Frost Bound (Entangled with Trickery #1)

Dahlia

Chapter Thirty-Six

Dahlia

She’d refused.

She’d argued.

And finally, she compromised.

It was the smartest choice. Allium expected information, and Lia couldn’t acquire it if the king thought she was a problem. But she couldn’t give in that easily or he’d suspect something was wrong.

Dahlia slunk out of the dressing room in her leggings, wearing one of Neve’s large black linen shirts. He stood before the fire on the opposite side of the room with his back to her.

She swallowed hard.

He only wore his leathers.

She paused by the bath to look at him. His shoulders were wide and muscular, leading down to a tapered waist that disappeared into the waistband of his trousers. Bruises wrapped around his ribs, marking his velvety indigo skin. Scars marred his shoulders where his caern’ye used to be and cut across his chest. Someone had done their best to disfigure him, but it had the opposite effect.

He was massive, monstrous, and yet … appealing .

The realization was a real problem. Lia couldn’t afford to think her target was handsome.

Too bad his personality doesn’t match.

She suppressed her snicker and padded over to the bed. She climbed up and sighed. Stars, the bed was the softest thing she’d ever experienced. Neve glanced over his shoulder, the gems along his tapered ears winking in the firelight.

“Heavenly, isn’t it?” he murmured.

“Yes. It is.” She plucked a pillow from the bed and tossed it at him. The king spun and caught it.

He looked at her in question. “What’s this for?”

“For the couch.” Obviously.

He stared at her for a beat before a low chuckle rumbled in his chest. Lia scowled as goosebumps broke out along her arms. He slowly prowled toward the bed. She knelt on the mattress, clutching a pillow to her chest like a bloody idiot.

The king tossed the pillow onto the bed and leaned closer, his palms flat against the comforter. “This is my room, jaivelle . I will be sleeping in my bed.”

Her eyes widened. “No.”

He grinned. “Oh yes.”

“But a gentleman would give the lady the bed.”

His smile turned utterly wicked. “But I’m not gentleman, am I, Dahlia? I’m the monster.”

Lia swallowed hard and eyed the bed. It was enormous. There was more than enough room for the both of them, but… “Fine, but you sleep with trousers on.”

He smirked. “I only ever sleep naked.”

“You asked me to help you pull off this ruse.” She stabbed a finger at him. “I’ll pretend to be happily married to you so your people accept the match, but you sleep with pants on . Take it or leave it.”

The insufferable male laughed at her. “Humans are such prudes. It is just skin.”

“It was a whole lot more than that this morning,” she blurted. Lia snapped her mouth shut and blushed.

Why would you bring that up?

Neve arched a black brow. “What was a whole lot?”

She refused to rise to the bait.

He snickered and pushed away from the bed. “Don’t worry, jaivelle . I’ll keep my sorav far away from you.”

“ Sorav ?” she questioned, sitting on her bottom to watch him move toward the shower room.

The king paused at the door and winked at her. “Use your imagination. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” He disappeared into the shower room and closed the door.

Dahlia stared to the right for the longest time. Had she really just asked him that?

Imbecile.

Lia scrambled for the pillows, burying her mortification.

She lay on her back when the king came out of the shower room. She didn’t look away from the ceiling as he moved into the wardrobe. Her nerves were tightly strung. She’d never spent the night with a man.

A vallos , as the Loriians liked to say.

She pulled the covers up to her chin as she heard him leave the wardrobe and fiddle around with the fireplace on the right side of the room. The light grew bright, but still she didn’t look. Her pulse galloped as he paused at the bottom of the bed before chuckling.

“Do you think you could make a bigger pillow wall between us?”

“I could try,” she croaked.

The bed dipped, but she still refused to look away from the ceiling. Neve’s head entered her vision as he leaned over the pillow wall.

“Calm down,” he groused. “I’m not going to molest you in the middle of the night.”

“You mean like you did this morning?”

He lifted his brows. “I didn’t know you were here, and again, it’s my bed.”

She reached up and flicked his nose. “That side is yours, my lord. This side is mine.”

He shook his head and disappeared from view, the mattress jiggling as he got comfortable. Lia swallowed hard and tried to calm her nerves. It wasn’t as if the king found her attractive. She tipped her head and watched the flames dance behind the bathtub. Much bigger flames.

He’d stoked the fire.

“Thank you,” she whispered, tracing on of the scars on her palms. It had become a habit over the last week.

“For what?”

“For adding wood to the fire.”

A pause. “I now know how fragile you are. I won’t have the queen getting sick because she’s not warm enough.”

An insult, but she’d take it if it meant she stayed warm.

Eventually, her anxiety abated, and fatigue crashed down upon her. Lia closed her eyes and slept.

She was so bloody warm.

Dahlia snuggled closer to the furnace and dozed.

Rosemary. Yum.

Her furnace snored softly, and Lia’s brows furrowed. That wasn’t right, was it? Slowly, she opened her eyes, blinking blearily, early morning light just outlining the indigo chest she was plastered against. She gaped at her hand, which was pressed against the king’s pec, his piercing tickling the center of her palm.

Ever so slowly, she turned her neck and inwardly groaned. Somehow, she’d burrowed under the pillow wall, which was still intact, and cuddled the Frost King during the night.

Lia faced forward, noting the large bicep under her cheek. How the devil was she supposed to get out of this without waking Neve up?

Carefully .

She lifted one finger at a time from his chest and peeled her palm away from his heated skin. Next, she untangled her legs from his, freezing occasionally as his breathing changed. Lia inched her legs underneath the pillow wall until she could roll onto her belly. Sweat dotted her forehead as she stared at the king’s bruised ribs.

Now all she had to do was slither away.

It took an eternity to wiggle her way back to her side of the bed.

Heart pounding, she stared at the ceiling, feeling sick. What if he’d woken up to her plastered to his side? She wouldn’t have lived it down. Neve snorted in his sleep, and she peeked over the pillow wall. He rolled toward the door, his back to her.

There was no way she’d be able to go back to sleep.

Lia slipped out of bed and crept to the shower room.

She’d take this to her grave.