Page 31 of The Ice Prince's Fated Mate
“Are you okay? Is something wrong?” I asked, trying to stifle the hope that maybe she had come to me for help with solving a problem.
I need to stay away from her, not get more involved. That isn’t safe for her.
“I-I’m okay,” she said, stopping and restarting before getting the words out. “I was just … um, I wanted to know if you could, uh, maybe, if I could take you up on that offer.”
She lost the battle and my dragon made pleased noises within my head as her brown eyes roamed over my body once more before she looked me in the eye.
“You want me to fly you back to the crash site?” I asked, speaking slowly through the astonishment.
Of all the things she could have come to me for, that was at the bottom of my list of expectations. Still, I couldn’t hold back the excitement at the idea of us spending time together. It wasn’t a good idea, but I wanted it nonetheless. But I had to appear calm and not too eager. I couldn’t risk scaring her off.
She nodded.
“Uh, sure. Yeah. I can do that.” I thought about it. “We should probably go now, though.”
“Now?” Ella squeaked.
“Yes. We may not have the time we need in the morning. Caz is right. Getting back to the citadel has to be our priority. Things are happening, and he needs to be in the thick of it. He and Anna.”
“And you.”
I shook my head. “No, I’m not political.”
“You’re the prince, though. The heir,” Ella pointed out, speaking more evenly as the subject changed to something neutral.
“Not for long, hopefully,” I told her. “Besides, I don’t want the throne.”
And I don’t deserve it, either.
“But that’s not the point,” I continued. “The point is we don’t know how long it might take you. If we leave in the morning, we’ll be under a time constraint. I don’t want you to feel rushed or limited. So we can go now.”
I didn’t want to think about how painful the shift was going to be, but I’d already planned on leaving earlier. If I could do it then, I could do it now with another few hours of healing and a big meal behind me.
“Okay,” she said, nodding tightly, her lower lip curling under. It was only a moment, just a split second, but the show of nerves was enough to drive me wild, to make me long to trail my mouth along her neck and taste her lips. I …
I blinked. When had we gotten so close? Had she stepped to me, or had I gone to her? The space between us had shrunk, and we were in one another’s orbit. All I would have to do now wasreach out and touch her. She was a foot away. Less, even. One more step, and her body would be against mine.
What would it be like to have her against me, under me? To spread her legs with my knees and fill her pussy with my cock for the very first time? All I would have to do in that moment was reach out. Reach out and take her.
Then she would be mine, and I would be hers.
“This is a bad idea,” Ella whispered unsteadily, her pupils wide and body heat pouring across the tiny distance to reach me.
Her arousal was thick in the air, sticky sweet, begging for a taste.
“I know,” I growled, lowering my head to peer deep into her soul. My mate couldn’t hide from me. “But I know you feel it too.”
Our bodies swayed a hair closer. A finger’s span away.
Don’t do this. You can be strong.
My hand came up and caressed her cheek. Ella shuddered under my touch in the most erotic and sensual way. Her skin was as soft and tender as I’d imagined while stroking myself in the shower that morning.
The hallway around us continued to brighten as my dragon loomed large in my head, clamoring for the attention of its mate, of the dragon that was locked away somewhere inside Ella.
But no answer came. No glowing golden-brown richness of her eyes from her dragon. No more preening and no more warmth.
Instead, Ella stepped back, breaking contact.
