My hand was weighed down by how heavy it was, but I’d get used to it. No way anyone was prying this baby off my hand.
“It’s a royal ring, given to me from Miroslava’s family, the ring of Queen Regina,” Ethan said. “Now that it’s on your hand, I think it fits even more beautifully than I imagined it would.”
A royal ring. Wow. I didn’t think I was worthy of such a thing. Ethan kept his hand on mine as we skated to the blanket in the corner of the rink. We sat down on it, and he popped the champagne. He poured us two glasses, and we tinked them together before taking a long drink.
“This night is just perfect,” I said. “I can’t believe you did all this for me.”
“I wanted it to be special, for myonawilke,” Ethan said. “I knew you missed the ice. I thought it would be a good way to get you to love it again.”
It really was. Now the rink wouldn’t be a reminder of what I was missing. When I thought of it from now on, I’d always remember the proposal, and the new life Ethan and I had started together.
I gave Ethan my champagne glass to refill, but he put both of them to the side and leaned forward. “I can’t keep my lips off of you.”
Ethan kissed me again, and slipped his tongue into my mouth in a state of desirous hunger. I moaned, and kissed him back. The kisses had started sweet, but they were turning hot and heavy. Ethan grabbed my breast with one hand, and with the other, reached down to palm my ass.
I was aware we were in a very public place. “Someone might see.”
“Let them.” Ethan slipped the sleeve of my sweater downward, and dragged his teeth over my shoulder. I shuddered. A thrill ran through my body, increased by the excitement someone might accidentally walk in and see what we were doing. Delmare was right. I was totally an exhibitionist. I didn’t care who saw. Ethan was going to make love to me, because this was right and the moment was perfect.
Ethan rubbed me through my jeans, and I grew desperate for his touch. The ice was cold, pressing through the thin blanket. It was all that separated us and the chill. I undid Ethan’s pants and slid my hand inside, fondling his dick. He was already hard, and his breathy pants in my ear as I massaged him made my wants become wilder.
He grabbed me around my middle, and laid me down on the blanket. He carefully maneuvered between my legs, around my skates, as he unbuttoned my jeans and slid them down past my knees. Ethan knelt down and began licking me there, and my hips bucked. I tried to be as still as possible, so not to hit him with my blades, but it was so difficult to remain restrained with his mouth moving over my most sensitive parts. He slipped a few fingers inside of me. I cried out, the nose echoing around the rink and snow from the ice mingling in my hair. The blanket began bunching around me as I tugged on it, tipping over the verge of an orgasm.
Ethan continued to savor me through the wave, until my back was arching off the ice. He pulled back, and said, “Flip over.”
I moved my skates around him as I did as I was told, still recovering from my last peak. Ethan put a pillow under my knees, for support. Then he undid his pants and pulled out his dick before grabbing my hips and yanking me to him. He sank in from behind, and the exquisite motion made both of us groan in unison.
My nails dug into the ice as Ethan pounded me from the back. He was so deep, I could feel every inch of him as he plunged inside of me again and again. His dick hit my g-spot, and the sensations became more powerful. I was unable to deny them, and I tumbled into a fit of whimpers and gasps of pleasure. Ethan’s thrusts became faster, and gods, when I heard him moan like that as he fucked me, I thought I might die and go to the afterlife.
We could do this forever. And we would. We’d be married, and I’d get to enjoy the pleasure of Ethan’s body for the rest of my days. We’d never be separated, and our love would only continue to grow.
Ethan’s cry of release caused a ripple of bliss to rush straight from my vagina to my heart. Ethan continued to thrust into me, until the aftershocks were over and he was leaning forward to plant kisses on my neck. We collapsed and laid side by side on the ice, our breath taking shape in the cold air as I stared into his gorgeous eyes.
We didn’t say anything, because we didn’t have to. All we needed was to bask in the light of the other’s sun.
I thought of the promise I’d just made to him— a marriage, a long life together— and how starkly that contrasted with my prophecy, the warning I knew to be true. Two years was all I had left to give him, and then, Ethan would be a widower. How could I even agree to marry him when I knew how starcrossed our love was? How hopeless our fate could truly be?
When I looked at him again, I figured the stars could do as they wished, because this shifter was mine. Whatever time we had left together, we would make it worth a thousand lifetimes.
And we would be happy. At least, until prophecy’s end.
Chapter Nineteen
Ethan
Istaggered forward, and collapsed against the floor of my royal suite. I groaned— Stefan rushed to help me, while Elijah remained seated, his feet propped up on the side table. He rolled his eyes, like being here was an obligation to him, and not something he actually wished to do.
My father had died some time ago, and my prosthetic was still very hard to get used to. I was slowly learning how to achieve my balance. It had been weeks, and I was unable to wear my prosthetic for more than a few hours at a time. I had been using a wheelchair to get around the palace most days. I’d done countless measures of physical therapy, but even so, moving from the help of bars, to crutches, to a cane, to learn how to walk on my prosthetic, was hardly a simple task.
“How am I supposed to use this thing to walk?” I asked Stefan, in a sour mood. He picked me up off the floor for what felt like the hundredth time that day, and steadied me.
“The same way you learned to use a sword, or anything else,” Stefan said. “It’ll get easier day by day.”
“I do not know why we continue to entertain this charade,” Elijah said. “He will not walk again.”
“He’ll walk just fine, and do much more,” Stefan snapped. “Let him be.”
“He’s stumbling around like a pathetic infant,” Elijah sneered.
