Page 28 of The Dark Prince
Realizing there was nothing for it, I gathered my strength and pushed Tyr hard, rolling him onto his back with me on top of him. I grabbed his hand that had been around my waist and put it to my eyes, covering them.
As expected, he woke immediately, his body going as rigid under me as a board.
“It’s alright,” I said softly, continuing to press his hand into my eyes. “I thought you would want to fix things before … er, well, you know. You can have your hand back. I promise to keep my eyes closed.”
He snatched his hand back, but just as quickly, I felt a cloth go over my eyes. He tied it in the back with deft fingers. Onlythendid I feel his body relax against mine.
“I’m sorry you don’t trust me,” I whispered.
His hands buried themselves in my hair, massing and scratching at my scalp. I moaned, a boneless pile of goo in his hands.
A dark chuckle was my reward. “You are surprisingly easy to please,” he intoned, voice rough with sleep. His palm rested at the base of my skull, and we fell together in a tangle of lips. Without the mask in the way, he attacked my mouth like a possessed beast, biting and nipping before plunging deep inside of me with his tongue.
I moaned and met his ardor with my own, matching him stroke for stroke as we both did our best to consume each other. Before I could help myself, my hips were thrusting down against his, trying hard to grind into him.
One of his hands came to rest at the hollow of my throat and squeezed in warning. It only made me want him more. I grunted into his mouth as I snapped my hips against his, and his touches turned from light to punishing, his fingers gripping me hard.
“You don’t …no,” he managed, but his hips traitorously rose and fell to meet mine. I froze the moment I heard no.
A knock on the door disrupted our plans.
Tyr grabbed me with one hand as he sat up, pulling me into his lap as he turned so our backs faced the door. “What is it?” Tyr called out harshly.
A brutal slice of wind cut through the room as Maddeus opened the door. “Time to go.” The wind slammed the door shut after him. He was gone as quickly as he’d come.
Tyr stood and moved away from me. I sat in the furs, helpless with the blindfold still over my eyes. I heard him fuss with his mask for a minute, then move about the room.
“You can take it off.”
I slipped the scarf down around my neck, blinking into the daylight. He practically threw my clothes at me, refusing to meet my eyes.
Why was he angry? It couldn’t be with Maddeus. I was mostly sure it wasn’t at me.
I shrugged and slipped into my clothes. My fingers reached for the clasp on my back, but I couldn’t reach it.
My fingers reached for the clasp on my back, but I couldn’t reach it.
“Tyr? Could you help me?”
He glared at me as though it were a trick, but the exasperated look I gave him had him moving toward me. I turned around as his fingers touched the back of my neck.
Tyr grunted and bent low to see the tiny little clasp, his breath warm on my shoulder.
“There.” He backed away and dropped his hands to his side, quickly turning from me and retreating to the furthest side of the cottage.
A hot surge of triumph went through me. Hewantedme.I was getting to him.
It might have been getting colder the further north we rode, but I couldn’t tell. In my new clothing and with a full belly, toasty and warm with my backside against Tyr’s chest, I was practically chipper. The sparkling white landscape all around me held my attention, especially the mountains which continued to rise around us. I thought of asking Tyr a few questions, but the tightness of the muscles behind me reminded me he was in no mood. The sky itself seemed to reflect on its lord’s frame of mind, because the sun quickly disappeared under a dark, gray haze.
Before we’d left, Puth had laid his hands on me and Tyr (to my lord’s embarrassment) in what was obviously a prayer for safe travels. I was touched by the thoughtful gesture, but it had clearly put Tyr on edge. He hadn’t relaxed since.
“Do you follow the old gods like your people?” I asked, having to shout a bit over the wind. I wasn’t sure what he worshiped, since he’d insisted on having our wedding in the ‘new’ religion, or the one we were all instructed to follow with the king. One god, one deity. I personally didn’t care what he worshiped, and he certainly didn’t seem to care what I did, either.
“I have no gods,” he finally responded, his voice rumbling against my back.
“None at all?” I asked again, finding it hard to believe. Everyone believed in something, didn’t they? Even if it was just a supernatural force of some kind, superstitions, or—
“I believe there is good and evil in this world; magicks so dark and terrible we will never discover a fraction of it. I don’t believe there is any structure or point to any of it. To believe there is a higher being with an overall purpose is simply the lie we tell ourselves so we may sleep at night.”
