She flushes before spinning around and allowing me to drape the pelt over her back and shoulders. Instantly, she hunches her shoulders and chin into the folds after wrapping herself inside. I don’t miss the way she inhales deeply before her eyes seek mine.
“Thank you.” Her voice is muffled but still easy to hear. I look over at Jeh’s bed. His blanket isn’t nearly as nice, but it will do in a pinch. I shift to the side to reach for it, but before I can wrap it over her, she steps away.
“I don’t really need five. This one is perfect.” Her face is still partially tucked into the fur as she looks up at me with doe eyes. The image of her lips wrapped around my cock with her looking up at me like that floods my brain. I turn to the side with the excuse of tossing the blanket back on the bed, but really, I need a moment to catch my breath and rearrange my dick.
“Let me know if you change your mind.” My voice is low and thick. I have no doubt she knows exactly why.
“That one doesn’t smell like you,” she admits softly, and I tilt my head back to look at the ceiling. Gods, maybe she was sent here to give me a lesson in patience. I’m not sure I’m going to survive it.
“Aren’t you cold?”
Absolutely fucking not.I feel like I’m burning up from the inside out.“That depends, princess.”
“Depends on what?”
“On whether or not you’re willing to share the blanket if I say I am.”
“Oh.” Her guileless eyes are wide as she nibbles her lip. My heart skips too many beats to be considered healthy in the time it takes her to respond by opening her arms and inviting me closer. I start to worry I might actually need to see a healer, because my heart has never pumped this fast when standing still. “Are you sure you don’t want it all?” she asks, referring to the blanket, but that’s not what I want all of.
I move slowly, because I’m afraid to spook her if I snatch her against me the way I want. When my hands slide under the blanket around her back, I admit, “I have zero interest in taking this pelt from you, princess.”
“Why do you call me that?” she asks, nuzzling her cheek against my chest. Her arms are too short to wrap all the way around my back, but she feels amazing pressed up against me. To my own shock, I don’t feel the compulsion to peel her clothesoff and sink myself inside her—not that I don’t want that, but the contented feeling warming my chest and her scent mingling with mine is more than enough for the time being.
I only remember she asked me a question when she tips her head back and looks up at me. “Huh?”
“Why do you call me princess?”
“Why do you call me Sunny?”
She flushes a pretty color, making her freckles stand out even more, then tips her chin down so I can’t see her face and mutters a soft, “Okay.”
I laugh softly and tighten my grip. “We like that you thought we were your first glimpse of warmth,” I murmur, letting her know I’m aware of what she said even when I was in my other form.
“If you knew, then why did you ask?”
“For starters, I like to listen to you speak. Your voice… We like it.” I don’t intend for the last part to come out growly, but it does. After I clear my throat, I add, “It was also my way of saying it makes sense to me. I’ve never really cared for ‘luna,’ because too many wolves use that, and ‘my moon’ seems too long. Princess is just what came out. If it bothers you, I won’t use it.”
“It doesn’t bother me, I’m just not a princess. I slept on the floor most of my life next to a bedpan, so it seems a little strange to me, but I’m sure Sunny might seem a little weird to you too.” A hot spike of anger goes through me when I hear of her sleeping on the floor. Here I am, worrying about not having my own suite of rooms, and the only thing she’s worried about is being warm. As much as I want to know everything about her, I’m also a little scared to learn about what she’s been through. The small glimpses she’s given me so far haven’t been great.
“You don’t want to know what I was thinking when you called me Sunny.” I chuckle and begin leading her to my bed. I just need to figure out how to sit down and keep her in my arms.
“No, I really do.” She doesn’t resist my urging, not even when I dislodge her arms from around me and take the fur from her shoulders. She does make a humming sound when she shivers though.
“Hop in.” I motion toward the bed. She gives me a skeptical look, letting me know she’s still a little nervous with me. “No ulterior motives—well, not really. I just want to be close to you,” I admit sheepishly. I can’t help how attracted I am to her.
She climbs onto the narrow bed, and for the first time, I appreciate the slender construction. Briar scoots her back to the wall and hisses when she makes contact. “Are you injured?” I pause with only my knee beside her. If someone hurt her, I don’t think that I would be able to stop myself from hunting them down.
“No.” She shakes her head. “It was just cold.”
“You could lie down,” I suggest, giving her a moment to decide.
“That’s okay, it just caught me off guard.”
When I sit, it’s with the full length of my thigh beside hers. If I wasn’t worried about my arm being too heavy on her neck or making her uncomfortable, I would wrap my arm over her shoulders. Instead, I tuck the fur around her, pushing the edge behind her back, and cover her legs. I don’t really need the blanket, but I drape the remainder over myself.
“Why the hell would they even build this place on an ice cliff?”
“Foley likes to say Frostburn was built in tribute to Kenningar, and that the god actually walked these sacred halls, which I very much doubt. Any god I’ve ever met wouldn’t step foot in a shithole like this, let alone think its construction wassome great homage. It makes for a better story, though, than some fucking idiot wanted an ice fortress because they weren’t strong enough to hold their land without the environment doing most of the work for them.”
