Page 50 of Royal Icing

He turned back to Emma. The fire wasn’t fast enough. He ripped his sweater off and threw it on the floor, his pants quickly following. Emma’s eyes were closed, so he slapped her gently in the face until she opened one eye.

“Not the time for a boink,” she mumbled. “Mad at you.”

A boink?

He ripped his coat off of her, and she frowned.

“I need to get you warm. We have to take your wet clothes off.” He yanked her sweater unceremoniously over her head and peeled off her jeans. He pressed her against his bare skin, jolting at the icy feel of her flesh, then wrapped his coat around her again.

She needed to see a doctor, but he had stupidly left his phone in the castle. He needed to warm her up before he ran for help. His friend Joffrey had fallen through the ice when they were young, and he almost hadn’t made it.

Leo ripped his hat off with one hand and covered her head. He pulled her off the couch and wrapped her legs around him.The logs had caught, and the fire was crackling in earnest as he walked them over to the hearth.

“Stay with me, Emma.” He rubbed her arms beneath the coat, trying to encourage her circulation. She curled against him, head on his shoulder.

Cooper trotted over and sat next to them. The ice in his fur had already started to melt. He seemed largely unbothered by the incident, which was lucky because Leo knew exactly nothing about dog hypothermia.

Slowly, Emma’s shallow breaths lengthened. Her limbs began to tremble, and color bloomed in her cheeks. Her skin went from icy, to frigid, to barely warm.

“Th-thank you,” she said over chattering teeth.

“You scared the hell out of me,” he said. “What were you thinking? Why didn’t you call for help?”

“C-Coop doesn’t kn-know how to swim. Wasn’t thinking.”

He sighed but resisted the urge to lecture her more. She had saved his sister not two hours before. He held her as she trembled, willing his body to lend her his warmth.

The fire crackled comfortingly. Cooper stood, and Leo shifted Emma just in time for the dog to shake and send a spray of water droplets at them.

“Damn it, Cooper.”

“Don’t swear at him. He’s a good boy,” she mumbled against his bare chest.

A flicker of relief was born in his gut. If she was forming whole sentences, her condition was improving.

“Sorry,” he said. “How are you feeling?”

“Oh, fantastic. Like I had a brief vacation in a cryotherapy chamber.”

His grip tightened around her. Even though the circumstances were dire, something felt incredibly right about holding her in front of a crackling fire.

“Thank you for looking after Ruby. She told me about Paul.”

“I assume you have a spider-infested prison somewhere? Or maybe a guillotine for tiny, tiny penises?”

“He will be dealt with,” he said firmly. Paul was the son of a lord, which meant his mother would insist on handling it privately. Leo didn’t need to tell her that he was going toprivatelyremind Paul to never come near his sister again.

“Good. Thank you for saving me,” she said softly. Her shivering was starting to subside, but he didn’t relax his grip on her.

“I came back to apologize. This isn’t the first time Ruby’s done something like this.”

Emma shrugged. “She’s a kid. Kids do dumb stuff.”

“True. When I was seventeen, I climbed one of the castle spires and threw a frozen turkey into the courtyard. Decimated the roof of my dad’s Rolls.”

She pulled her head back and looked at him. “No, you didn’t.”

“I did.”