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“Not far enough, apparently,” I muttered. I wasn’t happy to know he could read my thoughts.
“Come on now—you don’t really want to kill me anymore,” Liath rumbled. “What you want to do is come here and get close to me—because this big bedroom gets cold at night and I’m always warm.”
“You are?” I asked, nibbling my lower lip.
He motioned for me again.
“Why don’t you find out? I’m tired of begging so I’ll order you as your husband.” He gave me a stern look. “Come press your soft, curvy, beautiful body against me, Alira. Now.”
His voice was a low, seductive rumble and I felt that something he had woken in me—the thing I’d tried so hard to put back to sleep—stir in response.
Still somewhat unwillingly, I scooted over towards him. I wasn’t sure how this was going to work—I had never slept with anyone before. But Liath wrapped one long arm around me and drew me close to him.
I gave a little gasp as I felt my breasts press against his warm side. I would have resisted and drawn back but he had ordered me as my husband. And besides…I rather liked how it felt to be close to him. He was so big and warm and muscular and he smelled so good…
“Mmm…thank you, little bird. I think you smell fucking amazing too.” He looked down at me, his bronze eyes half-lidded.
After half a mesmerizing moment I had to look away from his intense gaze. There he went again—picking thoughts out of my brain. An ability he said he had inherited from an ancestor.
“I didn’t know that Manticores had horns,” I remarked, looking up at him.
He shrugged.
“My ancestor did, apparently. The legend in my family is that my great-great grandmother risked bedding with a Manticore because she wanted a child with special powers.”
“Did she get one?” I asked, curious despite myself.
“She got one son who could read minds and see into the hearts of others…and one that was a fucking monster. It took half the Court to kill him,” Liath said grimly.
“By the Shining Throne,” I murmured. “Really? They killed a royal Prince?”
“They had to or he would have killed them and laid waste to the whole fucking Court.” Liath frowned at me. “You know all those scary stories you’ve been told all your life about the Unseelie Court?”
“Yes?” I whispered, looking up at him.
“They’re all true,” Liath said grimly. “The Winter Realm is a fucking dangerous place—so until you master your power, you’re going to want to stick close by my side. All right?”
I didn’t see that I had a choice.
“All right,” I whispered.
“Hey—don’t look so frightened. I’ll protect you, little bird.” Liath squeezed me gently. “Tell me, can you feel other’s magic too?” he asked, returning to our earlier topic. “Or is it just mine?”
“I can feel anyone’s magic,” I admitted. I explained how Tansy’s magic had felt like a rough scrubbing brush and Asfaloth and Calista’s magic felt like stinging insects, biting me all over.
Liath frowned.
“That must have been fucking difficult—being so sensitive to all the magic around you and not being able to get to the magic inside you.”
“I don’t know why you’re so sure I have magic,” I told him. “I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed and want to send me back to the Summer Court.”
“Never!” Liath growled deep in his throat and I felt the vibrations through my whole body. He drew me even closer to his big body, his arm tightening possessively around me. “You’re mine now, Alira,” he told me. “And I’m never letting you go.”
Then he turned the lights from the chandeliers all the way out with a word, plunging the room completely into a gray, twilight gloom. I lay there, pressed against him and wondering what I had gotten myself into.
I had thought I was marrying my brother’s killer—I had sworn to get revenge. Now, I wasn’t sure of anything.
My mind was racing but little by little it started to calm down. I found myself soothed by the deep, steady rhythm of Liath’s breathing and the beating of his heart, which I could hear since my ear—along with the rest of me—was pressed to his side.
Without knowing when it happened, I drifted off to sleep with thoughts of my new husband and my new home still buzzing like bees in the back of my brain.
10
I woke to the same gray twilight I had gone to sleep to, but the chandeliers had turned themselves up to shed a golden glow, rather like early morning sunshine over the bed chamber.
Liath was already up and getting dressed. He had on another pair of black breeches and his enormous black boots. Once more he was shirtless—I wondered if that was the regular mode of dress for the Winter Court. I would have asked if he ever got cold—but I was pretty sure I knew the answer to that. He had kept me toasty warm last night, despite the drop in temperature. His big, muscular body seemed to put out heat like a furnace.
