“Iris. Iris!”
She was cold, but not frozen, and she could feel. She could feel the warmth of the amulet flowing through her hand, finding the tip of her nose where the biting wind had struck her, the ends of her toes where ice still clung to her. She could feel the blankets wrapping around her in a cozy cocoon, the warm hands cupping her face.
Iris, wake up.
Wake up.
“Iris, wake up!”
Char’s voice blended with the whispers, but she recognized it. It was closer than the whispers, easier to focus on and understand. She heard his worry, and she knew the hands she felt were his. She didn’t want him to worry.
“I’m fine.” Her words came out as a mumble from numb lips, and when she opened her eyes, it took a moment for his face to swim into view. “I’m fine.”
She tried to sit up, but he kissed her with an intensity that took her breath away. Soft, warm lips met hers again and again, his warmth chasing away the lingering chill, and the memory of all the other kisses they’d shared at the party came back with a rush of embarrassed heat to her cheeks.
“Char, stop.”
“You were blue last time,” he murmured between kisses. Though they were chaste, she could taste his relief, and every kiss brought back more of the party.
Open-mouthed kisses she’d instigated, dancing body to body with him, his hands on her hips or her bare back, his sharp green eyes locked on hers.
Had she really done that?
In front of other people. Strangers.
Just thinking about it mortified her.
“Char, stop!”
He pulled back from her, giving her the space to sit up and look anywhere except at him. They were in a stone room, but not a cave. Human hands had cut and mortared the irregular blocks together. A faded rug covered most of the floor, its design too far gone to be made out, and candles in wall sconces sent strange shadows dancing across the walls. The only furniture in the room other than the bed she sat upon was a bureau.
Char was sitting by her side, stroking her hair. She liked his touch more than she cared to admit. She’d liked his kisses more than she cared to admit, too.
“You’re red this time.”
Her eyes snapped to his, narrowed with amusement above a smirk that made her heart do a somersault. Heat flooded all the way to the tips of her ears. She released the amulet, and his eyes dropped to her chest. Then she realized her right hand was under the tight party dress, and she yanked her hand out, shoving him back with both hands and jumping to her feet while pulling her skirt down and fumbling for the package of clothes among the blankets.
He was chuckling. That made her blush even more.
She found the package and tore at the twine. “Where are we?”
“A mage’s tower.”
The package slipped from her hands as she spun to face him. He was leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest and that smirk sharpening his gaze. Beside him, wind and snow whistled past the frosted glass panes of a single window.
“A mage’s tower?”
“Yes.”
She stared at him, heart pounding with sudden fear. “But—”
He pushed off from the wall and stepped toward her, and somehow, her heart sped up even more. His hands slid around her waist to her back, pulling her flush with him, and she couldn’t look away from those green eyes.
“You said you trusted me.”
The rhythm of her heart was changing. His eyes were getting closer, and his lips. “I… did.”
“So trust me.”
He was going to kiss her. She thought maybe she should push him away, maybe this shouldn’t be how he convinced her to listen to him, but she licked her lips, and when his eyes dropped to them, her eyes fluttered closed.
This was not a chaste kiss.
His tongue pushed past lips she hadn’t even realized she’d parted, finding her tongue and invading her senses. Her head spun; she leaned into his embrace. He changed the angle of the kiss, and she clutched at his shirt as her knees went weak. Every thought, every breath, was his. One hand stayed on the small of her back, and the other followed her spine up, tangling with her hair and sending a shiver running down her spine. A soft moan escaped her when he adjusted the angle again, and she wasn’t even aware enough to be embarrassed.
When he finally broke the kiss, she was panting for air. She closed her eyes and rested her cheek on his chest. He was rubbing her back, up and down her spine.
“Good to know that isn’t just a drunk thing.”
“Why did you do that?” she asked, breathless.
“Isn’t it obvious?”
She was afraid to look up at him. The sudden softness in his voice reminded her of the way he’d looked at her when they were dancing—just her. Whenever she’d looked away from him, she’d seen other girls looking at him, seen them giving her the occasional dirty looks, and that had filled her with doubt until she’d looked back into his eyes and seen herself reflected there.
But he was a playboy. A ladies' man. An impulsive troublemaker. She knew that now, and she was afraid to let herself think maybe she was more than a fling to him.
“You’ve kissed a lot of girls, haven’t you?”
He shrugged. “A few.”
“And danced with a lot of girls, too.”
“That number is quite a bit higher than the number I’ve kissed, yes.”
She peeked up at him. “So, what’s different about me?”
He hesitated. His green eyes sharpened until she felt like he was looking right through her. She held her breath, her heart thudding against her ribcage, and then he sighed and rested his forehead against hers.
“I don’t know, Iris. But you are different.”
It wasn’t an answer, and yet it filled her with relief. She smiled and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Okay.”
“Okay, what?”
“Okay, I believe you. And I trust you.”
He smiled, too. “You’ll be safe here, Iris, at least for a little while. This mage is a friend of mine and has been for many years. My father met him when he was still a mage’s apprentice, and we used to visit him together in secret. Not even Mother or Rath know about him. No way Kelnor knows.”
Iris didn’t have to ask why Char and his father had kept this friend a secret, now that she knew more about the longstanding distrust dragons had for human mages. Recent experience meant she didn’t trust any mages, human or dragon.
But she trusted Char. And if he still trusted this mage after losing his father to another one, that said something about the man.
“Shouldn’t you introduce me to him?”
“It’s the middle of the night, Iris. He’s asleep.”
“Then who let us in?”
Char shrugged. “I have a key. This is my room when I stay over.”
“Oh.”
Standing there, holding each other, reminded Iris of spending the night in each other’s arms at the party, but she couldn’t bring herself to push him away. He made her both comfortable and uncomfortable, and at this moment, the comfort outweighed the discomfort. He was solid rock in a sea of uncertainty.
But he was starting to lean on her.
He closed his eyes, and she realized he had dark circles under them.
“How long were you flying?”
“Almost a full day.”
She pulled back enough to look over his shoulder at the window and the blizzard swirling outside. “In this weather?”
His green eyes opened again. “It wouldn’t have taken so long otherwise.”
“You must be exhausted!” She freed herself from his embrace, turning back to the bed and removing the package of clothes. “You need to get some sleep.”
“I’m fine, Iris.”
“No, you’re not, and you’re not flying back in that storm.” She set the package on the bureau and came back to his side, taking his hand and tugging him toward the bed. “Rath is covering for you, and I’m sure you’ll come up with some excuse for your delay. Now rest.”
“You’re very insistent.” He sat on the edge of the bed, but then he pulled her onto his lap, and a flutter of nerves filled her stomach. “What about you?”
She avoided his eyes, trying to ignore the warmth creeping into her cheeks again. “I was asleep the whole time you were flying.”
He kissed the corner of her eye. “You can’t wander around a mage’s tower unattended.”
“Well, I’ll put my clothes away.”
Another kiss, this time on her cheek. “And what will you do with the other five hours until dawn?”
“I’ll figure something out.”
He kissed her temple, and she stood abruptly, moving out of his reach. “Lie down and close your eyes.”
He smirked, but did as she said. “Have a surprise lined up for me?”
“No, I do not have a surprise lined up for you. I need to change into something sensible, and you need your rest.” She grabbed an extra blanket and threw it over his face.
“Hey!”
“That stays there until I’m done changing.”
He chuckled. “Fair enough.”
She finished untying the twine, and then she realized he’d made the package from his shirt. That was a detail she hadn’t caught last night when she had still been under the effects of the alcohol.
She winced at the thought. One glass of wine. Not even one glass of wine. Half a glass of what Rath had said was a light wine, and that had been enough to get her drunk.
Her blush deepened, her fingers trembled as she undid the shirt to reach her clothes inside.
“Done yet?”
“No.” She glanced back at him and saw green eyes peeking past the blanket. “You!” She grabbed the shirt and stormed over to the bed, throwing that across his face, too. “No peeking!”
“Okay, okay.”
She went back to the bureau and grabbed the dark green dress she’d worn before this whole party escape plan came up, then remembered his wide eyes when he'd first seen her in it, and she glanced back at him again. He’d pulled the blanket back over his head.
She moved behind the head of the bed. If he tried to look, she’d have an extra second to throw something over his face or smack him.
He was trouble.
He’d told her he was trouble; his mother had told her he was trouble; and she had plenty of first-hand experience in the affirmative. He wasn’t someone she should fall for.
She still wasn’t quite sure how it happened.
And she’d never stripped so fast before, not even in winter, when the cold frosted the nails in the church basement’s ceiling.
But when she pulled on the green dress, she realized she had a problem.
“Um… Char?”
“Am I allowed to look now?”
She took a deep breath. “I need some help with the back.”
“My specialty.” He sounded a little too smug for her liking, and when he pulled the blanket and shirt from his face and sat up, the smirk he wore was also not to her liking. “Come here.”
“Why don’t you come here?” she countered, clutching the front of the dress against her.
“I thought you wanted me in bed.”
“Don’t say it like that!”
He grabbed her waist and maneuvered her to stand in front of him. “Turn around.”
“Maybe you should fly out into that blizzard.”
“You don’t mean that.” His fingers brushed across her skin.
“Char—”
He drew a line up her spine. “You’re irresistible, Iris.”
“Well, resist!”
He chuckled and tugged the fabric closed. She breathed a sigh of relief as he worked his way up the dress, closing the fastenings one by one, but when he’d looped the last button, he grabbed her and pulled her into bed with him.
“Char!”
He smirked and placed a light kiss on her nose. “I can’t sleep with you watching me.”
“I’m not sleeping with you!”
“Then don’t.”
He closed his eyes, and she stared at him in disbelief. His face was inches from her on the pillow, his arms wrapped around her waist. She would have slapped anybody else long before now, but she couldn’t quite manage it with him. She couldn’t quite be angry with him, either. He was a tease, and a troublemaker, and he made her heart pound in a way she’d never felt before.
She sighed and pulled a blanket up over them. “If you tell anybody about this, I’ll kill you. And I can do it. I’m a mage.”
“Noted.”
She listened to the steady beating of his heart, the slowing of his breathing, and she closed her eyes.
Father John wouldn’t approve of this, but he was gone, and Char was all she had.
Her heart ached. She snuggled into his chest.
Maybe that was the reason. Maybe it was just physical attraction and an unhealthy dose of fear and vulnerability. That would explain it. She needed Char, and he was always there for her. Simple enough.
That wasn’t it, though, and she knew it.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMA8IvCTTs9
