Page 90 of Blood Beneath the Snow

Where had the time gone? Five weeks had disappeared in a blink. Closing my eyes, I lay back down, wishing I could stay here with Søren forever. Wishing this wasn’t going to be our final night together. Wishing it didn’t make my throat and eyes sting to think about never seeing him again.

The sun began to sink below the horizon, preparing to rise over the mountains again the next morning. Wordlessly, he wound his fingers through mine.

My duty and his. We were inexplicably bound together, but our paths would more than likely end here.

His thumb caressed my palm, the touch sending a spark of heat through me. I’d spent the whole week holding back despite how desperately I wanted him. But I was tired of being afraid. And if I wasgoing back to my death, never to see him again even if I did live, then surely it was fair to take part of him with me.

“Come to the hot springs with me.” I stood up, pulling my cloak from the snow and shaking the powdery flakes off it. Every beat of my heart ricocheted against my bones in anticipation of what I was planning. I held out a hand to him.

He looked it for a moment, gray eyes keen, and I knew he was reading my mind. I wondered how his magic worked. Did killing with a flick of his wrist mean he could hear my pulse beating beneath my skin? I wasn’t subtle. He had to know what I wanted. How I wantedhim.

The tension between us grew thicker, and I worried it would snap. Worried he would turn me down. But instead he reached out and accepted it, tugging me back down until I tumbled, collapsing with my knees on either side of his hips.

“We shouldn’t.” His voice was rougher than usual, a few notes deeper. “I’m already too attached to you. And once we start…” He swallowed. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop. I’ve been dreaming about you for weeks.”

My blood heated, and I leaned forward, my forearms resting on his chest. Already he was growing hard, and the feel of him beneath me, between my thighs, sent a thrill down my spine. “Who says we have to stop? Haven’t we earned this?” Slowly, I rubbed myself up and down his body. His head tilted backward, his eyes fluttering closed. I summoned every ounce of boldness I could muster and continued. “Don’t I deserve to make you come?”

“Keep talking like that and you might make me before we’ve even taken our clothes off.” He opened his eyes, his gaze traveling over my face before pausing on my neck, where he’d sucked a blooming bruise into the tender skin just the day before. “I don’t want you to regret this.”

I shook my head. “I won’t. I was afraid of being too attached, of not wanting to leave. But that was all going to happen anyway.”

Something solidified in his eyes. “Then let’s go.”

Evening was falling in earnest when we arrived at the hot springs, the steam misting in the air and reaching like whisper-thin fingers. I was shivering from the cold, my cloak too wet to truly keep me warm, so I stripped and rushed into the water, splashing a bit as I went before relaxing in the heat.

When I turned around, Søren was watching me, hunger in his eyes.

“Well?” I said, my confidence building as he surveyed my bare skin. “Care to join me, Hellbringer?”

He began to take his armor off, one piece at a time. The plates landed in the snow with a thud, and when he was standing in only his black leather, he began moving toward the shoreline. He removed his shirt with little thought, focused like a predator on me.

I waded back until only my face was above the water, watching him with wide eyes. I’d dreamed of his bare torso more times than I could count by now, and yet I still hadn’t managed to remember every detail of his pale skin. His muscles were defined in a way that bore testament to how long he spent training every day and working as a soldier. Søren was not the product of a life of ease, and I was glad. It made us all the more evenly matched.

He tugged off his pants with an impatient huff and I laughed. He rolled his eyes and stripped off his underwear, leaving him naked for a flash before he splashed into the water to meet me.

I couldn’t tear my gaze from his body even as it slipped beneath the surface. When he reached me and noticed my line of sight, he chuckled.

My cheeks heated and I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly conscious of my body on display for such an attractive man. But he sank into the water and gathered me in his arms, skin against skin in the warmth, and pressed a kiss to my temple before leaningclose to murmur, “Look at you. A body like yours might be enough to make me believe in the gods.”

I flushed, tracing the tips of my fingers over his stomach, brushing against the swollen head of his cock. He shivered and I grinned. “You’re not half bad yourself.”

He nipped at my earlobe playfully. “Rude.”

“I’m joking,” I reassured him. “I’ve been imagining you naked ever since you took your shirt off in the forge.”

He laughed, a full-bodied, full-throated sound. “I can’t believe that was only a few weeks ago. I was gone for you even then.” Before I had time to question him, he slid me down his body a bit, enough for me to feel his cock hard against my stomach. I let out my breath in a rush, suddenly desperate for his hands and his mouth and his thickness in the soft place between my legs.

Søren’s eyes gleamed in the evening light. He placed his thumbs carefully along my jaw and leaned in to kiss me.

Our lips met in a tangle of heady lust, and I wrapped my legs around him. He supported me with one arm, the other tilting my head so he could devour me. When he broke away from my mouth to pepper kisses down the column of my throat, I was left gasping for air.

The first swipe of his fingers over my nipple made me whimper and grind against him. He groaned. “Fuck. You’re going to be the death of me, Princess. Want to take a bite of you.”

He hoisted me higher, until both of my breasts were bared to the cold, my nipples stiffening with the temperature against his lips, which wrapped around one taut bud and sucked. I arched my back, desperate for more as his free hand cupped my other breast and squeezed.

“Perfect,” he whispered. He sounded so dazed, I wondered if he knew I could hear him.

“Søren,” I moaned, reaching my hand down and between us to wrap around him. He stilled, his eyes meeting mine. I was caught in his gaze, wondering how my hand could be enough to render the most powerful man in the world helpless. Carefully, I ran my palm up and down him.

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