by Zoe Chant
But then, he’d have happily died out there, if that meant that his mate was safe...
Still, the wolf had escaped. He remembered that much. Even as his strength left him and he’d shifted back, collapsing in the snow, he’d heard the agonized whine of the wounded dire wolf retreating.
Which meant that Angel wasn’t safe. Not yet.
But hopefully, the wolf was as weakened by that fight as Jonathan himself was. He’d bought them at least a day or two.
Hopefully, it would be enough...
“You should drink something hot.” Angel got up, keeping a sheet wrapped around herself.
She stopped by the fireplace and added another log of wood.
When she made her way toward the kitchen, Jonathan realized that he was resting on the floor in front of the fire. There was a warm, fluffy sheep skin beneath him, and the soft down comforter on top of him, together with a pile of heavy woolen blankets.
Beneath, it was pleasantly warm. Even so, he already missed the heat of Angel’s body. Her scent filled the small hollow beneath their tower of blankets, a warm, spicy scent that made him think of Christmas time in a kitchen.
Had she really rested in his arms just moments ago? His mate, skin to skin against his own body, keeping him warm with her own heat?
Perhaps it was a good thing the dire wolf attack had drained him of all his energy. At least his body hadn’t embarrassed him despite her closeness. He wouldn’t have wanted to scare her for anything in the world.
And he wanted to hold her close again. He wanted to hold her close, breathe in the sweet scent of her skin, soak up her warmth and know that she was safe.
That she was here with him.
And that he was at long last gloriously alive once more, his heart filled with love and hope for the first time in many, many years.
“Here,” she said, tiptoeing back to his side. She knelt down, then pressed a cup to his lips. “Hot chocolate. Try to drink some. You nearly died in that storm.”
His lips twitched. “I could say the same about you.” His voice still sounded hoarse, but speaking was a little easier now.
He sipped obediently, the hot chocolate sweet and thick on his tongue.
Angel made him finish the entire cup, then she set it aside.
“How do you feel now?”
“Better.” After a moment, he added, “Still tired.”
She gently pressed her fingers to his forehead again. “You’re all warm now. Good. But you should sleep some more. You really scared me. I had to drag you back in through the snow.”
“Sorry,” he murmured, his eyes already falling closed again. “Won’t happen again...”
The last thing he felt was Angel’s fingers touching his. He wrapped his fingers around hers. Then sleep dragged him under once more.
***
When he woke, everything was different.
The storm had died. When he rose up on his elbows, he could see snow spreading outside, piled high against the window.
The sun was shining down on it. There were no tracks, no sign of life outside.
Good.
At least he’d managed to drive off the dire wolf.
Angel was asleep. She’d crawled back in with him beneath the tower of blankets again. Her skin was warm against his own.
As she breathed in and out, he could feel her chest rise and fall against his.
It was the most peaceful he had ever felt. It was a deeper peace than that of the ice.
His body was awake, and so was his mind. But for the first time, there were no dark memories, no bitterness inside him to distract him from the simple sensation of her breath ghosting warm across his skin.
She felt perfect in his arms. As if she’d always been meant to fit against him.
Or as if he’d always been meant to fit against her.
Ten years ago, he’d turned his back on the world. On life. On hope, longing, even on love.
He’d never even known love. Not like this.
But now that it had burst into his life with the unexpectedness of a blizzard in spring, he felt unsettled.
How had he been able to make that choice ten years ago? He’d almost said no to this.
If I hadn’t woken, she’d be dead now.
The thought was terrifying. He’d only known her a short while, but he knew that he didn’t want to imagine a world without her smile, without the scent of her hair—without the warmth of her skin.
She made another soft sound in her sleep, and this time there was no denying it. His body had recovered enough at last to show a very definitive interest in getting to know her better.
He was hard, achingly so—and she was still sleeping in his arms, trusting him to behave himself.
And that after she saved my life! This doesn’t even mean anything. She was just sharing body heat...
But it was no longer freezing cold. The fire had warmed the room, and while he’d slept, his body had slowly regenerated some of the energy he’d lost in his fight with the dire wolf.
He was still weak. There was a price to pay for sleeping in the ice for ten years. It would take him weeks to even come close to the power he’d had before he’d sealed his heart away in the ice.
But that didn’t matter. Now that he was awake—now that he’d found his mate—he’d never surrender to the seductive call of the ice again.
Now, for the first time in many years, there was a fire burning inside his heart, and the ice in his veins had melted. Heat throbbed through his body, every pulse of his heart sending fire through his arteries.
His shaft was hard and aching—and his heart, which had been empty and frozen for so long, had finally thawed.
His heart felt soft and vulnerable without the protective cover of the ice. He’d once decided that he’d rather sleep forever than risk hurting those he loved again.
But with every moment he spent near his mate, his heart grew stronger. The pulse of his blood had became a loud roar, as if there was a wild thing inside him eager to break free. It wanted to live, to love, to experience everything there was in this world.
And it wanted to claim his mate. His dragon had at last found a treasure worth living for.
What if this goes wrong? What if I hurt her? I can’t be trusted...
But she’d saved him. And he’d saved her. Twice so far, he’d saved her life.
He’d been meant to be here. He’d been meant to protect her.
What had happened before didn’t matter. She was his mate—and right now, she still needed him to protect her. There were far worse things prowling outside than an ice dragon without honor or family.
Angel sighed. She raised a hand to her face, brushing away a lock of hair.
Then she snuggled against him, not quite awake yet, trailing her hand over his chest.
His erection gave another pulse of need, and he bit his lip.
He could feel the softness of her luscious, generous breasts pressing against his side. Her thigh pressed against his, her skin soft as silk. If she shifted just a little, she’d be able to feel what his body was up to...
“Mmm. Morning,” she sighed. Her eyes were still closed.
He could feel his heart beating in his chest. Was she perhaps still dreaming? Had she not yet realized that they were both naked?
Maybe, if he moved carefully, he could somehow get out from beneath the pile of blankets without giving her a good view of his erection...
A second later, she rolled to her side with a shocked gasp. “I didn’t—I didn’t say anything during my sleep, did I?”
She sounded worried.
For a moment, Jonathan forgot his own worries as curiosity rose up inside him. “No, you didn’t. Why? What did you dream of?”
“Oh, nothing,” she said just a little too hastily.
She’d bitten her lips, he now realized. They were plump and dark, gleaming temptingly.
They were still so close that all he’d have to do was lean in a little...
&nbs
p; “Are you...are you sure I didn’t?” she asked a moment later, sounding slightly breathless.
Jonathan was too distracted by the view to answer.
They were so close that he could see the shadows of her long eyelashes against the tender skin beneath her eyes.
Her scent enveloped him, the warmth of vanilla and amber making him ache to kiss his way down her throat.
He’d kiss his way further down—all the way down to those gorgeous, dusky nipples he’d gotten a glance of the night before...
Embarrassed, he realized that he’d only made his little problem even bigger.
In the truest sense of the word.
“I only just woke up myself.” His voice sounded hoarse even to his own ears. Did she know what he was thinking about?
“Oh, good.” Her words came out weakly. “Then please, forget I said anything.”
“But I’m curious now.”
He couldn’t believe what he was doing. He should have used his chance to gently extricate himself from her arms. Instead he was... He was flirting with her.
With his embarrassingly hard cock only inches from her skin.
Just come back to life, and already about to ruin it all.
He couldn’t even say whether it was his dragon or him whispering the dry words in his mind.
And it didn’t matter, because they were right. He needed to stop this, now. Before he scared her and drove her away forever.
But with Angel right here in his arms, it was impossible to stop.
“It’s nothing, really.” She sounded breathless, even as she shrugged. “About...about what you’d expect after a day like that. We almost died.”
“So you dreamed about the storm?”
She dreamed about you, his dragon whispered in his mind.
After the long, long sleep, he was still unused to feeling his dragon’s presence again.
“Not the storm.” Angel was silent for a moment, then she took a deep breath. Her eyes were wide, gleaming in the light of the fire. “I think you were in my dream.”
He inhaled, a shiver running through him as his dragon preened within him. “Was it a good dream?”
He was playing with fire, he knew that. Any second she’d find out just how hard he still was, and he doubted that he could blame it all on a dream.
All the same, to rest here with Angel in his arms was a feeling more magical than the moment he’d first spread his wings. More powerful than the moment when her presence had woken him in the ice.
It felt like they’d rested like this forever. He barely knew her, but she felt so right in his arms that he never, ever wanted her to leave again.
We’ve done it the wrong way around. She’s naked in my arms—but she has no reason to trust me. No reason to love me. She doesn’t even know I’m a shifter...
“The very best dream,” Angel said quietly. When she looked at him, her pupils were very wide, her brown eyes almost black.
She was afraid, he realized suddenly. He could feel it... not just from the way her body was tense against his own.
There was a deeper connection between them. The first, fragile stirrings of the bond between two mates.
Could she feel it too? Would she even believe him if he were to explain?
She leaned forward, and before he even knew what he was doing, something inside him had taken over and he’d leaned in as well, pressing his lips to hers.
Chapter Five: Angel
His lips were on hers.
She didn’t know how it had happened. She’d woken up, confused and too hot and aching for a touch she’d felt just moments ago—only to realize that she’d dreamed.
Jonathan was asleep in her arms. The hard, virile body she’d pressed herself to in her dreams was real—but the dream was not.
The dream was already retreating quickly. She could barely remember details.
All she knew was that she was out of breath, her body restless, her nipples tight, aching for a touch.
And low in her belly, heat was still throbbing, her clit swollen and sensitive, her folds slick with arousal.
She’d dreamed of him, she remembered that much.
A beautiful, impossible dream of Jonathan making love to her on a soft rug inside a castle made of ice. Like a prince out of a fairytale, he’d danced with her in a glittering ballroom. And then everything had fallen away until it was just the two of them.
His strong hands on her thighs, so powerful and impossibly gentle at once. His lips against her throat, breathing kisses downward as his fingers slid higher. And then—
Then she’d woken, aching and confused and unfulfilled.
Certain that she’d never have what she’d dreamed of.
And even if he would want me—he’s a ranger, not a prince. All of this is ridiculous.
It stopped being ridiculous as soon as his lips touched hers.
Instead, it felt ridiculously right. His tongue was hot. She parted her lips for his exploration, allowing her hands to trail over his shoulders instead.
He kissed her until she was breathless, glad that she had something to hold on to. She could feel his hard muscles as she clung to him, her fingers digging into his broad shoulders. Something inside her that had been aching since she’d woken began to pulse with new urgency.
She’d never done anything like this before. All of her admittedly small experience came from the handful of dates her friends had set her up with, or the dating app she’d tried for one hopeful year.
Not once had she felt like this. Was this what real attraction felt like?
She’d wondered sometimes if she just wasn’t capable of it. When her best friend Belinda gushed for hours on the phone about her latest crush, Angel had always listened with a smile, happy to support her friend.
But she’d never felt like this herself. She’d never met a man and wanted him in her bed instantly, wanted to be kissed by him, wanted his hands to touch her all over.
Belinda had always affectionately told her that she was just waiting for Mr. Right to come along, which Angel in turn had always thought was a very sweet lie from her closest friend.
Only now, all of a sudden, all of her earlier fears and anxieties had been swept away by a wave of raw passion.
She wanted him. She wanted Jonathan more than she’d ever wanted anything in her life.
That was new, and a little scary, but right now she didn’t care.
All she cared about right now was to get as close as possible.
Wherever they touched, heat sprang up beneath her skin like little pinpricks.
When she shifted awkwardly, trying to get even closer, Jonathan made a sound deep in his chest, a possessive little growl. A second later, she found herself pushed to her back, Jonathan still above her, his mouth still exploring hers.
And his knee was between her legs now, her aching clit in close contact with the iron-hard muscles of his thigh.
Instinctively she arched against him—and then, at last, she could feel that he wanted her just as much as she wanted him.
He was hard. His shaft pressed against the side of her thigh, large and hot. The feeling of him took her breath away, the need inside her stomach turning into a twisting, turning want that made her moan into the kiss.
He slid his hand down from her hair, in which he’d buried his fingers.
His hand cupped her breast, making her arch again—and then his thumb found her nipple, circling it.
In response, heat pulsed through her body, her clit throbbing in sympathy. She pushed herself against him, breathless, wordless, moaning when he finally broke the kiss, his lips trailing a burning path down her throat—
And then a loud woof made them hastily pull apart.
“Lola!” With the sheet wrapped hastily around her body, Angel rushed towards the door.
When she opened it, the snow that had piled up high against the door came in—but with it, there came the familiar sight of the aging spaniel.
“Lola! Where have you be
en?” Kneeling in the snow that now covered the floor, Angel laughed when Lola licked her hands, her tail wagging so fast it looked like a blur.
“I thought I’d lost you! Never do that again, do you hear me? I was worried sick!”
It took a long moment until Angel realized that she was sitting on the snow-covered floor naked, with just a sheet wrapped around her, ice-cold air coming in through the open door.
It took even longer to convince Lola to let her get up. The old dog looked like she was determined to never, ever go outside again. And like she was willing to set up permanent camp in Angel’s lap to achieve that.
“Poor little Lola,” Angel crooned once she’d successfully managed to close the door. “You must have been so cold. Poor sweetie.”
Lola whined in agreement, then pressed herself so close to Angel’s knees that Angel almost stumbled three times on her way back to the couch.
“This is Lola,” she said proudly. “One of the two dogs I’m dog-sitting.”
“Hey, Lola.” Jonathan held out his hand.
As Lola suspiciously sniffed at it, Angel realized all of a sudden just what Lola had interrupted.
She winced with embarrassment.
Serves me right if I just blew my only chance...
“Sorry,” Angel added belatedly. When Jonathan looked up, she waved her hand vaguely, gesturing to him, then to her. “For—you know. Um. Interrupting.”
Smooth. If he wasn’t glad to be interrupted before this, I bet he’s glad now.
“It’s all right,” Jonathan said calmly. He gave her a slow smile. “I—I enjoyed that.”
“So did I.” She had to swallow, her own smile a little shaky.
Is he genuinely still interested in me? Perhaps it’s because we’re trapped in here by the snow. It’s not like he’s got a lot of choice.
Jonathan sat up slowly. The blankets fell down to pile in his lap, revealing his broad, chiseled chest.
Her mouth dry, Angel licked her lips, remembering what it had felt like to press herself against all that hard muscle.
“I’d like to kiss you again,” Jonathan said, still holding her gaze. His smile widened. “If you don’t mind?”