.”
Snow looked over his shoulder at the hulking alpha. “You know who I am?”
“I knowofyou. And many other little pampered princes just like you.”
Snow glared at Vor. “I’m far from pampered.”
“Do you not live in a castle? Served by others?”
“Yesss,”Snow hissed, impudent. He winced. “No longer, though. I’m dead to all who knew me.”
“I’d wager your father is searching for you even now. We may hear a knock upon our door at any second,” Vor said, gently splashing water to rinse the soap from Snow’s body. “And you’ll sleep in your own bed tonight.”
Instead of mine…
Vor didn’t say that, but the implication of those words hung as heavily as the steam wafting around them. He saw it in the deep,growing blackness centered in Vor’s silver eyes, the yawning abyss calling to him.
They told him to surrender, the pleasures he could have that night unfathomable.
“Doubtful,” Snow replied, almost glad to relay the following news. “My father has gone to forge a truce with the Duke of Fuelders before the spring planting.”
“The spring planting should’ve already happened, should it not? Spring is around the corner.”
“There have been petty skirmishes along our border with Fuelders for months—which father says impacted our last harvest in the region. It’s made the farmers along that border leery of planting, fearing their fields will be burned and crops lost. We cannot allow another harvest to suffer or our people might starve.” Snow sighed. “Father left just yesterday and planned to be gone a fortnight or more.”
A smile tickled at the corners of Vor’s lips. “So you’re ours for at least a fortnight, you say?”
Snow fought a smile of his own. “Ours? I belong tonoalpha, let alone seven.”
Vor dragged him closer, lifting him until they were eye-to-eye. “But you wish to, do you not? To belong to me… if only for a night or two?”
