Page 17 of Starfall

Ari

I wasn’t about to die of hypothermia. If I even could as a star maiden. But I wasn’t testing my limits. Besides, my nakedness never bothered me—the maidens all bathed in the same room. The body was a mere vessel and nothing to be shy about.

Not that I was ignorant of what humans did in the realm below when I Dreamwalked after night had descended and clothing came off. I might be innocent in many ways, but Elias would be surprised at what I’d witnessed in my twenty years.

Perhaps this was why I didn’t understand why Elias’s mouth fell open and his eyes widened when I began to undress. And why, somewhere, deep in my belly, a tendril of heat unfurled, though I ignored it entirely.

“You going to help me with these, or just sit there and watch?” I asked, frustration lacing my tone when my shaking hands fumbled over the buttons on the high neck of my dress.

I couldn’t wait to rid myself of the sopping monstrosity.

The fire he built looked heavenly, and I shuddered as I imagined its warmth kissing my bare skin.

Elias balked like I’d asked him to kiss me. Not that I would want such a thing.

“What?” I raised a brow. When he didn’t make a move to help, I huffed, giving him my back and moving my damp hair to the side.

“C-come on, I’m freezing.” I resisted snapping my fingers at him.

I had a feeling he wouldn’t take too kindly to that, and I really needed his help if he intended for this dress to stay in one piece and not rip.

A solid thirty seconds passed, my breath growing labored as I made out Elias’s heavy footfalls.

Each struck the earth like a drum in my head, bringing him closer to me.

I gasped when cold fingers tickled my neck, the callused touch sending a different kind of shiver racing down my spine.

Against my control, my head tilted back and a soft sigh passed my lips, Elias’s nimble fingers pausing at the sound.

They trembled against my flesh, whether from the cold or something else, but he pressed on, gently undoing each and every button.

His hands on my shoulders, my back, my bare skin… they were nice.Soothing. Burning .

Maybe I’d knocked my head when I fell into that river.

I couldn’t believe I’d actually jumped. Clearly, I hadn’t learned to swim on Maldia, and when the river approached and Elias asked me to trust him, I did. Without question.

How foolish I’d been. All because he held out his hand and begged me with his eyes to trust him.

The hands at my back steadied, the warmth of the fire brushing over my skin as the gown gaped open.

It was divine, that warmth, rivaling only the heat coiling in my lower belly.

I let out another contented sigh when he reached my waist. His skin grazed mine, the roughness of his fighter’s hands eliciting goosebumps in their wake.

Elias froze at the sound, his breath audibly catching.

The noise amplified the heat simmering in my core, and I shifted in place, trying to free myself of the sensation. It refused to dissipate.

“What’s w-wrong?” I turned my head, unable to make out much of his features from the awkward angle.

“N-nothing,” he replied far too quickly. Too rigidly. “Almost done.”

I frowned at his sharp tone, and the coiling warmth I’d experienced mercifully waned. He’d been even more ill-tempered since the river, and whenever I shivered in his arms on the journey to the cave, he would stare down at me as if the chill was my fault .

There’d been that one moment when he disappeared into his thoughts beside the river, where he’d given me his back.

I swore he hadn’t dared to breathe, and my chest had tightened when the muscles in his neck flexed.

I had to call out his name and touch him in order to snap him out of his trance, though his face remained devoid of any feeling.

He’d appeared like a shell of a person, all hard edges and muddled eyes.

I wanted to know why .

Elias grunted as he unfastened the last button, and the dress pooled to the ground at my feet. Spinning on a heel, I prepared to thank him for his help.

The words never left my lips.

The look in Elias’s darkened eyes stopped me dead in my tracks.

It was far from his usual glower. Far from the detached stare he’d delivered on the river’s bank.

It switched from soft to intense, full of an emotion I couldn’t name.

An emotion that reignited those flames in my belly.

His jaw clenched when he dipped his eyes to the column of my neck.

He never went lower, but his nostrils flared.

I was unable to move beneath his captivating perusal, helpless but to stare as the thick column of his throat worked.

I…I knew this look. Had seen it in so many dreams before. Had secretly wished to experience it, just once?—

Desire .

“You should, p-probably undress,” I said, my teeth refusing to stop their chattering.

Star maidens naturally ran cold, so being dipped into an icy stream hadn’t helped.

But Elias’s stare was doing well to warm me, even when he averted his eyes, even when the small cave filled with the sound of his released exhale.

I shucked off my boots as Elias turned and began undoing his shirt with almost mechanical motions.

Against my wishes—and better judgment—my eyes lifted.

Fuck . When his shirt fell to a heap on the ground, my lips parted in wonder.

Elias was…magnificent. His bare back was a masterpiece of rippling muscles and golden, sun-kissed skin.

All the scars marring his flesh were akin to a map. One I had the oddest desire to trace.

He was a trained fighter, so his physique shouldn’t surprise me.

Yet it was more than his powerful, broad back and scars that ensnared me.

Again, I knew the sensation from my Dreamwalking, but I refused to say it, even in my head.

In all my many years of Dreamwalking, I had not once experienced such a reaction to a human form.

The way my heart beat pounded and how my hands grew clammy in his presence was entirely foreign.

When his strong hands moved to the button of his trousers, I quickly averted my eyes, my cheeks flushing hot. Flames spread from my face and down to my chest, the feeling nearly painful. I cursed myself. Elias was a human , and a human I didn’t particularly like.

“You can keep your eyes closed if it’ll make you more comfortable,” I said, unable to stop myself.

I had to maintain the upper hand. Get a grip on my swirling emotions.

“I imagine this isn’t what either of us prefers.

” I breathed in and out with practiced movements, slowing my pulse. Gradually, my cheeks cooled.

“I was about to say the same to you,” Elias retorted with a bite of his own. “I wouldn’t want you to get any ideas.”

And that was all it took to shatter the illusion. I suddenly recalled how very obnoxious he was.

“ Ha ! As if I would be the one getting ideas.” The audacity of the man.

Of course, I’d reacted to his body; it was right in front of me, corporeal and new to my senses.

The concept of acting out on the forbidden thoughts I had secreted away when on Maldia was out of the question.

If I gave in to anyone, it wouldn’t be him .

With a huff, I picked up the soaked dress and laid it before the fire.

Elias, even with all his talk, had yet to turn, and his hands remained on the button of his trousers, hesitating.

He’d kicked off his boots, but he didn’t reveal all of himself, even though he had been the one to propose undressing to stave off hypothermia.

Not that I was too worried with my healing abilities.

“Oh, c-come on, brute. I won’t bite.” I shuddered, even as the flames reached for me like a long-lost lover.

Carefully, I lowered myself to the ground and stretched out, laying my head on my arm and fixing my long hair over my breasts.

A relaxed rumble of approval shook my chest as I shut my weary eyes.

The night reigned outside the cave, its familiar darkness a comfort.

Yes, this was better. Eyes closed and a fire before me. No…distractions.

A trembling hand touched my shoulder. I flinched.

“I was just seeing if you were warming up,” Elias asserted with a gravelly voice as he settled at my back.

“I don’t particularly want to die tonight, and you seem to run unnaturally cold.

I don’t know if you can die of hypothermia, but I don’t want to test it, seeing as we’re bonded, ” he added with a growl. I bit back a scoff.

He made it sound like touching me revolted him.

I couldn’t see an inch of him aside from the fingers resting on my shoulder. The slight tremble had returned, but I didn’t question it, and neither did he.

My body recovered quickly, the few minutes outside of my drenched clothing doing me wonders, and the blossoming fire chased away the lingering chill. Elias, on the other hand, still felt frozen to the touch, the icy river clinging to his skin like a bad memory.

I wondered how he’d carried me when he suffered so greatly, and unwelcome guilt suffocated me in its crushing grip. I couldn’t help but feel for grumpy, scowling Elias.

“You can touch me, you know,” I said, heaving a sigh. I rolled my eyes even though he couldn’t see. “I promise I won’t swoon.”

Elias chuckled, though it sounded hollow.

“As long as you promise.” He mirrored my position, his chest pressing against my back, though he purposely angled his bottom half away from me.

I stayed quiet, allowing him to nuzzle his nose in my hair.

His breathing grew rapid, the pounding of his heart thudding against my skin.

He wasn’t as unaffected by me as he let on.

“You’re getting warmer,” he murmured. “Feels so good.”