Page 87 of The Ice Prince's Fated Mate
The hand jumped, and my fingers landed on Dirk’s arm. Skin to skin.
I gasped. Dirk went still.
The light faded from his eyes, his wings relaxing and even shrinking back into his shoulders. He turned to me, awe in his eyes now, not anger.
“Ella,” he whispered, falling to his knees at my side and holding my hand tightly between both of his. “You’re okay.”
I managed a nod. Energy was flowing through the bond now, breaking the holds fear had taken with me and banishing it. Reminding me that with Dirk around, I need not know such terror ever again. Because I had him.
“Stop,” I whispered. “Please. Both of you.”
Milly, who was still standing at the foot of the bed, arched an eyebrow and began to respond.
“Enough,” I said, squeezing Dirk’s hand before he could speak out. “I’m serious. It’s not his fault. And you, Dirk, she’s just my friend, trying to help me.”
I paused to take a breath. Dirk slid a hand under my shirt, holding his palm flat to my stomach. The added contact there brought a smile to my face and a rush of energy that didn’t all go to my head. I tried to ignore the reminder of what his hands could do if they dropped just a little lower, though the otherpresence in my head was very much pushing to let him give a fresh lesson.
At my urging, Dirk explained what happened up until he left me. He left out the part about our little attic sex session, much to my relief.
“I’m not sure what happened after that,” he said, looking at me to see if I was up to continue.
“Dirk put me in a good hiding spot. I was safe. But then whoever it was came back out, carrying what I knew had to be a heart scale under one arm, and Dirk wasn’t following him. I knew we couldn’t lose him. The heart scale was the proof we needed, but it was a trap.”
Dirk hissed in surprise, and I nodded to confirm it.
“They were waiting for me, ambushed me in the alley.”
“They knew,” Dirk growled. “Mirko must have more paid off associates around his place than we knew of.”
I carefully didn’t voice the other thought that had occurred to me while I was locked in the cage. There was one more way Mirko could have known what we were doing. Just as he knew we were at the chalet. I would have to wait until Dirk was calmer to broach that subject.
“That still doesn’t explain your state when you arrived,” Milly said, picking at her nails nervously. “You weren’t here, El. Where were you?”
Both of them were staring at me now, waiting, expecting.
“I was in a cage,” I started but then stopped. I couldn’t do this. Not with both of them there. Not yet. “Mil, could you give us the room? It’s terribly unfair to you but …”
Milly just smiled and gave my leg a friendly squeeze. “Ella, if you’re going to talk to him, toanyone, about what happened to you, I will run out of here as fast as I can if I have to. You knowthat. I’m your friend. Whatever I can do to help you out, you got it. Even if that’s leaving.”
I nodded, relieved. “Maybe when Anna is back, the three of us could talk?”
“That would be good,” she said with a little smile that faded when she looked at Dirk. “If you don’t treat her exactly perfectly, I will be back in here faster than you can blink.”
Dirk stared back at her and then nodded slowly in respect. “She is my mate. Whatever I can give her, I will. I am honored she trusts me enough to talk to me.”
“Good answer.” Milly nodded once, and then left the room.
I watched her go, the ghost of a smile on my lips. That was my protective bestie. There had been no malice to her words, just a recognition of how big it was that I was willing to talk at long last.
Willing might not be the best word to describe it, but everything seemed to say this was the moment, the time to tell him.
Stomach roiling at the prospect, I sought out his eyes. What I found was not at all what I expected.
“What?” I asked at the distinctly unhappy look on his face, twisting his handsome features out of place. “Do you not want to hear this?”
“No.”
Forty-One
