Page 68 of A Sword of Ice
Her eyes opened, and she hadn’t even realized she had closed them. “Sometimes. In my rented room, the ceiling was splintered. Every time I woke up from a nightmare, I would feel frozen in place. Like I couldn’t move or breathe. It feels like I’m awake but unmoving, trapped inside my own body, like I’m going to die…” She let out a breath. “The only thing I can ever move first is my fingers. I learned later that I could move them. So while I stared up at the ceiling, frozen in my own body, I could move my fingers, tracing the pattern on the ceiling, and it eventually started to calm me down, pull me out of that… comatose state, I guess you could say.”
He was quiet for a moment, tilting his head slightly to the side as if he were contemplating her words, really letting them sink in.
“Sometimes I feel the same,” he said. “With my magic.” He held his hands palms up, like maybe he could see past the flesh and to the power underneath. “I’m so strong, but to use it, my emotions are taken from me until all I know is rage. It’s… overpowering. Like I can’t control my own body and something else is taking me over.” He pushed out a breath and a smile curved his mouth. “I know a lot about the memories of war, too. I have plenty of them.”
She had the desire to reach for him and she let herself give in to that. She placed her hands against his and they closed. She could feel the pulse against his wrist, steady just like him.
“What calms you down?” she asked.
“Your voice.” His answer was almost automatic.
Iona snorted. “No, seriously.”
“Seriously.”
“We just met.”
“I know that.”
She stared at him, eyes narrowed and unbelieving.
Julius’ fingers slid down her cheek. “Only time used to calm me down. I would have to live through the rage until it ebbed. And then I met you. We have a bond, and even if we aren’t mated, I can feel a part of you in me, and your voice is like a light, tugging me out of that dark place.”
Her breath hitched, and this time, her heartbeat sped up. Not from nerves, but from excitement, from desire. Her thighs shifted as if she could stave off the sensation of wanting that coursed through her.
But Julius was a Fae. He could smell it. His nostrils flared, indicating that he did. Iona wasn’t embarrassed. Let him scent how he made her feel. He was her mate, and she hadn’t felt such a strong attraction to anyone else before.
Just like she’d never trulyfeltfor anyone else before.
It wasn’t love; they didn’t know each other well enough for that. It was a rightness. Like this was where she was supposed to be.
She’d never been more sure about anything in her life than she was about Julius Darah.
She didn’t have to hide what she felt, even if it was in the slick that coated along her pussy that ached for him.
“It’s the same for me with you,” she confessed, her voice just a little breathless. “You’re a very… grounding presence.”
It was his turn to snort. “I am the most impulsive fucker you’ll ever meet.” Slowly, he pulled his hands away from hers and she missed his touch as soon as it was gone. “You’ll realize that soon enough.”
They seemed to be parting words. Like he was prepared to go back to the deck and leave her again to her thoughts. The idea of him leaving didn’t sit well in her chest.
She’d told him she wouldn’t deny him. That when they found her familiar, they would revisitthis.It suddenly felt wrong to let him walk away. She didn’twanthim to walk away.
There was a pulse of magic between them, and it urged her to reach out. To take. Accept.
Tomate.
“I want you,” she blurted, causing his whole body to go rigid at the words. But they were said with a firmness, a rightness, an honesty.
His green eyes flared, and for a moment they looked like the flickering flames of Shula’s magic. It made her smile.
He mistook the smile for something else. “Are you joking with me right now, Iona?” he demanded. “Because—”
“I’m blunt,” she interrupted. “I know what I want and I go for it. If there’s something I learned early in life, it’s that it’s too short for games and for dancing around your desires. You are my mate. I want you. You want me. Why wait?”
His jaw clenched. “Be sure, Iona,” he whispered darkly. “Because if you say you want me, then I plan on claiming you. Fucking you. Bonding you. You’ll be my mate in every sense of the word.”
She stepped forward and pressed her palm against his chest and said the words she’d been itching to say since they first met.
