“What is the point of this?” I seethed, the stockings soaking with freezing snow.
“Does there have to be a point? I’m just making sure you didn’t get soft in my absence,” he teased, sitting down on a fallen log with the rifle across his lap in front of me.
My knees were becoming numb from touching the cold, wet ground. No matter how hard I tried to keep from shaking, I couldn’t stop the ice from chilling me down to the marrow.
His eyes were full of blood, enjoying this entirely too much.
“Alina,” he called sweetly, pointing to the ground before him as he sat with his legs poised wide.
I lifted my knee.
“Ah-ah!” he scolded, shaking his head.
“What is it?”
His smirk grew wider.
I frowned, lowering my knee down to the frozen ground.
There was no need for wool clothes to keep out the weather; my rage burned within me like a furnace.
Slowly, I placed my hands on the ground, stiffly crawling to him. It was only a few paces, but it took forever to reach him. I stopped in front of him, sitting down on my knees and staring at the snow under my palms. My fingers were pale, losing blood flow as well as the color in my limbs. The frost almost burned on contact.
The barrel was placed under my chin, tilting it up to him. A crazed smile twisted his handsome features as he became infatuated with the display before him. My gut twisted at the thought of our position. The way he looked at me in this state. It made me feel in a way that would be shameful to admit.
“You are so captivating when you are angry,” he taunted.
“You are a cruel man.”
“Then tell me to stop.”
I contemplated his words, looking for any sense of a trap. I glanced at the tip of the barrel that touched my cheek before returning my gaze to him.
“Will you still find me pretty if I lose a limb to frostbite?”
“You will have to find other ways to keep warm,” he smirked. “Have you tried touching yourself? It may help.”
“Willyoukeep me warm?” I lifted my hand to the barrel, caressing it as I dragged my tongue along the cool metal.
He froze in place, but he was intrigued, from the look in his eyes. He followed my tongue along the gun. I think I even saw him swallow.
I leaned up between his legs, placing my hands on his thighs. “You vile things run hotter than humans; you will suffice.” I lifted myself up so we could almost be face-to-face. “Don’t you want to touch me, Silas?”
For once he was quiet. I wasn’t sure if it was due to shock or because he was angry that I wasn’t playing his insufferable game the way he wanted me to.
“Tell me.” I clasped him by the jaw, digging my nails into his cheek as I held his face. “Do you think I will not kill you? Is that why you taunt me?”
“I would think that you would have done so already if you wanted to.” He traced over my hip with his finger.
“What has convinced you that I still won’t?”
“Because I am still breathing.” His lips hovered close to mine.
“Give me your coat,” I whispered to him.
“You haven’t earned that yet.”
“I am so...socold.” I shivered, allowing my free hand to palm over the evident bulge under his trousers. He looked down, but my hand holding his face squeezed and tugged his face up. “Look at me.”
