Page 20 of The Tanglewood Witches (The Three Sisters 1)
Chapter Nine
Alena understood they should be continuing with their quest, but she couldn’t bring herself to get out of bed. They’d made love more than a dozen times, and still she wanted more—more passion, more kisses, more pleasure. More unadulterated love which he poured over her with whispers like prayers in her ears as they worshipped at the altar of each other. Her heart pounded in her chest, and with every beat, she only thought of Orpheus. Beside her, he was hard in all the right places and as handsome as the first day she’d seen him. Just thinking about the way he’d moved inside her, again and again, made her flush with heat.
How long had they been in this room? Hours? The light was the same. Although, considering they were in the underworld, she wasn’t sure if it ever changed.
“Would you have done this with me if we were not about to die?” he asked her, his eyebrow arching.
The question surprised her. “I wouldn’t have had the opportunity. We weren’t speaking to each other.”
“I was speaking to you. It was you who was avoiding me.”
“I thought... I thought you were only after one thing.”
“And now that I’ve had it? What now?”
“You tell me.”
“If it were up to me alone, and if we survive this quest, I’d like to have the rest of you.”
“You’d have the rest of me? It seems there is none of me you haven’t tasted yet.” She lifted the sheet and looked down at herself, eliciting a small laugh from Orpheus.
“I wasn’t kidding when I said I’d like to marry you.”
“We hardly know each other.” Aside from the time they’d been together on the ship, she’d spent more time hating him than in his company.
“I know you. I know you better than anyone. You are a descendant of Circe and one of the most powerful sorceresses alive. I know you heal the villagers for free when they can’t pay you. I know you can read and write, which is admirable on its own, and that you also enjoy it. And I know you’d make an excellent wife. Also, I know you could have chosen to turn me back into a human immediately at the stream, but you wanted to teach me a lesson.”
She flashed him a crooked smile. “Maybe.”
“I forgive you.” He rolled her on top of him. “Would it be so terrible to be married to a barber?”
“A barber who can charm the birds with his own voice and who kisses like Eros himself.”
“How do you know how Eros kisses?”
“I don’t, only that your kisses are the finest in the world.”
Was her mind playing tricks on her, or had he just blushed? Her stomach growled.
“Let me get you some fruit,” he said, rising from the bed. He paused, staring into the bowl.
“What is it?”
“The bowl is full.”
She sprang from the bed, another pang of hunger rippling through her stomach. “The water pitcher is full again too.”
They looked at each other in horror. “How long have we been in that bed, Alena?”
Her eyes searched the room for any clue, but the light hadn’t changed; the temperature was exactly the same. Her gaze fell on her apothecary basket. Hand trembling, she reached down and drew a finger through a layer of dust that had settled on the top. At least a day’s worth of dust, maybe more.
“Orpheus, something isn’t right.”
“I feel strange. Weak. Like we haven’t eaten in days.”
She opened her basket and retrieved a sprig of enchanted mint from one of the jars. “For clarity.” She popped it into her mouth, chewed, and swallowed.
Almost instantly, the room changed. Paint peeled from the walls, the drapes hung in torn shreds in front of the window, the bed became a filthy, dusty, and stained mess, and it was hot, as hot as where they most certainly were—Hades.
