Page 19 of The Scent of Snow
“Ladies, to take your husbands in hand, all you need is sitting right here.” Flor rummaged through a bush.
Isabel gasped. Julia chuckled. Anne went on her tiptoes and tilted her head to see what she had collected.
A cucumber?
Anne arrived at the stable and halted, intimidated by the baroque building. The gilded ornaments seemed to mock her intentions. She, a girl of twenty, trying to maneuver a warrior of Pedro’s caliber?
She was his wife. He chose her, and all she asked of him was a family. But could she do this? Enter a stable buck naked, wearing only a black silk cape for protection while her guests played tennis on the lawn?
Hemera grazed on the paddock, her frizzy mane floating with the mountain breeze. She lifted her head and looked right at Anne with her gentle, understanding eyes.
“It was you who taught me to trust him, remember? When we faced the precipice eons ago. You were ready to follow him into the underworld, and I trusted your judgment.”
Erebus’ loud, bass neigh came from inside, and Hemera answered the stallion with a keening sound — forgetting Anne. Traitor.
Anne grasped Flor’s words for courage. Of all her friends, Flor was the wisest regarding the opposite sex. If only Flor’s teachings could make Pedro forget about his control… blasted, delicious control. Why couldn’t Pedro lose himself with her… In her? Like she did every time he touched her? He didn’t even have to touch her. When he said her name with that husky, throaty voice, she promptly relinquished control, clothes, everything.
What would it be like to receive his seed in her womb? She would roll herself into a cocoon, an acorn, and wait for spring, wrapped up in Pedro’s arms.
Hugging herself, Anne entered the stable.
The scent of hay tickled her nose. The corridor was empty. Only the sounds of munching grass and Erebus’ rhythmic stomps filled the space.
Anne opened the door to the tack room. Pedro was sitting on a stool behind her saddle, polishing the leather. He didn‘t allow anyone else to touch it. The saddle was propped over a stand, hiding part of his torso. The air inside was warm. He had shed his coat and cravat and worked only in shirtsleeves. When first she saw him, she had been dazzled by his presence, by his magnetic appeal. Time had not dimmed an inch of her reaction to him.
Pedro’s golden hair was neatly pulled back from his face, only one lucky strand allowed to kiss his forehead. Anne followed its design to the corner of his upper lip.
There was no catching Pedro by surprise. War and his father had taken that away from him, for better or worse, and by the time she stood on the threshold, shivering under the cape, she already had his full attention.
Under the watchful light of his topaz eyes, she stepped into his space.
“Anne.”
No question, no accusation. A statement. She could manage that, at least.
“Husband. You didn’t show up for lawn games.”
“Is that why you came?”
“I’ve brought you something.”
He cocked his head to the side.
Her voice trembled a little. “My Gyges ring. I want to be invisible.”
His pupils dilated, and he licked his bottom lip, pushing his stool backward.
Taking that as an acceptance, she latched the door. She needed no audience for her plan.
“What would you do if you were invisible?”
When he had asked her that same question two years before, she had stammered and fled, unable to voice her wishes. Now, she was older and stronger, and still, it wasn’t easy. One look from his magnetic eyes and she was reduced to the same vulnerable, shy girl who had boarded the Dawn Chaser. That trip never finished. She was still sailing the tumultuous waters of Pedro Daun—her life’s greatest adventure.
“I want to touch you,” she whispered.
Back then, he had used the example of the Gyges ring to teach her about human nature, how anyone, if given the power of invisibility, would choose to do something nefarious. Instead, his lesson had turned into seduction when he had forced her to reveal her innermost desire — to touch the man who despised touch.
“Do you remember the rules?” The bass of his voice pulled her back to the present.
