Page 61 of Prince of the Sun

“No, what?”

“No, partying and boating and fighting is not my favorite thing to do.”

I pause, blinking in the rain. “This is?”

“Yes, Quinn.” His arms snake around my waist, pulling me flush to his body. It’s only then that I realize he must be tall enough to stand on the ground, feet sunk in the soft earth. “This is.”

My legs wrap around his waist. Daerios lays one hand at the crook of the neck, pulls me in, and kisses me. It’s rich and tender, his lips moving against mine as if trying to speak the unspeakable. As if their soft curves could whisper silent secrets. I press in deeper, trying to say that I hear him, that I want to know, that I want to knoweverything.

And then Daerios pulls back, laying his forehead against mine. I don’t open my eyes. His breath drifts over me, a mixture of vanilla and pine. Pressed up to his chest, I feel like an uncut diamond. Rough and shimmering, hiding a deeper beauty, thepossibility to become something more.

He whispers, “We can’t leave.”

“Hm?” I’m hazy. I’m dust in his arms.

“We can’t ride back to campus. It’s too dangerous.”

This gets my attention. “What?” I pull back, leaving my arms and legs wrapped around his body.

“The storm isn’t clearing up. And even if it were, we couldn’t spend an hour riding Vorrok after a swim in this water. You’d risk falling ill.”

I let go of him, paddling furiously at the water. “And you didn’t think to tell me thatbeforeyou let me charge into the lake?”

Daerios shrugs, that hellish smirk quirking one edge of his mouth.

“Fine, then.” I turn away from him, paddling back to the dock. This waterdoesfeel cold, now that I think about it. “I’ll call us an Uber.”

“No chance of getting an Uber out here,” says Daerios. “Trust me; I’ve looked before.”

“Oh,haveyou?” Placing both hands on the wood, I push myself up and swing one leg onto its surface, then the other. “When? With all the other girls you’ve seduced into coming out here before?” As soon as the words leave my mouth, my heart coils with the possibility of their truth. What if Iamjust another girl he’s brought here on some weird façade of a date?

But when I turn around to glare down at him, Daerios is frowning. “I’ve never brought anyone else out here before.”

“Well, aren’t I special?” I spin around and stomp over to my clothes, which lay in a conspicuous pile beside his. “How the hell are we supposed to get back to campus, Daerios? We’ve just as much a chance of getting sick and dying by sleeping in the rain as we do riding through it.”

“Well…”

Daerios pauses for so long after speaking this single word that I turn to look at him, pants dangling from my fist. He’s out of the lake now, water dripping in thick rivulets down his muscled body and silk briefs. One hand scratches the back of his head as he stares into the distance. He looks so exquisite I could punch him.

“Well, what?” I demand, ignoring the heat gathering in my stomach again.

“There is another option. Besides returning to campus or sleeping outside.”

“What’s that?” I ask, then my mind flicks to Daerios and I accepting the room key at some Massachusetts hotel, and I officially want to die.

“I own a cabin here.”

For a moment, I’m too shocked to speak. Then, I repeat, “A cabin.”

“Yes. It’s like a home, but in the woods?”

“I know what a cabin is.” Rain slips down the fuming red of my cheeks. “What the hell, Daerios? Have you been plotting this the whole time?”

“Me?” One hand to chest, eyelashes fluttering. “Of course not. How could I have planned a rainstorm?”

I throw up my arms. “I don’t know! You’re an elf. Elves can do anything, as you so love to remind us humans.”

“I assure you, we are not meteorologists.”