Page 130 of A Tale of Ice and Ash
They kissed for what felt like hours, under the light of the silvery moon, as the snow piled thickly around them, dusting every surface of the clearing with pristine, sparkling light. Eirwen’s lips felt numb, her body burning beneath her layers of clothes.
“Can I ask you for a favour?” she whispered into him.
“Anything,” he grinned, his fingers tight against her back.
“Would you… would you come back to my tent with me? Not… not to do anything. Just… just to lie there with me?”
Cole blinked. “Of course. But… can I ask why?”
“Because my bed is very cold,” she said. “And you are very warm.”
“You could bunk with the twins.”
“All right,” she said, “maybe I wantyouin my bed. Is that what you wanted to hear?”
Cole grinned wickedly. He opened his mouth, but she placed two fingers across his lips. “Don’t youdarethink of making me repeat it, or making a joke about me begging you, or anything like that at all.”
“Duly noted,” he said, his voice muffled.
She seized his hand, and dragged him back across the campsite and into her tent. She shoved him down on the bunk.
“If Onyx catches me here, I’m a dead man,” he said, shuffling off his boots.
Eirwen grinned, shedding her cloak and kicking off her shoes. She stripped her outer clothes. Cold air smacked against her single layer. She tried not to shiver. “Have you seen how much he’s drunk tonight? He won’t remember his own name by morning.”
“I’ll forget my own if you take off any more layers.”
Eirwen blushed, sliding onto his lap and pulling the furs over them. “You’re freezing,” she said.
“I gave you my cloak!”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because I was having the single most romantic moment of my life, and I didn’t want to ruin it by complaining about thecold.”
She shook her head, and pushed him back against the bunk, hauling the covers over their heads and sliding her hands over his cold flesh. “For the record,” she said, “this isnotjust for warmth, but I do feel at least alittleobligated to try and warm you up.”
He found her mouth, feeling along her face with his nose, and kissed it. “You are too kind, Snow.”
“I have my moments.” She lay her head down in the crook of his arm, her body wrapped around him. “So… single most romantic moment, huh?”
She could almost feel his glare. “Oh… hush you.”
“What’s the matter, Prince? Can dish it but you can’t take it?”
“You’re teasing me.”
“You make it too easy.”
She snuggled further into him, wishing she had another way to hold him. She couldn’t grab onto him tightly enough. Cole breathed underneath her, and she listened to the steady thump of his heart like it was the first time she’d ever heard anything like it.
He warmed, he softened, he slipped into sleep. She pulled the covers down, just a fraction, gaining enough light to make out his crisp profile.
She kissed his cheek. “I’m… I’m not very good at expressing myself,” she whispered to his sleeping form. “At least not… not when it comes to matters of the heart. It’s… it’s different, with the others. The dwarves, I mean. After my father died, I thought I’d never feel anything for anyone ever again. Then I fell into their home and was made to feel so much like a part of their family, it was impossible not to fall in love with them. It’s… it’s a bit like that with you, too. It’s impossible not to care for you, but I need to be sure before I hurt you more.” She kissed his sleeping mouth. “The last thing I ever want to do is hurt you.”
Or let myself be hurt.
But she realised, in that moment, which one she was willing to risk more, like the moment when she watched him disappear under the masses of shades and was prepared to offer her own life for his.
And she would do it again, and again.
And she rather suspected that meant she had her answer.
