Page 226 of Winter Gods & Serpents

I began unbuttoning my jacket and her eyes lit alight as she suppressed a smile. She pulled the cover and I got in, rounding her in my embrace. “You will be good, my little beast, or I’ll go get Nia to be our chaperone.”

She frowned. “She will be a terrible chaperone.”

“Then Malik and Caiden.”

“Every girl’s dream.”

I reached down smacking her bottom and she yelped. “I will kill them both if you say anything of the sort again.”

“I didn’t finish my sentence,” she said, planting a kiss on my neck. “This girl’s dream is already in this bed. I wished it could last longer, this girl enjoys this dream.”

I kissed her brow, gathering tight around me. “This boy’s dream is in this bed too, but this boy will perhaps never wake from it.”

She went silent beside me, her head buried at the nook of my shoulder. It did feel like a dream, holding her. I wanted to hold her for eternity. Wake to her in my arms, fall asleep with her still buried there. Her silk skin brushing mine, her small touch vibrating on every fibre of mine. How could someone want another like this?

Penelope came back to the room and threw us a dubious look. “I still have that letter with your name on it, crossed, almost resembling one of those curse callings crafters do on sand.”

Snow stiffened on my arms and slowly rolled her eyes up at me. “I don’t have the slightest idea what she is on about.”

I shook in laughter; it had made me laugh back then too.

“But you did.”

“Pen!” Snow shouted, clutching her eyes tight. “Leave or I will feed you your own liver.”

After giving the order, she snuggly glued herself to me. Her hands had slid under my shirt and roamed over my stomach, relentlessly tracing two lines that pointed down my hardened cock. “You would be a lot more comfortable naked.”

I laced my fingers through her hair, smoothing a touch over and over how she liked it. “I would be, you would not.”

Her hands begun sliding lower down and I grabbed her mid crime. “Not there little miss.”

She went still, her head slowly rose to me. “Little miss?”

I planted a peck on her nose. “Your are not that big of a miss.”

Her mouth parted open while she blinked confused. Dazed by thoughts she just stared lost for a little while before ducking back to my chest. “So loud,” she yawned. “Always so loud.”

She made it loud. For her it beat so loud, only for her.

“I thought you remembered,” I said, resting my forehead on hers. “I thought you remembered, my little miss, all of my promises and my lies.”

I noted she’d fallen asleep. She slept—she had slept while I drowned in sorrow without even grieving. This boy really didn’t want to wake from this dream.

Part V

Awake

Chapter 42

Kings and Pawns

Snowlin

I had fallen asleep in his arms and I’d woken to him gone, a note left by his pillow.

“My heart, Mal called for me to meet with your father. I will see you again, soon.” –Your Kilian.

My Kilian. The dream I was going to leave behind in Isjord. The dream I was about to give up, the one I had lucidly touched and then admired from afar.