Isle’s mouth pursed as though she tasted something sour. “Why the Dark Prince? Jasper is perfectly suitable. And not really your uncle, if you hadn’t figured it out.”
Lex winced. “Jasper is like a brother to me, and the thought of being with him is truly disturbing.”
A snorting sound came from Jasper several feet away. He held a fist to his mouth and seemed to be holding back laughter.
Apparently, he was no longer dozing.
Lex sighed. “What made you fall in love with my dad?”
“Your father is, well…your father.”
Lex rolled her eyes. “Helpful, Mom, thanks. So, what you’re saying is it was nothing you can put your finger on. That’s partly how it is for me and Garrin too. More importantly, he has believed in me more than I believed in myself from the moment we met.”
Isle eyed her skeptically. “You like the prince because he is dangerously handsome. But his father—”
“Is not Garrin. And yes, Garrin isn’t hard on the eyes, but he’s more than a pretty face. He—” Lex would have said he loved her and challenged her and protected her. But she didn’t know Garrin loved her. He’d never said as much. She only felt it.
Isle’s eyes softened. “Are you sure you can trust the Dark Prince?”
“Yes. Now can you please trust me?”
Isle hesitated a moment, then reluctantly nodded.
It was a huge concession, and Lex wasn’t about to take it for granted. She’d do what she felt was right in the end, but she preferred to have her mother’s support. She hugged her mom, the gesture more comfortable the more time they spent together. “Thank you. Sleep well, Mom.”
Lex stood and walked to Garrin, careful to tiptoe around the others.
He reached for her hand and led her to the small alcove in the far reaches of the cavern where they’d rested earlier.
They entered, and Garrin put an ice wall in place for privacy. He walked to his coat still left on the ground. “Is everything okay with your mother?”
Lex followed him blindly, tired after her conversation with Isle. “She’s still uncertain about you.”
He took her arms and drew her close. “I don’t want to come between you and your mother.”
“You won’t.” Lex reached up and kissed him, trailing her hand down his broad chest, a surge of renewed energy filling her.
He closed his eyes. “Lex, you don’t know what you do when you touch me.”
The corner of her mouth turned up. “I may never have done this before, but I’m not entirely naïve.”
“Aren’t you?” He trailed his fingers between her breasts, his hand flattening on her stomach the way she’d touched him.
Lex’s belly clenched. When her heart calmed, she looked into his bright eyes. “Maybe I am naïve. I’ll need more demonstration.”
31
Garrin’s eyes glimmered in the soft glow filtering through the translucent ice wall. “I want to show you everything, but are you ready? Perhaps another—”
“I’m a twenty-one-year-old virgin with not only the hottest guy I’ve ever known, but also a man I’ve come to care deeply for. You’re kissing me and touching me and setting my body on fire. I want this.”
It was precisely what Garrin needed to hear. Even so… “Are you certain?”
“Yes, now stop talking and more of the rest of it.”
He quirked his brow and slowly drew her top up her stomach, his knuckles grazing her soft skin. “Okay?” Lex nodded, and he pulled her tunic over her head and tossed it to the side.
Her teeth started to chatter as he kissed her brow, making his way toward her lips. “Cozy as our love cave is,” she said, “it is nowhere near warm.”
