With slightly shaky hands, I grasped my chemise at the knee and pulled it up to reveal my bare legs. “Shackle me, captor,” I told him and he gave me a slow grin that caused those legs to go weak.
What was I doing? Trying to seduce him and lose myself in the process?
Stryker bent on one knee and grasped my ankle with his bare fingers, enclosing the cold metal cuff there, dragging his fingers across my calf as he fastened it.
I nearly moaned at the touch and had to shake myself to snap out of it.He’d accused me of witchcraft time and time again, yet it felt like he’d just put a spell over me.
I shouldn’t be having these feelings for a monster. An Ethereum lord.
After securing the other end of my shackle to his own ankle, Stryker rose to his full height and looked down on me. A heavy energy swirled in the air between us, making me lightheaded. Or was that just my faulty heart pumping too quickly?
Then I felt the cold bite of metal into my wrists. When I looked down I saw that he’d bound my hands together too.
Really? “Is that necessary?”
“I said that I didn’t trust anyone else to keep an eye on you, but I never said anything about trustingyou. I don’t take chances while I sleep anymore.” With that he dragged me over to the cot and connected a chain to my bound wrists, securing it to the frame of the cot.
I swallowed a sigh. It would be uncomfortable to sleep with my hands connected and one foot shackled to him, but I would make do.
All my dreams of actually escaping while on this assignment started to look slim.
With my gaze still fastened on Stryker, I pulled back the covers on the cot and slid in between the crisp sheet and light blanket. The awareness that we’d be tethered to each other in sleep created an intimacy that I was sure he hadn’t intended.
I swallowed, wetting my suddenly dry throat and then ran my tongue over my lips. Lord Stryker’s gaze flared and I held my breath in both anticipation and dread, sure he was going to do something.But after several seconds he turned his back, shucking off his coat as he readied himself for bed.
With my heart still beating erratically I couldn’t discern if I felt relief or disappointment that he’d turned away from me.
After laying his coat over the foot of his cot, Stryker doused the only lantern in the tent, plunging us into relative darkness. It took my eyes only a few moments to adjust and then I picked up the outline of his body as he yanked his shirt over his head to sleep bare-chested.
I sucked in an involuntary gasp and Stryker froze, glancing over his shoulder at me. I wanted to turn away, to pretend that I was already sleeping, but I couldn’t make myself do it. My fingers itched to reach out and graze over his muscular back, and I had to ball my fist to keep from doing anything.
Would his skin be as warm and smooth as I imagined?
Stryker’s gray-blue eyes seemed to flash in the low light, like a predator’s gaze. Goose bumps broke out on my arms and the fine hairs on the back of my neck prickled. My body knew when I was in danger, even if my mind was leading me in another direction completely.
Stryker removed his boots, secured the other end of the shackle to his ankle, and then slid under his own bedding. The chain pulled taut as he shifted positions, reminding me of how we were still physically connected, even if weren’t sleeping in the same bed.
Somewhere between leaving the Easteria castle and arriving here, there was a change going on inside me. I didn’t know if it was because I’d seen Stryker be merciful toward his people and brother today by compensating for the lost crops and sending the supplies.Or if the handsome lord and our close proximity were wearing down my defenses.
“Go to sleep, Aribella,” Stryker ordered in a deliciously gruff voice before turning on his side and facing away from me.
I wanted to obey him and fall into blissful unawareness, but how could I sleep when my body had never felt so alive?
As I stared at the giant mountain that was Stryker’s form, I finally understood how Dawn might have truly fallen in love with her own Ethereum lord.
Chapter 10
If I’d thought the carriage ride the day before had been tense, I was wrong. Today was infinitely worse. Whatever moment we’d shared the night before seemed to widen the gulf between us rather than soften Stryker toward me like I’d hoped.
He’d hadn’t spoken a word to me that morning when we’d woken, and barely looked in my direction. After yanking his shirt and coat back on, he’d shackled me back to the support pole in the tent and then left. I was just glad he’d removed the wrist cuffs first. A maid appeared a few minutes later to help me wash up and get into a new dress.
I didn’t see Stryker again until I reentered the carriage to find him sitting on the bench seat with a tense jaw and his arms crossed over his chest. He hadn’t so much as flicked his gaze toward me when I took a seat across from him, or since then for that matter. I’d tried to engage him in conversation more than once, but the most I’d gotten out of him were a couple of grunts. He’d been a veritable statue for hours.
I occupied myself by looking out the window. Stryker’s land was breathtaking. On our way to the Jewel Spring Mountains we passed fields of red tulips,buttery daffodils, and pink peonies. Their fragrance wafted through the open window of the carriage, creating a heavenly scent. The cherry blossom trees that lined a good portion of the road were dripping with so many white and pink blooms that it was a mystery how the fragile limbs weren’t stooped all the way to the ground. The colorful lightness of the Eastern Kingdom contrasted so acutely with the demeanor of its lord, it was hard to reconcile that Stryker ruled over this land.
But even the beauty of his lands couldn’t lift my spirits and I went over the night before in my head again and again, trying to figure out where I’d gone wrong. I replayed the evening before and I struggled to devoid myself of emotions. I’d been attracted to the dark lord, it wouldn’t do me any favors to lie to myself about it. But I would have betted my life, my very court, on the fact that he’d been affected as well. So why was he ignoring me now?
My plan to get back my dagger and use it to cut out Lord Stryker’s heart relied on my ability to seduce the cold lord, but the sad truth was, I was no seductress. Surely someone skilled or trained in this way would know how to break through this barrier he’d put up between us, but as it was, I was clueless.
