Page 27 of The Witch's Cottage
I wrinkle my nose in thought. “Lydia said we’ll need about twenty, and if I spend tonight and all day tomorrow baking, I should be able to have the loaves done by the evening. Then I’ll need to wrap them up and figure out how to transport them.”
“We can use my cart,” Alden offers. “I’ll bring it by the morning of the festival and help you load everything up. How does that sound?”
Tears moisten my eyes again, but this time for a different reason. “You’d do that?” I ask softly. A single tear slips from my eye to roll down my cheek, and Alden reaches out to wipe it away with his thumb.
“Of course I would.”
Before he can pull his hand away, I catch it and press a kiss to his palm. Warmth blossoms in my chest.
The birdsong slowly gets overtaken by the rushing of the river as we approach its bank. My eyes widen when I see it.
“It’s all melted,” I say. “There was still a thin layer of ice when last I looked.”
Alden releases my hand and bends over to remove his boots and roll up his trousers.
“Summer’s almost here,” he says, then sets his boots to one side. Next thing I know, he’s taking a seat on the bank and submerging his feet in the rushing water. A sigh slips from his lips, and when he tips his head back, the sunlight cuts across his face, making the gold in his dark eyes shine. “Well? You gonna join me?”
“Isn’t it cold?” I ask. Submerging myself in a hot spring is one thing, but a rushing river? It’s fed with snowmelt from the Emberstone Mountains; it’s going to be frigid this time of year.
“Are you afraid?” he taunts, one eyebrow lifting in the corner.
My lips pucker with stubbornness. “No.”
He clucks his tongue. “Guess you’ll have to prove it.”
I hesitate one more moment, watching the water rush past, then bend over to unlace my boots and pull them off. As soon as my feet hit the forest floor, a wave of calm washes over me. The earth’s energy tingles through my toes, into my ankles, and up my calves, making me feel alive with the magic of Mother Nature.
Already feeling lighter than I did ten minutes ago whenwe left the cottage, I take a seat next to Alden, hitch up my dress, and plop my feet into the river.
Immediately, I squeal and steal them back out. “It’s freezing!”
His laughter is warm and rumbling. With an easy sigh, he lies back on the ground, arms under his head, eyes trained up on the clouds as they move over the treetops. His chest rises and falls slowly beneath his cotton tunic, and his long dark curls frame his head where it rests on the earth.
I’ve always found Alden handsome, but right now, I see him as if for the first time. Maybe it’s because he’s finally opened up to me, has finally built an Aurora-size door into his heart so that I can walk right through and bask in its loving warmth.
Suddenly overcome with affection for him, I brace my hands in the grass and lean down to press a kiss to Alden’s lips.
Chapter 16
Alden
AURORA’S LIPS ARE LIKE SATIN against mine, so soft and silky that I want to run my tongue over them just to see how they taste.
So I do.
And the little sigh she lets out already has me hardening in my trousers.
I swear, she could just look at me the right way, with those bright green eyes and her mischievous pink lips, and I’d be ready to hike up her skirts and have my way with her.
Lying on the riverbank, my feet still dangling in the rushing water, I make no move to get up as Aurora shifts in the grass and eases one leg over me. The image of her straddling my hips already has my cock leaping to attention.
This wasn’t what I expected when I asked her to take a walk, but I’m certainly not complaining.
I leave my head propped on my hands as she trails her palms up and down my chest, tickling the little bit of skinvisible at my neckline. Every brush of her hands against my body makes my want for her grow, and I’m pretty sure she feels it beneath her, because her lips turn up in a knowing smile.
This time when her hands drift down my chest, they continue across my abdomen, then to my waist, where she begins loosening the cords holding my trousers snug.
“What are you doing, little witch?” I ask, arching a brow as I look up at her.
