Page 32 of Winter's Scorching Kisses
She snapped her mouth shut with a click of her teeth. For some reason, he didn’t want to come off as sweet, and that was fine by her. If he wanted to pretend like he was nothing more than a gruff man who did nothing for anyone else, she’d let him believe that.
“Is there anything to eat?” Adorra glanced over at the crackling fire, hoping he’d be kind enough to produce something to fill her stomach. Her stomach was trying to eat her and now that some of her immediate fear had calmed she was ready to eat something. Anything.
Mathar untied a small pouch from his belt and handed it over to her.
Taking the offered bag, her hand skimmed his, and a shot of warmth rushed through her. Quickly, she snatched the bag and pulled her hand far away from him. She opened the drawstrings of the bag to find dried meat. It wasn’t the best, but she wasn’t about to complain when her stomach was screaming at her to give it something.
She popped a chunk into her mouth, and her mouth swam with saliva as it jumped for joy to have food finally given to it.
Mathar didn’t like it when she called him kind. He was a warrior. He wasn’t a suitor vying for her attention. He still felt a little bitter towards Dryden for sending him to fetch Adorra in the first place. He didn’t think inviting humans to the ice giant castle was the wisest decision. They always brought trouble.
Then again, what did it matter to him? Jasmine and Dryden were the ones who’d wanted to bring her up here, and when Adorra realized she couldn’t go back, he doubted she’d blame anyone other than the two people responsible.
As she’d said, he was just the one following directions, not giving them.
Mathar had let his emotions dictated his actions earlier. She’d been pleading to have her wrists untied, and he’d obliged, but he wondered if he would come to regret that decision.
Leaning over, he intruded in her personal space hoping to disturb her. “You do anything,” he pointed a finger at her as he made direct eye contact, “I’ll show you just how terrifying giants can be. I might be doing this because I’m obeying orders, but it doesn’t mean this is how I’d been hoping to spend my time.”
Adorra nodded, her eyes wide and quivery as she tried to read him. Good. He didn’t need her causing any trouble.
“Anything.” He warned.
She swallowed her bite and nodded her head. “I won’t do anything. Amazingly enough, you can trust me to behave.”
He leaned away from her and studied her in the firelight. He’d enjoyed being closer to her while they’d ridden further into the mountains. Her soft feminine scent, like chamomile, had appealed to him, making him wish he could just wrap her up in his arms and burying his face into her neck.
Adorra was stunning as well. Jasmine was bookish, a woman who was beautiful in her own right, but Adorra was the bewitching one. Her hair was a bit mussed from all their traveling, her bun hanging loosely against the back of her neck, but she somehow still managed to look like the lady she was. She’d also been emotionally stronger then he would have ever guessed. Not once had she shed a tear or freaked out… except for that moment in the tent when she’d screamed her head off. But the surprise of seeing him with the effects of the berries would’ve made any human lose their mind for a few seconds. For the most part, she’d remained confident and sure of herself.
“You are close to your family?” Mathar asked. He had no idea where the question had come from, but there it was.
“To my sister, yes.”
“And other family?”
She turned her slender neck as her eyes studied him before she arched a brow at his questioning. He was just as confused as her. He wasn’t usually the talkative type, but it seemed better than sitting there in silence.
“Our parents were taken from us at an early age.” Her eyes stared into the crackling flames as a deep sadness penetrated those hazel depths. “Every memory I have of them is fond though. My mother was a real beauty. The catch of the court. I remember that much.”
Mathar could easily see that if her mother had birthed an absolute beauty like Adorra.
“My father wasn’t too bad looking either.” A small smile tugged on one corner of her mouth. “He had many women and their mothers breathing down his neck, wishing he’d show their daughters some favor. When he met my mother though, no other woman could compare, or so the rumors go. They’d managed to find love unlike a lot of people. It was a true romance.”
He nodded. “It sounds nice.” What he wouldn’t have done to have a childhood as good as hers. Hers sounded so peaceful, at least for a time, while his had been nothing but terror each and every day.
“You sound… sad.” Adorra leaned over studying him with her hazel eyes, and he worried she might see too much.
Mathar leaned away from her as he snorted. “I’m an ice giant. The past is the past. Nothing can be done about it now. I’m sorry to hear of your loss, but at least you now know your sister is alive.”
She snatched another piece of dried meat out of the bag he’d given her and then handed it back to him.
In the flickering firelight, he noticed how raw her wrists still looked from the rope he’d used to tie her hands behind her back. Reaching a hand out in the blink of an eye, he latched onto her arm and rubbed a finger lightly over the raw flesh.
Adorra sucked in a harsh breath and attempted to draw back her hand. He tightened his grip but didn’t touch the raw flesh again. Dryden and Jasmine would have him flayed for this. He wasn’t supposed to harm his queen’s sister.
They really should’ve sent someone else to do this. Mathar wasn’t used to being anything other than a skilled killer. His father had seen to that before his death. Handling a lady was out of his skill set.
“I hadn’t realized the ropes had hurt you so much.” He did his best to sound neutral, but he couldn’t help but feel like a brute. She may be nothing more than a human, but he’d never been one for violence against women. Everything his mother had endured still haunted him, and he only wished he’d been strong enough to do something about it before it’d been too late.
