He had beautiful shoulders. She liked the way they moved as he walked, and how the powerful muscles of the top of his shoulders bunched as he stretched an arm above him to brush his fingers across the leaves of the trees, as if he needed that brief contact with nature to heal him.
He had strong hands too. How had she failed to notice that? They were big, powerful, and looked very wicked whenever he lowered them and his black armour covered them again, transforming them into claws.
Rosalind nibbled on the brown cake.
Her eyes drifted down the shifting symphony of his back to his bottom again.
He looked over his shoulder at her, a slight frown pinching his eyebrows, and she quickly looked away, hoping he hadn’t caught her. He turned away again.
She snuck a glance at him.
Mother earth, she wanted to climb his tall frame and lick his ears from lobe to pointed tip.
She looked down at the brown cake. Perhaps she needed to lay off it.
She shrugged and took another small bite.
She was supposed to be living before she died.
Vail disappeared through a thicket and she raced to catch up with him. The branches clawed at her, snagging her hair and scratching her arms. She fought them back and broke through.
Into a stunning glade.
Trees formed a circle around it, their thick trunks holding back the shrubs and the long grass, leaving a lush green blanket spotted with little white flowers in the centre. Tiny insects floated around in the air, shining like glow worms, so that when she looked up through the opening in the trees, they looked like stars glittering in the night sky.
She turned on the spot in the middle of the glade, amazed by it. She wanted to feel it.
She pocketed her brown cake and kicked off her blue boots. The short grass was blissfully cool on the soles of her aching feet. She scrunched it between her toes and laughed.
Vail arched an eyebrow at her and strode past, heading away from the glade.
“Can’t we rest here?” She didn’t want to leave this place. Ever. She wanted to live here, surrounded by magical nature.
With Vail.
He nodded and pointed in the direction he was heading. “There is water this way. I can smell it.”
“Mother earth!” She raced forwards, drawing a growl from him when she bumped him on the way past, and darted through the trees.
She ran for what seemed like forever without finding the water.
Liar. Liar. Pants on fire. There wasn’t any water.
She broke through the trees and stumbled to a halt. “Bloody hell.”
A massive lake stretched before her. Trees surrounded most of it but on one side, off to her right, rose a black cliff. A waterfall thundered down it and more of the twinkling insects danced just above the mist at its base where it plunged into the lake. Above it, loomed a great mountain. Green swathed the base of it but the top third was bare black rock.
“Do not run off like that again,” Vail said as he strode out of the forest behind her and she looked over her shoulder at him.
And cursed.
He wore a pair of black trousers held closed by lacing over his groin, his twin black and silver bands containing his armour around his wrists, and nothing else.
Rosalind snapped her jaw up and her mouth shut.
He stopped at the edge of the water, stooped and scooped up some in his hands, and drank it just as she lunged at him to stop him.
He looked back at her and frowned, clearly catching her horrified expression. “It is safe. Everything here is. I know it.”
Because of his connection to nature, a bond that she was growing more envious of by the second.
“I will hunt and you may bathe. We shall meet back at the glade.” He walked away before she could say anything and she wanted to be angry with him for ordering her around, but found herself admiring his bare back instead.
His colourful markings flashed over his arms and down his back, and mother earth, they curled over his hips too and beneath his trousers.
He flicked a glare at her. “I can feel you staring, Witch.”
“Rosalind,” she said and he paused, an incredulous look on his handsome face. “My name is Rosalind. Stop calling me witch. It’s rude.”
He stared at her a few seconds longer, during which her heart thundered, adrenaline making it race. She really had to lay off the brown cake. Her darling mate was obviously affected by all the nature, but the calming effect it had on him wouldn’t stop him from lashing out at her if she kept pressing his buttons.
“Witch.” Vail snorted and walked away.
Rosalind huffed and followed the shoreline in the opposite direction to him. She dipped her toe in the water and shivered. It was chilly. She didn’t fancy bathing in the open either, where Vail might see her.
Or maybe she did.
She glanced back in the direction he had gone and grinned as she imagined him sneaking a peek at her. Her smile fell. He would probably feel compelled to kill her for it shortly afterwards, blaming her for his own wickedness because she was a witch.
She really needed to know what the deal was with him and witches.
There was no way she could help him move past what one had done to him until she knew exactly what that one had done.
She doubted he would ever tell her though. He would probably kill her just to shut her up.
She sighed and followed the lake towards the waterfall. Maybe she could bathe behind it. That would give her some privacy.
A stream cut across her path.
It was small and she swore it was steaming.
Rosalind dipped her foot in the water and smiled. It was warm. She banked right, following the stream into the forest. It babbled over rocks and down a slope, flowing from one of the hills towards the lake. Her heart flipped in her chest when she reached the top of an incline and spotted a large pool ahead in amidst the glowing trees, with a small waterfall cascading into it.
She bent at the rocky edge and waved her hand through the crystal clear water. It was deliciously warm, reminding her of the spa she had once visited with her sister before her sister had decided to join the family business as a dark witch.
Rosalind stripped off her black dress and her black underwear and slipped into the hot water, a sigh escaping her as it swept up her body to her stomach. She stepped down into the deeper water and sat on the rock. The sparkling water reached her shoulders, lapping at her chest. She sighed again and leaned to her left, reaching for her clothes on the bank. She pulled the brown cake from the pocket of her black dress, nibbled it, and set it down on a dry rock. She took her dress and underwear, and dunked them in the water, washing them as she soaked.
It felt wonderful.
All of her stress and her aches melted away.
She picked up a smooth stone from the ones scattered along the rocky bank she sat on and used it to scrub her dress. It would have been easier to make a new one using magic, but she was wary of upsetting Vail and undoing the progress she felt she had made with him over the past few days.
He had touched her several times without hissing or showing any adverse effects, and she had realised that if she let him be the one in control, and let it be his choice, that he was a much nicer, and saner, man to be around.
She hadn’t expected him to touch her cheek to wake her in the cave though.
That had been a monumental leap for him and it had taken its toll, sending him to whatever dark things haunted him.
She set her dress aside and used the stone on herself, scrubbing her body with it. Stones couldn’t help her with some tasks though. She had to resort to a low-level spell to shave her legs and other areas that badly needed some attention after months in captivity.
After scrubbing herself from head to toe, she pushed forwards, ducked under the water and swam to the deeper area in the centre of the pool. She dived down and kicked off the bottom to launch herself out of it, spraying water everywhere. She laughed and did a lap
of the pool, relishing the heat and being clean again, and then set about washing and untangling her hair.
When every inch of her was clean and rid of all signs of her captivity, she lay on her back in the pool, floating close to the surface, her gaze on the glowing insects as they played above her.
She lost track of time as she lay there with only the noise of the waterfall tumbling into the pool in her ears and the insects for company.
It was incredible how changed she felt by something as basic as a bath.
She felt human again, or a witch at least, more like her old self than she had done since leaving the mortal world to help Thorne.
It felt good.
Rosalind raised her right hand and stared at the pads of her fingers. Prunes.
She sighed and reluctantly rolled over and swam to the edge of the pool. She didn’t want to leave it, but Vail was probably wondering where she was and she didn’t want to worry him.
Back in the castle, she wouldn’t have believed him capable of worrying about someone, but he had proven her wrong about that. He had been right and she needed to know someone before forming an opinion of them. He had shown concern for her several times after their escape. She pulled herself out of the pool and let the water run off her.
He had shown her other emotions too.
The cooler air chilled her skin and her nipples puckered.
It wasn’t only the cool air turning them into hard peaks though. It was thoughts of Vail and the way he had looked at her at times with dark eyes filled with desire, with hunger that thrilled her and made her crave the feel of his hands on her body.
She coughed to clear her throat and shoo that thought away and focused on dressing instead. She dried her underwear with another low-level spell, and then her dress, and put them on. Wearing clean clothes felt like a gift from mother nature herself.
She smoothed her hands down the black dress, stooped and picked up her brown cake, and took a little bite before starting back towards the camp, following the stream that would lead her to the lake.
Thoughts crowded her head and she was feeling honest enough with herself to admit Vail was the focus of most of them. Had he managed to find them something to eat? It was all a little medieval but romantic of him to hunt for her, doing the man’s work while she bathed and washed her clothes.
She reached the lake and started along the bank. Her steps slowed as she spotted a figure in the lake. The water was only dimly lit by the trees surrounding it but there was no mistaking that it was Vail standing hip deep in the water.
Rosalind ducked into the trees, fearing he would spot her and somehow make out she had forced him to bathe naked for her viewing pleasure.
She told herself she should cut through the trees to reach the camp, but her feet refused to move. She hid behind a thick trunk, clutching it and sneaking a peek of him, not missing the irony that she was doing exactly what she had fantasised he would if she bathed in the lake.
She couldn’t take her eyes off him as he washed, no matter how many times she told herself that she was prying and taking away his privacy, and taking advantage of him in a way. She had hated those demons when they had brought him to his cell naked, and now she was spying on him while he was nude. She had to go.
She pushed herself away from the tree and then leaned back in again, cursing herself for not being strong enough to walk away and give him some time alone to bathe.
He scooped water up and let it run down his shoulders and back, and then slicked his wet hair back, revealing the pointed tips of his ears.
Rosalind’s gaze drifted down the strong contours of his back to his bottom. Delectable.
She became aware of something as she watched him. He was methodical and detached from what he was doing, washing in a sort of order, working down from top to bottom in a right to left fashion. His gaze was distant, locked on the waterfall and never straying from it, but it was sharp too. He was focused on his surroundings and not on himself, and it struck her that he rarely focused on himself.
Because he feared doing so?
He turned in the water, so he was side on to her, and her eyes shot wide.
Not just naked. Naked and hard.
His impressive length rose from the water, slick with it, drawing her gaze no matter how fiercely she tried not to look at it. Her heart raced and her mouth dried out, her eyes glued on his length. A low throb started in her belly and heat curled through it.
He didn’t seem to notice he was rock hard, or he was ignoring it. He didn’t touch there as he washed himself.
Most men she knew would have been doing something about it, not waiting for it to go away.
He lowered his hands and cleaned his lower back, arching forwards to reach it and causing his hips to thrust out of the water and his stomach and chest to tense.
Rosalind’s face heated and she shoved away from the tree and hurried back to the camp, cursing herself for spying on him.
She busied herself with preparing the glade, trying to keep her mind off Vail and get her raging desire back under control. She gathered firewood, stacking it in the centre of the glade, and only stopped when it was the size of a bonfire. She really had to get her mind off Vail.
Gloriously naked.
Deliciously hard.
She shouldn’t have peeked.
She took half the firewood and stacked it in a spot between two trees, and stared at it. Vail flickered through her mind again, a vivid replay of how he had looked in the lake, rubbing his glistening naked body. Sin on a stick, and mother earth, she wanted to lick that stick.
Rosalind shook herself and went back to the clearing. Vail was probably hunting by now. Maybe she could find a way to get the fire started so it was ready when he returned.
Returned from bathing naked.
And hard.
A thought rose unbidden, causing the blush on her cheeks to darken.
Had he been thinking about when she had taken his blood?
In the cave, he had tried to hide it from her, but that had only confirmed that he had grown hard from the feel of her drinking from him, taking his potent blood into her body.
Every inch of her ached in response to the memory of that moment and how good it had felt to her too, setting her on fire inside and leaving her burning for him long after they had started their trek to the forest.
She rested her back against a tree and slid down it to her bottom, and stared at the stack of twigs she had built in the middle of the clearing.
The memory of drinking from him swirled together with the one of him washing in the lake, playing havoc with her and setting light to her desire. She ached with need, hot and shivery all over, so sensitive that even the brush of the short grass on her calves was too much for her to bear.
She had to get her mind off him and the temptation he represented before he returned. She still didn’t know the exact details of her prediction and acting on her desires with him might be the thing that triggered her death.
There was one way she could dampen her desire for him, so she didn’t act on it.
Rosalind glanced around. Stopped herself. Glanced again. She shouldn’t. Couldn’t resist. She wasn’t like Vail. She couldn’t ignore the ache. The hunger. Either she did something about it before he returned or she would end up pouncing on him.
She cast another glance around and bit her lip as she slipped her hand beneath her black dress. Her cheeks heated but they weren’t flushed from desire and arousal. She felt stupid. She couldn’t do this.
Her fingers touched her black knickers. She was damp though. So lustful she might burst.
She would do it quickly and then get the fire started, and Vail would never know.
Rosalind took a deep breath and dipped her hand into her underwear. Her eyes slipped shut and she sank against the tree trunk. The first touch of her fingers on her slick nub was bliss, sending a thousand volts blazing through her.
She stroked the hard bud, shivering each time, imagining i
t was Vail’s fingers on her, teasing her towards climax.
She shoved him out of her mind. She couldn’t fantasise about him. It was too dangerous.
Her lust-addled mind drew him back again, making her picture him standing across the glade, his purple gaze hooded and dark with hunger as he watched her. He was hard in his black trousers, straining against the lacing, the tip of his cock almost on show above the waistband. Bare-chested too. Droplets of water cascaded over tensed, honed muscles. Delicious.
She tipped her head back and breathed harder, lost in the fantasy and barely resisting the need to dip her hand lower.
A twig snapped.
Her eyes shot open.
Her fantasy stood on the other side of the bundle of firewood, his bare chest glistening with water, heaving with each laboured breath. His erection was visible in his trousers, thick and long, straining against the black material.
Rosalind moaned.
Just as she had imagined.
He scrubbed his left hand over his mouth, staring at her, his purple eyes boring through the layers of her dress to her hand where it still intimately touched her. He frowned and absently palmed his length, his jaw flexing as he rubbed the heel of his hand down it. It seemed he couldn’t ignore it now or deny the need burning through him.
Blazing through her.
“Vail,” she whispered. Breathless. Nervous.
His eyes darkened.
She withdrew her hand from her underwear, accidentally flashing it at him.
His nostrils flared and he growled, dark and menacing. Thrilling.
“My female hungers.”
Mother earth. She shivered, those words growled with hunger, possessiveness and a promise of passion electrifying her.
Light traced over his body and he was before her in a flash, his hand clamped around her wrist and pulling her onto her feet. Her heart beat wildly. Her mouth went dry.
He stared at her damp fingers, a war raging in his eyes.
She trembled.
“Vail?”
CHAPTER 17
Vail raked his eyes over Little Wild Rose. Gods, he wanted her. He wanted to satisfy his female. It beat within him, a fierce demand, forcing him to obey every male instinct he had regardless of how it made him feel.
Tempted by a Rogue Prince Page 21