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“Mum, you can’t be serious. We won’t suit,” I tell her. Surely, she knows about her reputation. It’s everywhere. How can she not?
“You don’t know that. You can’t know that.” I do know. It will never work. I'm going to be alone forever.
“She’s going to be all warmth and heat. You know I can’t marry anyone, let alone Suzy Sunshine,” I shout instead of telling her what I know to be true about Lavender. My anger gets the best of me as ice shoots from my fingertips directly into the fireplace, instantly putting the fire out. The drafty castle needs a fire in every room, but I don’t care right now.
“Control yourself, boy,” Dad shouts, moving to stand in front of my mother. Like I’d ever hurt her. In all my years, I’ve never hurt anyone with my gift, if you can call it that. I think of it as a curse. It makes touching people impossible. It’s why I’m still a virgin after all these years. At first, that frustrated me, but now I know Fate has something bigger for me in store. It’s not Princess Lavender, that’s for damn sure.
“I apologize, but there’s no way in this frozen hell am I going to marry that girl.”
“You’ll do what’s right for this kingdom,” Dad says.
“It won’t be that,” I shout, storming out of the room. The five-hundred-year-old door slams into the wall behind me.
I continue right out of the castle into the falling snow. Coats are unnecessary when you can control winter. I head straight for my woods. I love it out here. It’s the only place I feel at home. Alive.
I lose track of how long I’m walking through the wintery vortex I create as I move and rant in my head. There has got to be something I can do to get out of this. I can’t marry her. I know in my soul that she’s not the one for me. I stop in my tracks when an even colder front hits my own. Everything stops. The air sucks out my lungs. My eyes snap up, and I see her. Beauty like I’ve never seen before makes my heart beat erratically. She has pale skin that begs to be touched. I wonder how soft Her ocean-blue eyes peer right through me. She seems just as unaffected by the cold as I am, but she looks tired. Even gaunt, she’s gorgeous.
When she stumbles, I lurch forward to catch her. She passes out from what? I don’t know, but I know that I don’t want to hurt her, so I carefully lift her in my arms, only touching where we are both clothed.
I carry her about a mile to our hunting cabin.
Here, I can get to know her. Here is where I’ll make her mine. Somehow, someway, I will make her mine.
CHAPTERONE
ELISE
ONE WEEK LATER
Dare I say this week has been the best week of my life? It sounds silly, I know, but it is true. I know, I know. I went from living in a palace to a hunter's cabin, and I am claiming to be happy? The short answer is yes.
This past week, I have gone over everything I have done and not done. Mind you, I haven't really done anything because Frost and I both feel that right now, it is in my best interest that no one knows I am here. “Darn it.” I shake my hands out, which is something I have to do often when I say or think of his name.
In the past week, he has been here every day, bringing me supplies and making sure I have everything. We sit and talk for hours. The truth is, even if he brought nothing, I would want to look at him. Simply put, he is gorgeous. Never mind the fact that he is the first person I have found who looks like me. We are both pale with this white hair and eyes that see right through a person, not to mention our skin is cold as ice. But for him, it is more than that. He is at least a foot taller than me, and if the way he fills out his shirts is an indication, he is ripped.
“Knock knock.” Like clockwork, here he is, and just like day one, the minute I hear his voice, a strange feeling of warmth, maybe or something else, starts to lick my skin. “Are you decent?”
“A princess is always decent. You may enter,” I tease him. He walks in the door with an armful of groceries and something else.
“What have you been doing this glorious morning?” He is putting away the food, and something about it feels domestic. Shaking my head to get rid of that thought, I answered him instead.
“Reading of course. What about you?” Grabbing an orange, I begin to peel it swiftly to stop it from turning to ice.
“Same. I just finished the most recent James Patterson novel.”
“Oh, I love his books. They transport you right in the story like one of the characters.” We have so much in common.
“I agree.” he smiles at me before going back to what he is doing. He raises his hand over his head to put something in a cabinet, and I damn near choke on my orange. This is the first day he is not in long sleeves, and I am getting a better view of the muscles. Holy bananas! Then, the back of his shirt rises a little, and I see the hint of a tattoo.
“You have a tattoo?” I ask him, sort of surprised.
“I do, actually. It is our kingdom's flower on my back.” He lifts his shirt, and suddenly, my mouth is parched, and all the liquid has gone to my panties. Is it normal for a man to have a sexy back? Well, he does, and that tat is gorgeous and massive.
“Wow. It’s beautiful,” I tell him, admiring the view. He turns to face me fully, and suddenly, I feel like the door to this cabin needs to be opened because I could very well be melting.
“What about you? Do you have any?” I am about to make a smart-ass comment about how he can miss the on my wrist but then I remember I have been wearing the friendship bracelet Anya gave me a while back.
“I do as well. I have two. I have a snowflake on my wrist and an evergreen tree on my upper back.”
