I heard someone holler and looked over to see that the man who’d undressed was getting thrown back onto shore by a wave. He’d come in to save me, and the water wouldn’t let him?
Shit. Oh, my god, this was bad.
I had a thought to turn around, go back to Winter, and managed the spin, but then I was underwater. I held my breath, watching the surface get farther and farther away from my grasping hands.
I was going to die.
All of a sudden, something hit the surface above me and sank down. A rock. A rock tied to a rope. The man might not have been allowed to reach me, but the weighted rope had. I grabbed the rock with both arms and hugged it to my chest. Reaching up as my lungs started burning, I pulled on the rope, hoping someone could feel that and get me the fuck out of there.
I could feel the tension of something pulling on me and something else pulling on the rope. Not being the religious type, all I could think to pray wasplease. Please let this work. Please don’t let me drown.Please!
Whatever had me in its grip gave, and I broke the surface a moment later. I gasped and coughed and gasped again. Rolling onto my back, I just held onto that rock and let them pull me to safety. But in doing that I realized I hadn’t been saved by anyone from Spring.
I was heading back through the barrier to Winter.
And I was glad.
I reached through the barrier, and someone grasped my hand. Between that and the rope, they pulled me through and up onto solid, snow-covered ground. I immediately started shivering, teeth chattering, and couldn’t stop myself from trying to curl into a ball.
“Furs, now! And light a fire. We have to get him warm!”
I couldn’t quite catch my breath and there was a black circle closing in on my vision, but right in the center of my sight was Flurry’s frantic face. I reached for him as everything went dark.
Chapter 6
When I woke, I knew I was warm and something heavy was on top of me. Weighted blanket? That was nice. Being naked wasn’t a surprise since of course they would’ve had to get me out of wet clothes to warm me up.
But then I realized the weighted blanket was breathing.
I opened my eyes to find that I was inside a pretty large, navy blue tent with swirling silvery marks all over it. Beside me was a fire blazing. There was blanket covering me that was silver fur, but there was something between it and my skin. A couple somethings. One felt like a layer of flannel. The other was definitely a slender male body.
My heart kicked up and arousal slithered through me. Was the prince under the fur keeping me warm? That felt like a lot more than just obligation. I’d take his sense of duty, of course, but if he’d also been worriedabout me? It was giving showing up on his doorstep in a rainstorm and being invited in so I could get out of those wet clothes. A classic romance trope, and I was all for that, thank you very much.
I was also not real sure what to do now. Let him know I was awake? Pretend to keep sleeping? See how much I could get away with before he woke—No. For shit’s sake. Show somerespect, Hawkins.
A moment later, Flurry gave a little snort and rolled right off me. I was able to get an arm out from under everything and lifted the fur to look at him. He was on his side, mouth open, eyes closed, tucked all along the side of me from shoulder to knee. I realized that the spikes of ice that made up his hair weren’t brittle and sharp like they appeared to be because they were bent back under his head as if they were entirely flexible.
I couldn’t resist. I touched one of the tiny crystalline pillars jutting up from his head. It moved easily, flexing as I bent it. Tendrils that looked like a spider’s web with frozen drops of dew on them moved with the spike, and little baubles tinkled when they touched. His strange hair appeared to be delicate icicles, but it really wasn’t at all.
What about his skin? I caressed the back of his hand where it rested on my flannel-covered chest. His skin wasn’t cold or rough or sharp either. There were icy-looking bumps that made me think of freckles dusting his skin, but they were velvety soft. I petted down from his elbow to his fingers, amazed that he didn’t feel at allthe way he looked.
Was his appearance just some kind of disguise? A ruse to make people think he was untouchable?
Well, now I knew the truth.
And he was awake.
I didn’t apologize or pull my hand away. Instead, I ran my thumb over his bottom lip. He sucked in a tiny breath and his tongue darted out to lick where I’d touched.
“You’re softer than you look,” I whispered.
Pink bloomed on his cheek, and I swore I saw vulnerability in his pale blue eyes. He wasn’t pulling away, wasn’t hollering for me to get out, so I cupped his jaw and smiled.
“It’s just camouflage, isn’t it? Armor.”
He swallowed hard. “I am what I am.”
“Yeah, but how many people know your skin feels like velvet? Does anyone know that but me?”
