Page 29 of Stolen Threadwitch Bride
“No tying up necessary.” My voice came out breathy.
Sighing, he lay on his side and pulled the blankets over us. “I haven’t forgotten you can lie. If you try again, I won’t hesitate. For your own safety, yes, but also to save me from Her Majesty’s wrath.” A grimace interrupted the cockiness of his smirk. “Come here, then.” He lifted the covers, creating a cave between them and his chest. “If you get on your side and put your back—”
“I know how to lie with someone.”
“Oh,really? And here I was thinking you an innocent maiden.” One dark eyebrow arched.
“Too late for that, I’m afraid. Do you want to swap me for another Briarbridge girl?”
His brows relaxed and that warmth returned—something in his eyes I couldn’t place shifted. “Never.”
And he couldn’t lie.
Goosebumps prickled across my flesh. Clearing my throat, I twisted onto my side and shuffled back, tensed for the moment my body would meet his.
Gods, why had I suggested this? But the icy touch of my shaking fingers on my thighs reminded me—oh, yes,that.
“Stars above, you’ll have died of cold before you get over here.” He huffed, then slid an arm around my waist, making me gasp. In one commanding movement, he tugged me against the cradle of his body.
He was warm and solid at my back, my thighs. Even his knees tucked up behind mine, and he caught my near-numb feet between his calves. “You appear to have brought ice blocks to bed.”
I couldn’t help but giggle at that and it pushed the tension out of my body, leaving every part of me heavy and aching. “You insisted on warming me up. You should’ve realised what you were getting into before you offered.”
“Hmm.” The sound rumbled through me. “I’m not sure turning down the blankets is insisting. In fact, I believeyouwere the one who suggested it.”
“I only said what you were thinking.”
“Maybe.” A chuckle laced that word. He squeezed me closer, bringing my backside against… well, against a part of him that it would be dangerous to dwell upon. And yet, I couldn’t help but notice how he bulged against me. Despite the cold, he wasn’t small.
I held still and tried to remind my breaths to stay slow and deep.
“Stars above, you really are freezing. Where are your hands?”
“They’re almost as cold as my feet. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” I touched his forearm.
He sucked in a sharp breath. “You weren’t exaggerating. Put them under the pillow.” He shifted, and when I obeyed, his other hand was there, closing around my fingers. “There. Perhaps a little slower than some methods”—his huffed laugh tickled the back of my neck, sending a different kind of shiver through me—“but you’ll soon warm up.”
Already the numbness of my toes was giving way to a painful tingling, so that was true. But I was much too aware of his every movement and each point of contact between us, there was no way I’d fall asleep like this.
I blinked into the darkness. “What were those things?”
“Do you really want to know?”
I shifted against him and peered over my shoulder, even though all I could see were the dimmest outlines of his cheekbone and nose. “Yes. I was almost eaten by five of the things, I don’t think knowing what they are is going to make my inevitable nightmares any worse.”
“Fair point.” His arm tightened around me again, and I took that as a silent instruction to ease back into position.
Sinking into the mattress, I blinked, once, twice, then let my eyelids stay shut. Those things were horrors, but they were outside, and this place was warm and dark and maybe even safe. “So what were they?”
“Young sluagh: the unforgiven dead, wings not yet grown.”
Fresh cold shivered through me, warring with his heat, making my tired muscles all the heavier. “So they can fly? Great. Whose wonderful idea was that?” My voice was distant, like something just heard on a breeze.
“I did warn you. They don’t get wings until they’ve eaten three dozen souls.”
Like mine. I’d been right to not only fear for my mortal body. I shuddered, which brought me harder against him. Which wasn’t as terrible as I might’ve insisted a few nights ago. “Good to know.”
A faint laugh against my back, my neck. “Stay with me and you’ll be safe from sluagh and hags and all my other murderous cousins.” His hand tucked under my waist, locking me in place. “Sweet dreams, Ari.”
