Page 61 of Hell Kissed
“This place has been a dry wasteland since the beginning of time. Then the dark elves came, other forest creatures followed. Water nymphs and sprites. Trees grew as their magic spread here and there where it could. It drove Hela mad to see life blossoming so close to her home.” The soft tone and the smile that brightens Latham’s sharp features chases out the torment that always hides behind his eyes.
“Are sprites like pixies then?” I follow with my clothes bunched in my hands as Latham guides us past the thin, tall tree trunks.
Laughter rumbles out of Aric in a way that warms my chest.
“Not one fucking bit,” he says. “Pixies are annoyingly helpful bursts of happiness. Sprites are fucking evil.”
I look at him with wide eyes. A very obvious question falls from my lips.
“Then why are we going there?” Haven’t I been through enough for one day?
“They’re too small to attack. They’re flighty around anything larger than themselves.” Latham slips through a pair of trees, and the space around us is growing tighter by the second. Thousands of gray and white bark trees are everywhere, growing so closely together it’s hard to slip through. The forest scrapes at my thighs and back as I follow after him.
“They’ll fuck with you. But never to your face,” Aric adds.
“I don’t know how much farther I can go—” Another trunk drags roughly over my ass as I try to squeeze through a space Latham’s lithe body just disappeared into. I stagger out the other side and my mouth falls open the moment I get through.
Light patches of pale green grass carpet the ground that shimmers with sand and rock. The pebbles are a rainbow of color. Amber pinks, mint greens, deep jades, pale lavender, ruby reds, and so many more line the shore of a glinting sapphire cove.
“Oh my gods,” I whisper as the magic settles into my very soul.
A warm hand settles low against my back as Aric’s smooth chest skims against mine, teasing my nipples lightly. “Wait until you feel it,” he tells me, and a different kind of magic coils low in my stomach.
I swallow hard and try not to regard him or his sensual words.
“We can use this?” I ask cautiously while I take a safe step back from the sexy shifter to place my clothes down hesitantly over the beautiful smooth pebbles.
Latham nods, his starry eyes catching the shimmering magic in the depths of his eyes as he takes it all in. But he doesn’t come closer.
He leans against a tree instead. A calmness blankets over us here, and I understand that look in his features.
It’s peace.
No one is taunting me here. No one hates me here. No one’s chasing me or wants me dead.
It’s like Heaven snuck into Hell.
I’ll stay here in this nirvana for as long as they let me.
A roaring yell and thunderous feet trample over my tranquility, and I’m alert in a single second. I turn on my bare feet.
Just in time to be splashed in the fucking face by Aric’s cannon ball dive into the cove. Water streams down my cheeks when I glare at his head that bobs up from the beautiful, gleaming surface.
“Get in!” he yells with no concern for the little squeaks of noise I hear hiding in the shadows around us. A quick flutter of wings and a scurry of mouse-like words pass around the circular open expanse we stand in.
But I suppose Aric’s right, they haven’t attacked us.
Yet…
I turn and look over my shoulder at Latham, the true voice of reason between the two shifters. His soft smile still ghosts his lips as he nods to me. “It’s nice, like a sauna.”
His attention slides down my back and even lower before I turn away from him. Nudity has never been a self-conscious way of life in my pack. It’s natural for the most part.
Then why does it feel so tense with sexual need even when I’m dressed for winter in the mountains around these men?
Warm pebbles caress my feet with each step I take. They’re heated from the land and soft against my skin. My toes dip into the pure blue water. The unnatural cove ripples out from my disturbance. The temperature is like a hot bath, and I eagerly wade out into it.
Aric’s attention never leaves me. His stare is just as warm as the water and sends tingles across my flesh, much like the magic glinting in the depths I’m sinking into. My nipples tighten as I hold his gaze, and I’m all too aware of the shifting of my thighs. An uneven breath pulls into my lungs. It all becomes too much.
