Page 197 of Winter Gods & Serpents

He could drain air out of your lungs staring at you alone, the closeness of our bodies a drug that had me desperate for more. I didn’t like his pretty words, I loved them. I took a deep inhale. “Does this mean we will not get to sacrifice a human either, or ask for Henah to be our witness?”

He threw his head back and howled in laughter, harder than I’d ever heard him laugh before. I wanted to eat him and that laugh alive.

I gripped his jaw, hovering my lips just above his. “I would have devoured you.”

“You already have.” He grazed his lips over mine just a little, barely a touch, but was enough to make me gasp. My pulse shifting in agitation to claim him.

I cried out a little whine. “I want you inside me and out, and everywhere.”

He ran a hand down my spine, that tease truly unravelled me fully. His lips quirking to a smile, probably knowing what he did to me. “If you still need that hand, do let me know.”

I slapped his shoulder repeatedly. “Put me down before I damn you and your righteousness.”

He held me tighter. “Do we have a deal? I have you like this till then, no pushing away now that you know my feelings for you.”

“You and your bloody deals,” I groaned, and he laughed again. I would not push him away, especially now that I knew how he felt for me. After a few moments of processing and his doe eyes softened in a plea, I kissed his maddening chin and said, “Deal.”

He slapped my bottom and put me down before reaching to lace his fingers with mine. “Bed.”

“Oh yes, the ground here is fine too.”

His large body shook in silent chuckles. “You need to sleep.”

“Can do, right after.”

He ran his free hand over his eyes and gave me a look. “You are making it hard.”

“Good, it has to be, otherwise I’d worry.”

He no longer held it in, his laughter travelled almost all over Arynth. I loved that sound, my body did too. After he was almost in tears from laughter, he gathered me close, and kissed my brow. “Be good now.”

I stuck my bottom lip out at him. “But I am…good.” I fluttered my lashes in innocence. “Care to find out?”

He bit his lip tight. “That is the last I will say, or you will ruin me.” Before I could utter another word he covered my mouth with his large hand and with the other picked me up in his arms like a little child and made toward the house.

He delivered me to my bedroom door and then slowly retreated away from me. He’d made it to the end of the corridor thrice before returning back, and ultimately the fourth time he’d truly left. He had left me there for a few seconds in a daze, savouring the prickling his voice sent down my spine, the warmth and feel of his lips on my skin. The image of them over my own sending a hot flush pooling on my stomach, till my anger started boiling in buckets. I muttered curses from heavens to this realm for the bastard that had taunted and pulled my strings to madness, only to leave me empty. Twice, no, three times he had left me like a gawking idiot, and I had let him, what was becoming of me, a fool. I had become a helpless fool. Why had I not kissed him myself? Bloody heavens, I had now agreed to a deal of doing none of that. I’d become a saint, maybe I should join a monastery, shave my head, and let cobwebs dangle between my legs. Nia will be proud of me at least. Oh hells, Nia. She would never let this go.

I startled to a halt once she popped her head out of my bathroom chambers, grinning like a cat.

“Do not, I warn you,” I threatened.

She hoped jollily on my bed and propped her head on her hand. “Tell me all, tell me why you are not keeping the whole of Arynth awake riding him to daylight.”

I frowned at her oddness. “Since when doesn’t it bother you, to discuss about that?”

“Since now, I like you with him. So?”

“We made a deal.”

Her smile dropped. “A what now?”

“We agreed to not do that or even…kiss.”

There was a moment of silence and then she cackled aloud, the room almost begun to shake. “Heavens and he got you to agree? You?” she emphasized in a loud shock.

“Yes, he was right, I think I’d not be able to forget him and then I’d crave him like mad. The less we knew of that need, the less we will miss of one another. We both know the fate of this.”

Nia stared at me for a while and then gradually smiled again before laying back wide armed, lost in a dreamy ponder. “This is what’s written in books looks like. I thought I’d never see you like this.”