by Lily Thomas
“I’m not mad at you.” Adorra sent her a smile. “I know you meant well, but when I retire to my room, all I want is peace and quiet. I don’t need some babbling maid going on about people’s private lives.” And she didn’t need Sath talking about her private life with others.
“I was hoping you two would hit it off and become friends.”
Adorra resisted the temptation to snort when she saw her sister was serious. “It was thoughtful.” Because it had been.
“Are we,” Jasmine tried to find the right word, “are you angry with me, for what I did?”
Adorra knew she was speaking of Edmund. “You thought you were doing the right thing. Do I like what you did? No. Do I love you? Yes. And over time my wound will heal, and Edmund will just become the sad past.” She’d already come to accept his death. Now she just had to accept that her sister was the mastermind behind the plan.
Jasmine grimaced as she tore pinches of the roll, mindlessly shredding it. “There must have been signs that Lord Gothar wasn’t the right man for you. That he had an evil side.”
Adorra waved a hand in the air. “I don’t want to talk about this right now.” She still needed time to think about everything that she’d recently learned and wasn’t in the mood to talk about it. At some point, she would be ready, but now, in a crowded hall, was not the time.
Adorra barely made a sound as her slippered feet walked over the grey stone floor of the castle. Her sister had requested her company in the castle garden, which had surprised Adorra. To think there was a garden growing all the way up here in the snowy mountains was a complete surprise, and she found herself drawn on by her curiosity.
She had to see how they accomplished having a garden up here with the constant frostbite and falling snow.
As Adorra walked down a flight of stairs and came to another corridor, she noticed her shadow once again following her.
She rounded on him, pointing a finger into his chest. “Don’t follow me, you murderer.”
At first, Mathar had the audacity to look taken aback, his eyes gone wide, but then he stepped forward and growled at her, “I saved your life that night. Nothing I did was classified as a ‘murderer’.”
“I’m sure you have more important things to attend to like Sath.” Adorra snapped back.
“What are you babbling on about, woman?” He asked looking completely puzzled about what she was speaking of as his brows drew down over his eyes.
“You know what I’m talking about.” Adorra’s cheeks heated as she said the next part, “All the women that you entertain in the night.”
Realization dawned on Mathar’s face. Reaching out with both his hands, he clamped them down around her arms. She tried to wiggle free, but he wouldn’t let go of her. “I haven’t been with another woman after I slept with you.” Her cheeks heated some more. “I don’t need to explain the women before you. All you need to know is that I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind.”
“Sure.” She snorted.
“Let me prove it to you.” He leaned down and took her mouth with his lips.
Adorra melted against him. She wanted to have the willpower to push him away, but she couldn’t help herself. His kiss stole her breath away and sent her heart skyrocketing into the clouds above the castle.
Her arms worked around his neck until one of her hands glided up his neck and into his silver hair, stroking through the short strands.
Mathar pushed them back until her back was pressed up against a wall.
“Mathar.” She breathed into his mouth.
His hands wandered over her arms until he reached her fingers. Then he threaded his fingers into hers and raised her hands until they were pinned above her head. Adorra ground her hips up against his groin.
“You make me want more… all of you.” He ground out as his lips began kissing his way down her neck.
Adorra rotated her head to the side to give him better access. Blindly, her hand reached for his crotch, where she felt a bulge in his pants.
“Do you want me?”
She nodded her head, as her hand quickly did short work of the ties on his pants. Then she reached in and took a hold of him.
He sucked in a breath close to her ear.
Adorra rubbed her thumb across the slit on the head of his cock, feeling his desire as it beaded up on the tip. She stroked up and down his length, completely forgetting they were once again in a hallway. Anyone could stumble upon them, but she could care less.
Mathar leaned forward until he rested on hers. “Woman, you’re going to make me come.”
“Good.” She purred. That was exactly what she was aiming for. She loved having the power to make him lose his mind. She’d never wanted to do something like this with Edmund… but Mathar drove her senses insane.
Mathar groaned. “I’m going to come.” He warned her.
“Yes.” She pumped him harder as her hand pumped up and down his entire length. “I want you to come for me.”
She felt him tense around her as his climax drew closer to completion. Leaning her head further to the side, she caught sight of his cock, the head popping into view everytime her hand drew down on his length.
Adorra couldn’t resist. She slid down the wall until his cock was in her face. Then she took the head of his cock between her lips.
“Mmm.” Mathar moaned, and when she glanced up, she found his head thrown back and his lips parted on a gasp.
She turned her attention back to his cock as she pumped it in and out of her mouth with a hand in unison. She felt him tense before he suddenly jerked against her. His hot cum spurted into her mouth, and she quickly swallowed it down.
Once he finished, she withdrew his length from her mouth and leaned back with a lazy smile on her lips. Then she heard footsteps echo down the hall, and the smile faded as she darted to her feet. Then the steps grew distant, and she sighed in relief. The person was walking in the other direction.
“Let me pleasure you.” Mathar reached out.
“No.” She held out a hand, stopping him.
He froze in place as his dark onyx eyes studied her.
What was she doing? Did she have no control over herself? Once more they’d been intimate, and once more it had been done out in the open where anyone could have seen them.
Mathar couldn’t believe they were fighting about previous lovers. Of course, he hadn’t been a saint before they met, but he hadn’t slept with anyone after they met. What more did she want from him?
It wasn’t like they were married. He should feel free to sleep with other women, and yet no one appealed to him like Adorra. Once he had her, she’d taken control of his mind, and he found himself thinking about her day in and day out.
“If you want to claim me as yours, perhaps you should do what your sister is doing and marry an ice giant.” He was only throwing it out there because he knew she wouldn’t take him up on it. He quickly shoved himself back into his pants and tied the strings.
But for some reason his cock jumped right back to attention, enjoying the thought of her being the only woman for him from now on. Underneath all that ice on her heart laid a passionate woman, and he’d love the chance to thaw it out all the way.
“Never.” Adorra hissed at him. “I would never sleep with my husband’s murderer.”
He couldn’t resist jabbing her. “I’m afraid it’s already too late for that.”
She huffed, her cute little face turning red as she blustered in front of him. It’d been cruel of him to say that, but boy she sure knew how to piss him off.
“You should have had the nerve to tell me about your involvement in Edmund’s death before sleeping with me!”
She slammed a fist against his chest, and he took it. She needed to vent some anger, and it was better she direct it at him rather than someone else. She was hurt, and he understood the pain she was dealing with.
Once she was done pummeling his chest with her fists, he grabbed her by the shoulders until she calmed. “If I had told yo
u about my involvement, you would’ve hated me and never given me the chance to prove to you that I was more than a hired killer.” Mathar waited for her to argue with him.
“Yes,” she finally uttered, “I would have hated you, and you would have deserved that hatred.”
She glanced up at him her hazel eyes pouring out the sadness and anger within her as her eyes teared up. He wished he could take it away and show her he was sorry for ruining her wedded bliss… but she was alive and well, and he couldn’t be sorry about that.
Adorra was shocked by her body. He was near yet again, and her body was responding to him. Warming up in all sorts of areas. She’d never reacted this way to Edmund, perhaps because he’d been a tad cold towards her. Edmund had always been that way though. He was never a warm man, and she’d known that going into the relationship. He’d still been kind, just always at an arm’s distance.
She raised her hands, making sure there was plenty of distance kept between them. Mathar had a way of causing her to forget herself.
“I do despise you for what you did. How you acted.” Before Adorra turned away from him, she saw displeasure flare up behind his dark eyes. He thought she shouldn’t be mad at him, but he’d been the one who made the choice to plunge the sword into her husband’s back.
As she walked away, Mathar called after her, “Just remember I’m the reason you’re still breathing.”
Adorra didn’t spare another glance behind her, but he’d stopped following her and that was exactly what she’d been hoping would happen. She was tired of having his constant presence behind her.
As she exited the castle and entered the courtyard the cold air wrapped around her in a chilly embrace. She paused mid-step and let out a sigh of relief. The fresh air was welcome and helped to clear her mind.
Quickly, she followed the directions she’d received on how to get to the gardens. She dashed through the courtyard to a small wooden door. Bracing a hand against the cold metal doorknob, she twisted it and walked through into the warmest room she’d ever been in.
She stood there gazing around herself in amazement.
“Close the door!” Jasmine walked up beside her.
“Oh! Yes.” Adorra quickly shut the door after her. “I was so surprised. When you sent word about a garden, I could never have imagined something like this.”
“This was something Dryden set up for me.” Jasmine raised her hands and spun in a tight circle, and her lose reddish-brown hair swirled around with her. “You may not think he loves me, but this shows me he does.”
Adorra raised an eyebrow.
“It wasn’t here before I came to the castle. It was built just for me.” Jasmine told her, a sparkle entering her eyes. “It’s my perfect getaway when the cold of the ice giant mountains gets to me.”
“That was sweet of him,” Adorra admitted because it had been thoughtful. This would have cost Dryden a lot of money and wouldn’t have been a simple task.
“It must remind you of things Lord Gothar did for you,” Jasmine said with a sly twinkle in her eye that Adorra didn’t miss.
Adorra pointed a finger at her sister. “I know what you’re doing.”
“What?” Jasmine backed away a couple of steps with her hands held out, acting innocent.
“Lord Gothar was sweet to me in his own way.” And that was all that mattered to her. It didn’t matter if no one else could see it. Edmund may not have built anything for her, but he’d been there for her during Jasmine’s disappearance.
“Okay.” Jasmine turned and began walking through the indoor garden.
Adorra followed after, but slowly, because Jasmine had got her thinking. When had Edmund done anything like this for her?
She glanced around at the glass ceilings above her. This was something Dryden had built to make Jasmine feel more at home. Edmund had given her a few pieces of jewelry but nothing as grand as her own indoor garden. There hadn’t been too many intimate moments between them either. She was beginning to think her relationship with Edmund had been more about respect than actual love. Respect was nice, but she also wanted love. The kind of love that made a woman tremble in her shoes.
“Is that why you asked me down here? To show me this?” Or to once again tell her that Edmund had been nothing but a calculated killer waiting for his chance to seize what little she had.
“I thought you might like it here. Even with all the fires in the castle, it can still get a bit chilly, but in here,” Jasmine wrapped her arms around herself as she continued to guide Adorra through the room of plants, “I never feel a single chill.”
“It is nice.” Adorra agreed. She was even beginning to get a little too warm.
A purple flower with streaks of blue in it caught her eyes. Bending down, she caught a bloom between a couple of fingers and raised it to her nose. Beautiful. It smelled so good and just pulled her in.
“They have to be some of my favorite.” Jasmine smiled. “You won’t believe who sent them to us.”
“Who?”
“The king of the fire giants. He sent them as a congratulations gift both on the wedding and the welcome surprise.” Jasmine rubbed her stomach.
“Have you met the fire giant king?”
Jasmine shook her head. “He and his human queen were scheduled for a visit, but when Arcaern started raiding the fire giant border, the visit was canceled.”
“You sound sad about the canceled visit.” Adorra straightened back up. This life her sister was living was beyond strange. She couldn’t relate to this adventure her sister appeared to be on.
“It would’ve been interesting to meet a fire giant and Elizabeth.”
“Elizabeth?” Adorra paused. That sounded like a human name, a name she knew. “You mean the Arcaern princess that went missing.”
Jasmine nodded her head. “She was taken captive by the fire giants, and then fell in love like me.”
The whole world was going insane, and only Adorra could see it.
Adorra had hidden in her room for almost a full day after she met with Jasmine in the indoor garden. She was tired of feeling Mathar’s eyes always on her. Her shadow was driving her insane, and she wanted nothing more to do with him.
The moment he’d shown up in the indoor garden, was the exact moment she’d left.
Her body had a hard time resisting him even though she knew there was no point in a relationship with him. There was no use. It wasn’t like she could bring him back with her when she returned to her world.
Unfortunately, all her pleas to get rid of Mathar as her guard had fallen on deaf ears. So her room was now her haven.
The only problem with her room? She’d explored every single nook and cranny, and now there was nothing of interest in it.
With a sigh, Adorra cracked open her door and looked out fearing she’d spot Mathar standing out there, but she didn’t. What she did see was a servant scurrying by in a hurry.
“Excuse me!” Adorra called out still hiding behind her door in case she spotted Mathar.
The servant paused and glanced over at her. The servant’s obsidian eyes stretched wide.
“Could I get some water for a bath?”
“Of course.”
“Thank you.”
The woman nodded before continuing her scurrying through the corridor.
Adorra shut the door. Now she could relax in a hot bath and forget about Mathar. That sounded like the best thing in the entire world, and it would help to relieve any boredom.
It didn’t take long before a string of servants marched through her room with large buckets of hot water.
Adorra clapped her hands together as she watched them pour the steaming water into the large tub. Bathing was something she treasured more than anything. Hot water could wash away more than just dirt.
“Is there anything else you need?” The servant from before asked, looking like she wanted to get back to her other tasks, her feet shifting under her nervously.
“Just peace and quiet,” Adorra t
old her.
With that the servant bustled out of the room, closing the door behind her.
It felt weird to her that she could have giant servants at her beck and call. She felt as though the roles should be reversed. Most of the ice giant women were at least a head taller than her and the men even taller, yet here she was getting the bath she’d requested.
Reaching for the hem of her dress, she yanked it over the top of her head and threw it willy-nilly across the room as she dashed over to the tub. Placing a foot into the hot water, goosebumps of pleasure spread out over her skin. It felt so good and drew her in with the welcome warmth.
As she placed her second foot in the tub, her hands came up to grip the sides of the tub as she sank further in, until her buttocks bumped onto the bottom of the tub. Then she leaned her head back and looked over at the window, where snow was once again falling outside. Winter never seemed to end up here. It was kind of magical.
She let her eyelids slide shut. It felt so good to just relax as a storm raged outside. If she were at the manor, she would call this the perfect day.
As the water cooled, she pouted a bit. She wished she could keep it warm for longer, but with a sigh, she relented and rose from the tub.
A knock sounded on her door.
She spared it a quick glance before deciding to ignore it. She wasn’t in the mood to see anyone in this castle, even her sister. She was still a little angry that Jasmine had hired a murderer to kill her husband.
If she hadn’t so much time between Edmund’s death and being kidnapped, she’d probably be angrier. But there was nothing anger would solve… she’d come to accept that the night he was killed in front of her was in the past, and there was nothing she could do about it. Enough time had passed for her to come to terms with his death. All she could do was move on and hope her life would get better.
The person knocked again, but they’d get the hint when she didn’t grant them access.
Adorra stepped out of the tub but was pleased with how well the fire was heating the room. It helped that the room wasn’t terribly large.