Page 37 of Fire Kissed
“Of course she is,” the arrogant stranger, Loki, says.
Aric pulls rather reluctantly away.
The bright yellow flower at my side dances as the pounding feet of two men stride to me. They slow with a façade of calm as they carefully kneel behind where Aric lies, covering my body with his own.
“Needs space to breathe,” Torben grunts at the dragon shifter, pulling at his friend’s shoulder until cool air wafts over my torso.
Everything feels heightened and magical. The breeze in my hair pulls at the locks as I sit up, wafting them around my face like I’m suspended in water.
“Stop it,” Latham spits angrily, glaring hard over his shoulder.
My eyes meet the gaze of a man who leans confidently against the trunk of a tree with long blue palm leaves... He picks at the unnatural tree’s sleek leaf that’s brushing his shoulder. And then, with a puff of swirling black smoke the leaf bursts into a feather. A long palm-leaf-shaped feather...
“I just thought the mood required somepizzazz.” Loki drops his hand, and at the same moment, the breeze releases my hair.
I blink slowly, taking in each aspect of the garden we’re lounging in. It’s all picturesque perfect. Yet… little aspects are too mythically beautiful. The feather tree Loki leans on isn’t the only object that has been altered by his magic. A bunny with a pink, twitching nose lifts up from the swaying grass to sniff the air adorably. His ear twitches before he sits back down. And then the little creature does it again. And again. And again. On an endless loop of cuteness.
What the fuck kind of magical realm have I fallen into now?
“You don’t have to change everything to fit your liking.” Latham’s more tense than I’ve ever seen him.
“You didn’t mind when I cured your lover’s wound and dressed her as a Goddess of Love should be.”
Aric nods this way and that in total agreement, and it’s then that I note the pure white gown that’s hugging my torso. It’s light and sheer at the bottom while being elegant and beautiful at the top. No straps hold the gown against me. A single emerald gemstone adorns the center just above my cleavage. The dress also seems to cover my breasts so tightly, they’re pushed up unnaturally...
Is this guy magicing my boobs now too?
Torben’s tongue slides over his lower lip and his attention flits from my plump curves to my mouth. A smile tilts my lips and I don’t know why it feels good to have him finally looking at me like that. Without hiding it. Without doubting it. All I want in this moment is to know what dirty things are in his head while he looks at me like he wants to devour me slowly.
“Can you just give us some time alone?” Latham asks on a tone of steely aggression.
“Take all the time you’d like, my son.” Loki stands abruptly, shoving away from his feather tree as he holds my gaze with a look of cruel curiosity. “You look like your mother,” he says quietly. “It’s a shame what that dog elf did to a woman of her stature.”
Dog elf?
“Go,” Latham growls, standing from his spot on the ground to turn and face his father fully with an unyielding, protective stance.
Loki slices his attention to his son then. “Remember what I said. Leave at dawn for the Realm of the Living portal. Never in the night here.”
Latham nods stiffly.
“The light elves respect my power, but they will not offer their kindness to an outsider in their realm.” The aloof smirk on Loki’s face fades as he looks off into the distance of the vast wildflowers. “Not after what the Light King did to them.”
My brow pulls low, not understanding the depths of the history of these realms I continue to stumble into.
“Thank yo—” Latham’s whispered words simmer on his lips as his father vanishes into thin air. The fumes of inky, black smoke drift in his wake.
All of us are looking at the spot the god of mischief just vacated. He’s nothing like I imagined. He seems cruel, yes, but not in the way the Light King or Hela does. I can sense there’s some good within him. Somewhere...
“Do you think it’s weird he dressed our girlfriend up all sexy, set the mood of his secret garden, and then just… left us to our own dirty devices?” Aric looks to Latham like it’s an urgent question.
“He’s not tricking us into fucking our girlfriend.”
“But how do you know?” Aric counters.
“Because Loki does nothing unless it benefits Loki.” Latham shakes his head, his messy, dark hair swaying rather magically around his handsome face. Latham does seem even more attractive than ever. His smooth skin is nearly glowing with its flawlessness …
Hmmm. It does seem like a weird, kinky trap.
