Page 58 of A Dance of Water

A cold glass pressed against her palms. She cracked open an eye, seeing the male pressing the glass of ice cubes into her hand. The bottom of the glass left a damp spot on her gown.

Her breath hitched, and she curled her hands around the glass, relishing in the cold feel of it against her skin.

Graves continued to nose around her ear and neck, breathing her in.

Her head fell back against the wall, baring more of her to him, which he took full advantage of, skimming his cheek over the side of her neck. His stubble scratched her skin. He looked up at her from his half-bent position, eyes heavy with arousal.

And that feeling deep within her flared. A soft tickle where her hands were wrapped around the glass, the dripping beads of condensation along the sidesfroze. Ice softly crackled in the room; no longer a grating sound, but a welcome one, soothing her emotions into a hazy frigidness.

The glass against her palms grew almost unbearably cold, but she did not let it go.

Her breaths fogged before her.

Curious.

She hummed, eyes falling closed with rapture. Whatever this feeling was, she could relish in it for eternity.

She felt… powerful.

A noise of shock made her eyes drift open, shattering the wintry daze that held her captive.

"Luella," Graves called urgently.

She looked down, lips parting with a gasp at the sight.

The glass.

Ice spiderwebbed from the spots where her fingers held it, tiny threads and delicate webbing of the purest, crystalline, bluish-white, tracking patterns along the surface.

"Extraordinary." Graves reached for the glass, swiping his finger over the ice on the side.

Luella didn’t know what to say. What to do.

"Did I… Did I do that?"

"You did." The male dipped his finger over the rim of the glass, reaching for the ice inside. No longer half-melted, but frozen solidcubes. A shard splintered as he forced it away from where it was stuck to the side of the glass. He held it up in the dim, flickering candlelight in the alcove, turning it this way and that as he stared. "You refroze it."

Her skin was still flushed, cheeks red. The ice looked inviting, and as if entranced, she reached for it. The cold burned against her fingertip.

"What do you feel?" Graves asked.

She was captivated by the ice in his palm. "What do you mean?"

He pressed the back of his other hand against her forehead, feeling her temperature. "You’re burning," he said.

"I do feel hot," Luella revealed, breath hitching when his hands brushed over her sensitive neck.

Something raw and carnal fell over Graves’s features, turning the shadowed, enigmatic male into a creature of blatant eroticism—experienced and much more capable than she.

She was gripped by the memory of his lips against hers in the library, how his stubble had scratched her cheeks… how he had taught her with a patience she did not know he possessed.

Luella wanted to kiss him again.

Dazed, she watched as he lifted the shard of ice in his fingers and hovered it over her neck. He held her gaze as he pressed it against her skin.

A full-body shiver overtook her.

It wascold, and it stuck to her skin slightly with its frozen tackiness, turning her tender flesh red with the frostbitten chill. Her heated skin quickly worked to melt it.

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