Page 5

Chapter Five

VAARIN

T he blood-stained deck of the Marilise rocks softly beneath my boots as if gentling the dead that litter its boards. Bodies, so many bodies. It’s impossible to decipher who was friend and who was foe.

“We’re too late,” Petyre calls from across the deck. “They’ve taken the princess.”

Urchin runs across the deck toward me, his dark hair plastered to his skull by the downpour. “The boats are missing.”

That means that someone got away. Maybe the princess. “Search the ocean. Find those boats.” I give the deck of death another sweep, my heart heavy with this loss of life even as hope blooms with the possibility that the savior of my people may not be lost to me.

I’m about to turn away when a flash of blue catches my eye, the color bright and defiant against this gray landscape. I’m drawn toward it, and my pulse races as I spot a bare slender arm trapped beneath the bulky frame of a man.

Oh…Tides.

I hurry forward and shove the dead man to one side to reveal the woman beneath him. She lies so still that I would think her lifeless if not for the slight rise and fall of her chest and the light in her sea-green eyes. Her skin is frosted, her lashes sparkling with the crystallization of cold. Her features are striking, sharp planes and angles softened by full lips that are a pale blue right now.

Tides, I need to get her warm. My gaze catches on the broach pinned to her dress. I know that emblem. Its image graced King Bronan’s last correspondence to me. Only a royal would be permitted to wear it thus.

This is the princess.

Anger rages through my veins like fire because if she lies here, then it is clear that she was abandoned by those charged with her protection. Cowards who fled by boat leaving her to…to fight…Because there is a sword clutched in her other hand.

I pull a handkerchief from my pocket and wipe the ice from her face.

“Ah, there you are. I am sorry we did not arrive in time to save your virtue and your entourage.” I scoop her up into my arms. She weighs barely anything, and yet her body feels firm and strong in my grip. Her head falls against my shoulder, and I catch her scent, a sweet, floral aroma like the sea peonies that grow on the cliffs of Merida.

“I have her! Everyone back to the ship.” I cross the deck, doing my best to shield the princess in my arms from the last of the elements.

A whimper of pain drifts from her frozen lips. A wave of protectiveness washes over me, and before I can check myself, I’ve pressed my lips to her temple.

“Worry not now. You’re safe, Little Princess.”

* * *

“Her wound is dressed and packed. It will heal,” Urchin says, glancing at the door to my quarters where the wounded princess is now ensconced. “The wound was not deep and did no damage to vital organs. She will heal in a few hours.”

The sea mage is the best healer we have—his herbal remedies are strong indeed—and the news that the princess will recover is a relief. And yet he continues to look perturbed. “What more is there? Tell me.”

“The princess’s body temperature is much too low for a human. If we cannot raise it, she may die regardless of our efforts.”

“Then raise it.”

“We are trying to do so with furs, but I fear the chill is bone deep.”

No, I will not have this boon ripped from my grasp over a little chill. I won’t allow her desperate bid for survival to mean nothing. “There must be something to be done.”

“Body heat shared could work,” Urchin says, but once again, there is an unease to his expression. “Both parties must be skin to skin. I fear it is not appropriate for a maiden to?—”

“It is less appropriate to let her die. Her virtue has been taken; I will not let her lose her life over the quibble of a little skin.” I shove past him to the door. “See that we are not disturbed. I would have her preserve her reputation. Speak of this to no one else.”

He nodded. “Yes, sire.”

I slip into the room lit by a single candle and move toward the shivering pile of furs. The click-clack of teeth is audible in the relative silence.

“Little Princess, can you hear me?” She moans a soft plea that tugs at something within me. “I must lie with you a while. To warm you. I must divest to do so, and so must you. It is the only way to save you.”

She peeks out from beneath the furs, her sea-green eyes catching the candlelight. “Please…I’m…so….cold.”

“I know.” I kick off my boots and reach over my shoulder to pull off my shirt.

She gasps, and my stomach tightens at the sound. “Take off your clothes.” My voice is gruffer than intended, and I recognize the spiraling low in my belly as arousal. I grit my teeth as she vanishes beneath the furs once more to oblige. The furs move as she undresses, and my cock jumps. I will it to be still. I am no nave to fall slave to my primal demands. I am a king. One who will ensure that he fucks more often in the future so that shivering princesses, intended to be his daughter-in-law, don’t evoke such inappropriate responses.

She belongs to my son.

Not me.

I reach for the waistband of my pants just as she peeks from beneath the furs. I expect her to look away, but she stares blatantly. I arch a brow, and she arches one back.

“Well?” she says. “Are…we…doing this…or not? I’m not…getting…any…warmer…”

A surprised laugh huffs out of me. I pull down my pants to reveal my underwear, constricting human attire, and—wait, is that disappointment in her pretty eyes?

Had she wanted to see my cock?

No. She’s a princess. A sheltered lady of refinement who has been through a terrible ordeal. She’s frightened. Understandably so. It is my responsibility to put her at ease.

“I won’t hurt you. Turn around and I’ll hold you and loan you my heat.”

Her gaze flicks up to meet mine, and there are questions swimming in her eyes, but she simply nods and turns away, burrowing beneath the furs.

I take a breath and cross the room to join her.

I cannot recall the last time I lay with a woman. Too long if the quiver in my lungs is anything to go by. Her sweet floral scent fills my head. Her skin is smooth and soft but cold as ice.

She sucks in a breath as I press my chest to her back and pull her against me. I curl my large frame around her smaller one, cradling her to me, and her stiff body relaxes against me inch by inch.

A sob breaks from her lips. “Thank you,” she says. “Thank you so much.”

I rest my chin on her head and breathe evenly and deeply until her shivers ebb and her breath echoes mine. We lie like this for long minutes, silence pressing in on us until her breath deepens and I know she’s fallen asleep.

My eyelids grow heavy, and I stifle a yawn. When is the last time I slept with a woman? Too long.

Much too long.

* * *

I open my eyes to the princess’s green gaze fringed in thick, inky lashes. This close, I can make out the flecks of gold in her irises. She’s turned in my arms, and a layer of furs separates our bodies now. Her warm brown skin gleams in the candlelight, lips blushed with color, parted to reveal the edge of even white teeth.

My heart skips a beat, yearning twisting my gut for the first time in a century. I want this woman viscerally, primally. I haven’t wanted a woman like that in over a hundred years.

I clear my throat before speaking to ensure a steady tone. It would not do to communicate my desires to this woman. “You’re warm now?”

She nods, and I can’t deny the pang of disappointment that grips me because there is no cause for me to hold her any longer. I make to slip from the bed, and she reaches for me before catching herself.

“I…I’m sorry.” I catch the flash of confusion in her pretty eyes before she masks it.

“Don’t be.” I climb out from beneath the furs and began to dress with my back to her. I care not for modesty. Nudity is nothing to be ashamed of, but human customs are different, and now that the princess is no longer a shivering wreck, it serves to reassert a little decorum. “You’ve had a shock. What the marauders did to you…”

“My people…?”

“All dead, I’m afraid.” I turn to face her, fully dressed now. “Even the cowards that abandoned ship on a rowboat.”

Her face freezes. “What?”

Ah, she was not aware of the desertion, then. “My men found the remains of the boat and the partially eaten bodies of the absconders.”

Her mouth trembles before she presses her lips together. “No survivors? A woman?”

“All my scouts found were…pieces…It is impossible to tell if there was a woman among them, Princess.”

Her head whips up and she blinks sharply. “I…I was supposed to go with them, but they left…left without me.”

“They betrayed you.” A sour taste fills my mouth. “And they paid with their lives. I am sorry I did not arrive in time to save your virtue.”

“My…what? No. I wasn’t…I killed him.” Her chest heaves, panic setting in as she recalls the incident.

“You killed the invader?”

Another sharp blink. “I’m not sure how. He attacked, and I had a blade and…it all happened so fast.” Her eyes well, and a sob breaks from her lips.

I take a step toward her, intending to comfort, but she sits up, and the fur slips to reveal her smooth brown shoulders and the tops of her breasts.

I turn away. “I’ll leave you to rest. We will be at Merida soon enough.”

“Wait!” she calls out.

I stop at the door. “Yes?”

“To whom do I owe my life?” Her tone is thick with emotion, and of course, she does not know who I am.

I turn to face her. “King Vaarin. You are to wed my son, so best that we keep this incident to ourselves. As innocent and necessary as it may be, there are those that would not understand.”

I slip from the room, closing the door softly behind me, her renewed sobs echoing in my ears.