Page 5

Chapter 5

Far Too Close

P haris

Though my heart still pounded painfully from the close call with the lion, Raewyn’s amusing insults and toothless threats were quickly turning my mind away from the life-and-death terror and setting me back at ease.

“I’ll lay my hands on you if and when I want to,” I informed her. “And you’ll say, ‘Thank you, Your Highness. Please do it again, Your Highness,’ because I just saved your silly little arse from being ripped apart and devoured by a mountain lion. You owe me, little Wyn.”

She let out a frustrated scream and scratched at my jacket. Thanks to its impenetrable arrow-proof weave, her fingernails didn’t bother me in the least.

“That screech of yours sounds remarkably like a wildcat’s mating call,” I said just to inflame her temper further.

It was the least she deserved for sneaking out of the cave and scaring me the way she had.

“Please do continue,” I said. “I’ve never slain two big cats in one day before. I’m always eager to add to my bragging rights.”

Raewyn went quiet, but I could feel her seething anger literally heating her skin. My skin was heating up as well.

I’d been teasing her—for the most part. But I wasn’t kidding about the fact that her perfect, rounded behind was inches from my face.

While I’d been trying my best to avoid noticing her womanly attributes on the ride, it was impossible at this moment.

I started running to reach the cave faster.

“Be careful—the rocks are wet,” she warned.

My thoughts exactly as I’d been tracking her down after waking to find her gone. I was certain I’d find her fallen with her head split open.

I opened my mouth to say, “foolish girl,” again but thought better of it, as we’d just reached the cave. In a moment I’d set her down and those nails of hers would have access to my face.

Ducking in out of the downpour, I carried Raewyn to the back of the cave and lowered her from my shoulder. Then I quickly moved to the other side of the crackling fire, out of clawing range.

Luckily Auspex fires kept burning until you put them out, because we were both drenched. Even I was cold, so Raewyn must have been.

“Take off your clothes,” I said and began stripping off my wet boots and riding breeches.

Raewyn’s hand went to the neck of her dress. “What?”

If she’d been wearing pearls, I swear she would have clutched them.

“You’re shivering,” I said. “You’re not going to warm up if you keep that sopping wet dress on.”

Her mouth hardened, and her fuming eyes narrowed. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

I rolled my eyes. “I’ve seen plenty of shifts, my lady. Believe me, yours is nothing special. What I wouldn’t like is to have to tell my brother that all I managed to deliver to Waterdale was a frozen corpse resembling a human he once knew.”

Removing my wet jacket, I dropped it to the floor then stripped off my shirt, which had been protected from the elements and was still dry. I reached over the top of the fire and offered it to her.

She stared at my warm, dry shirt like it was a live viper.

“Well?” I said.

Raewyn’s honey-brown eyes flickered up to meet mine. They were filled with confusion.

“You… you’re giving me your shirt to put on?”

My tone was patient, as if I was speaking to a four year old. “It would appear that way. Do you want it or not?”

After another moment’s hesitation, she snatched it from my hand. “Thank you. Now turn around.”

Giving her another eye roll, I did as she asked, busying myself with hanging my wet garments from protrusions in the rock wall while she changed.

“I don’t actually smell bad, do I?” I asked because I couldn’t help myself.

Women usually commented on how appealing my scent was, but maybe we didn’t smell as good to humans as we did to fellow Elves.

And I had been riding all night, battling Dryads, sleeping on a cave floor, and hadn’t bathed since yesterday.

The same could be said of Raewyn, but she smelled every bit as delicious as she had that first night at the ball.

“What?” she asked.

“You called me a malodorous beast. But I don’t actually stink—do I?”

I heard a loud exhale amid the rustle of clothing.

“You are impossible, fishing for compliments at a time like this. Okay, you can turn around now,” she said. “Will you hang mine, too, so they can dry?”

When I turned back around, the breath caught in my throat. Raewyn still stood on the other side of the crackling fire, wearing my shirt.

And only my shirt. In her hand were both her dress and her shift.

Something stirred deep in my abdomen. There was nothing between her body, which I had failed spectacularly not to notice, and the garment that had been touching my skin only moments ago.

It probably still held my body heat.

And now my mind was spinning off in the direction of body heat and all the various means of generating it.

I took a couple of long strides over to her and grabbed the wet clothes, turning away immediately and searching for protruding rocks from which to hang them.

“Thank you,” she said meekly. “And thank you again for the shirt. It’s quite warm.”

My eyes closed, and I inhaled a deep breath before turning to face her.

“You can thank me by not trying anything so foolish again,” I grunted.

“I won’t. I promise. And I… apologize.”

She looked so miserable about having to apologize, I almost smiled. But I didn’t.

Over the course of the past few minutes, it felt like the cave walls had moved inward, narrowing the already confined space. There was no room in here for friendliness.

Smiles were dangerous at this point.

Raewyn folded her legs and lowered herself to the spread cloak she was supposed to have used earlier as a bed.

Instead she’d left it behind and run away, apparently preferring a dangerous storm and even more dangerous wildlife to my company.

Though my shirt was long enough to cover her decently, Raewyn’s feet and legs were exposed. I’d never seen them before, though Stellon probably had.

The thought caused a surprising surge of acidity to fill my veins.

Averting my eyes from the expanse of smooth skin, I rummaged through the saddle bag in search of another flask of saol water.

I took a drink then offered it to her. “Still cold?”

“No, actually. I’m quite comfortable. But I am thirsty.”

She took the flask and drank heartily. This time I didn’t caution her about not drinking too much. The best thing that could happen would be her passing out.

Then maybe I could actually get some sleep, and we could be ready to resume our journey at nightfall. I was now in a bigger hurry than she was to reach the village.

Raewyn stretched out, reclining and propping herself on one elbow as she gazed into the fire. The flames reflected in her captivating brown eyes like twin sprites dancing in the night.

“I had no idea how many dangers existed between Seaspire and my village. No wonder Stellon refused to let me leave the palace and attempt to walk home.”

Stellon. Of course she was thinking of him.

No doubt he was thinking of her, too, pining away in his chambers, eager for me to return and tell him she was safely ensconced in some far-away village where she belonged. Where she should be.

It would have been better for all of us if she’d stayed there in the first place, if she’d never come to the palace and disrupted all our lives.

“The road is a bit more civil,” I said. “But there’s still plenty of trouble to be found. The countryside isn’t safe at all.”

“So I learned,” she said thoughtfully. “It still gives me shivers to think how close I came to becoming dinner for a mountain lion.”

I smirked. “At your size you’d be more of a snack. Aren’t you going to scold me now for ‘slaughtering’ it?”

It still smarted that she’d called me a brute for slaying the Dryads.

“Of course not,” Raewyn said. “That thing was going to kill me.”

I raised one brow. “Exactly.”

Her gaze left the fire to meet mine. “I’m grateful to you for saving my life. I don’t think I’ve said that.”

Bowing my head toward her, I twirled one hand in an overly done flourish. “It was my honor, Wildcat.”

She smirked at my facetious tone and the new nickname, but then her expression changed, a spark of understanding lighting her eyes.

“Is that what the Dryads were planning?”

“Yes, but worse,” I said. “They weren’t going to kill you quickly. Unlike mountain lions, they like to play with their prey first.”

Raewyn’s big eyes grew even bigger. “Oh my. I didn’t know. I could have sworn they were terrified of you. So that’s twice now you’ve saved me. Thank you, Pharis, truly.”

No room for friendliness, remember?

I marshalled my tone into something less than friendly. “Yes, well, I need some sleep. And now that you’ve drained my flask, you’re probably tired as well.”

She yawned and sat up, stretching her arms overhead, which raised the hem of the shirt to her upper thighs. I snapped my eyes back to the fire.

“I am,” she said in a drowsy voice. “I guess near-death experiences are rather draining.”

Lying down, she shifted onto her side, facing the fire and closing her eyes with a sigh. They flew open again when she heard my footsteps close to her.

“What’s happening?”

She sat up, her eyes darting around wildly as she saw me on her side of the fire. “I thought you were going to sleep.”

“I am.”

Settling myself on the cloak beside her, I pushed her flat again and turned her on her side, draping an arm over her waist so she was trapped against me, back to front.

“What do you think you are doing?” she demanded.

Raewyn began wriggling, trying to free herself from my hold.

Riding horseback with both of us fully clothed had been a bit of torture. This was torment on a whole new level.

I was clad only in my underwear, and though she was covered by my shirt, the Elven silk fabric felt like almost nothing. We might as well have been naked.

“I’m making sure you stay put,” I said, the words coming out a bit strained as she continued to writhe against me. “I’m too fatigued to sleep with one eye open.”

“I told you I wouldn’t try to escape again.”

“Forgive me if I don’t just take your word for it, my lady,” I said. “You have been known to say one thing and do another. You did this to yourself.”

“No, you are doing it to me, and it’s completely unnecessary. Stellon would be furious if he could see you treating me this way,” she hissed.

She was right about that. Still, I couldn’t take the chance of her sneaking out again and putting us both in danger.

And after going so long without sleep then battling four Dryads plus chasing her down in a storm and carrying her back, I was on the verge of passing out.

“Your honor is safe with me,” I assured her. “It would be even safer if you’d stop squirming and rubbing against me.”

Instantly Raewyn went still, her breaths fast and audible in the quiet cave. She had finally caught on.

I wondered if she was doing a mental inventory of the male body she couldn’t see but felt pressed along her back side.

I wondered what she thought of it.

Though my eyes were closed, I was fully aware of her body, the soft flesh under my palm, the hint of her ribcage beneath it and the luxuriant curves just above that.

The silky curtain of hair flowing against my chin and neck and chest.

The cushion of her bottom resting in the angle of my abdomen and thighs.

Shaded stars , there was no chance I was going to fall asleep.

I’d never felt more awake in my life, absorbing the feel of her with every inch of skin that came into contact with her.

It puzzled me, why this was so… affecting. It was far from the first time I’d been in an intimate position with a woman.

Though, like all Elven people, I couldn’t bond with anyone until I was ready to make things permanent, I’d done other things with women. Fun things, pleasurable things—for both me and them.

Maybe this felt different because I was of bonding age now. We’d been taught that as we aged, the drive to find a permanent mate would make it harder and harder to resist going all the way , so to speak.

I’d never had any trouble stopping myself, and I’d certainly never met an Elven woman I wanted to spend eternity with.

Unlike my brother, I hadn’t been looking, choosing instead to spread my attentions around, never spend too much time with one woman, never let things get too deep.

The closer you allowed someone to get, the more damage they could do to you. I had learned that lesson well.

Raewyn was far too close. In every way.

Feeling the warmth of her body and smelling the intoxicating scent of her skin and hair, I was struck by a sensation akin to standing at the edge of a seacliff.

One small step forward could cause you to lose your footing and go crashing to the jagged rocks below, your body washed out by the waves to be lost forever at sea.

Dryads. Mountain lions. Human temptresses.

No, traveling through the countryside wasn’t safe at all.