“Your legs,” I whisper.
He hesitates for only a heartbeat before more vines snake down his body. They coil around his ankles, stretching toward the bedposts. With a flick of his magic, they pulltight, spreading his legs wide.
He’s completely restrained now. A king of winter, pinned by his own frost, and beneath the jagged, frozen vines he made himself, he’s trembling.
“Lumi,” His voice cracks. “If this is too much. If you change your mind?—”
“I won’t.” I climb onto the bed, kneeling beside him. My hand hovers over his chest. “But if you need me to stop, you tell me, okay?”
He nods.
I reach out slowly, placing one hand on his chest. His heart is racing beneath my palm.
“I’ve never...” I trail off, unsure how to say it. “You’ve touched me so many times, but I’ve never really gotten to touch you.”
“I know,” His voice is strained. “I was afraid?—”
“I know what you were afraid of.” I lean down, pressing a kiss to the center of his chest, right over his pounding heart. “But I’m not afraid, Andrik.”
I kiss lower, tracing the hard lines of his ribs before my lips dip into the hollow of his stomach.
When I reach his hip, I pause. There’s a sharp indent there—where muscle meets bone. The V-line disappears beneath his waistband. Curious, I press my lips to the spot.
He jerks so hard the vines groan against his antlers, the ice shrieking in protest. The sound he makes goes straight to my core.
“Did that hurt?” I pull back immediately.
“No.” His voice is ragged. “Veyr’kai, Lumi, you know no one’s ever—that’s?—”
He can’t finish the sentence.
I lick over the spot, and his hips buck off the bed. Frost explodes across his shoulders, in a chaotic bloom racing down his arms. His bindings creak under the sudden, violent snap of his weight.
“Lumi—”
“Sensitive?” I smile against his skin.
He gasps as I trace the line of his hip, learning every spot that makes his breath hitch.
I take my time as I work my way up his body. The hollow of his throat makes him whimper. The inside of his wrists—where the vines lash him to his antlers—makes his entire body go rigid, his pulse hammering against the icy bonds like a trapped bird.
It’s when I reach his face that the air changes. He’s trying to sheathe his fangs, probably ashamed of the way he marked me earlier. A bead of venom, thick, slow, and dangerously sweet, pools at the corner of his mouth, threatening to spill.
I remember what it felt like the first time, in the forest. That warm, pulsating flood that made everything feel... better.
“Can I...?” I trail off, fingertips brushing his lower lip.
His pupils blow wide. “Lumi, I am trying so hard?—”
I don’t let him finish it.
I lean in and carefully take one fang between my lips.
The reaction is immediate. His whole body convulses—a desperate sound tears from his throat, something between a growl and a plea. Ice explodes across the bedframe in a violent burst, and vines pull so firmly against his antlers that he gasps from the pressure.
It floods my tongue—syrupy heat that scorches through me like liquid fire.
My skin flushes. My pulse thunders in my ears. Everything sharpens and softens at once; the world narrows to the taste of him.
