Chapter 32
W e rode hard through the next couple of days since I didn’t want to be gone longer than necessary, for obvious reasons.
Still, it was well into the night by the time the cabin came into view. It was roughly half the size of the estate, but managed to look graceful with its tall, pointed windows and dark wooden turrets.
It always brought mixed feelings, this place my father had procured especially for the woman he loved. Where he took me to hunt and fish and get away from the affairs of the clan before I was old enough to take over the armies.
Before I was old enough to hate him.
Sometimes I wondered how much of Mairi’s treatment he had guessed at, if he realized how much I hated her, or if he was only preserving my mother’s memory. Whatever the reason, he never let his new wife come here. It was a small refuge, untainted by her presence.
He told me my mother used to spend weeks at a time here, when he was off at war. I didn’t know much about her outside of stories from my aunt and the rare encounter with my mother’s parents, but there were touches of warmth around the cabin that I knew had come from her.
Maybe that was why my father had loved her. Maybe she breathed life into a man who had known nothing but death, until her demise took the last battered remnants of his mercy.
Or maybe he had never had any to begin with.
I couldn’t help but glance at Rowan as she took in the massive edifice of dark logs and windows tucked neatly into the mountains. Her lips parted, her brow furrowing while she looked from the cheerful chimneys to the chandelier twinkling beyond the front window.
Of course it was at odds with everything she thought she knew of Bear.
I was suddenly resentful that she was here, in my favorite place in the world, knowing how eager she was to be anywhere else.
Maybe she’d get her wish soon, though.
Maybe we all would.
I leaned my head back against the solid wall of the sauna, allowing the steam and sweet smell of the cedar planks to wash over me and ease the muscles that had taken a beating after the princess assaulted me with a saddle that weighed nearly as much as she did. Taking a deep breath of the humid air, a miniscule sense of peace eased into my bones for the first time since the damned princess waltzed into my life.
My mother’s cabin always had that effect on me, though. Even when the world was on fire or there was fresh blood on my hands. Hell, even in light of the storms-forsaken negotiations with Lord Sanctimonious tomorrow over the fate of the royal pain in my arse.
It was a welcome reprieve after a long, irritating journey here. Well, one part in particular had been irritating.
“Did anyone invite the princess?” Dmitriy asked, handing me a mug of ale while he brought up the very annoying thing in question.
“No,” I said tersely, taking the mug. “Because she’s our captive, not our friend.”
Besides, I doubted seriously that even she would be comfortable nude in a room full of men she barely knew.
Kirill made a disbelieving sound in the back of his throat that I chose to ignore.
“She’s more entertaining than any captive I’ve ever met,” Igor chimed in, reaching outside the sauna briefly for another pitcher of ale.
That was one word for her.
“ Der’mo .” I shook my head. “Not you, too.”
The men in this sauna were some of the most elite warriors in the entire kingdom, but you wouldn’t know it from the way they were going soft over one tiny, ridiculous, infuriating princess.
“We can’t help if she’s a fair hand at cards,” Dmitriy said with a shrug. “And she knows some fascinating songs.”
So I had heard.
“Well,” I responded, taking a hearty sip of my ale. “I hope you’ve learned all you can from her illustrious array of life skills, because if the negotiations go the way we need them to, we will be well rid of her after tomorrow.”
Then I leaned my head back against the sauna wall with all the nonchalance I didn’t feel, trying to ignore the way I had to practically force the words out over memories of saucy remarks and mischievous smirks and stubborn, challenging stares.
“ Is that the way we need things to go?” Kirill pushed as he ladled more water onto the blazing rocks.
Waves of familiar, soothing heat washed through the small space. I breathed it in, letting out the air in a sigh.
“I told you not to get too attached to her,” I reminded Kirill.
He, specifically, had struggled to maintain his distance from her since that first day. It wasn’t attraction, not when he was completely enamored with his wife, but it was a kinship I could do without, all the same.
Taras apparently agreed.
“Yes,” he intoned. “It would be a shame if anyone got too attached to her, since we can’t keep her.”
He raised an eyebrow at me that conveyed far more knowing than I would have liked, and I studiously pretended not to catch his meaning.
“She’s not a stray dog,” Kirill chided us both.
Well, she was halfway feral, and she did leave strands of her wild hair everywhere she went.
“I actually think that’s quite an apt comparison,” I said, downing another ale.
“Remember who she is to us,” Taras cautioned. “And what may still be necessary.”
Well, it wouldn’t be my cousin if he didn’t remind us all at least once a week that we might have to off the princess for the sake of our people. Not that I hadn’t considered it more than once. The men had, too. They just didn’t like it. Neither did Taras, for that matter, but he was far more practical.
The conversation was cut off when the sauna door eased open with a creak, letting in some of the cold night air along with it. At first, I assumed it was Riina.
I wouldn’t have turned my head at all, except that it was open for longer than anyone would have normally left it, allowing a bit too much of the steam to escape.
My lips parted when I caught sight of a woman who was decidedly not Riina standing bathed in the wan moonlight leaking through the still-open door.
What in the hell is she doing here?
I should have known from the moment I thought that even she would stop short of doing something that she would find a way to, in fact, do that very thing.
Rowan stood in the doorway just long enough to let the steam around her evaporate. While my men politely averted their eyes and avoided calling her out on the breach of sauna conduct, I tried to force myself to do the same.
Tried and failed.
Der’mo.
Why was she the only one who could make me lose control of myself this way?
So instead of looking at the wall across from me, as I should have, my eyes roamed her pale, alarmingly perfect body. The moonlight reflected off her creamy skin, highlighting the swell of her hips and the ample curves that weren’t quite covered by her even more ample hair.
My lips parted, my mind wandering of its own accord to contemplate what those curves would feel like under my fingertips, pressed against my chest. To wonder what she tasted like, whether that delightful flush of hers would spread all the way down her body.
Gritting my teeth, I forcibly wrenched my eyes away from her.
Had it been too much to ask for one night with my men where she wasn’t invading my every storms-blasted thought?
I revisited Kirill’s question. Was that how we needed the negotiations to go?
Yes. We needed her gone.
I needed her gone.
Kirill filled up my ale, which was somehow empty again, before handing one out to our captive, who had finally entered after a voice from behind her had pointed out that she was, indeed, letting all the steam out of the sauna. That was also about the time I realized that there were other people coming in, besides the infuriatingly distracting princess. Riina and Nico had also apparently joined us.
“Welcome, Princess,” Kirill said jovially, like the last few minutes had never happened. “Have an ale!”
“Thank you, Kirill.” Her tone was stiff, but not as strained as I would have expected under the circumstances.
Curiosity gnawed at my insides until I gave in, turning my attention to her once more.
“Doesn’t being in a sauna offend your Lochlannian scruples, Lemmikki?”
She stiffened, her shoulders going taut and pulling at parts of her body I definitely didn’t notice.
Another sip and my ale was gone again.
“Not as much as being kidnapped does,” she replied sweetly.
The men chuckled, and I reluctantly acknowledged that round went to her.
“Indeed. I just know how delicate your sensibilities are.” I couldn’t help but needle her when we both knew they were anything but.
Sure enough, she huffed out an irritable breath, though some of that might have just been her panting for air since the heat of the sauna didn’t entirely seem to agree with her.
“I find your smug face far more offensive than a few pasty man-butts. But thank you for being so considerate of my needs.”
A small smirk tugged at my lips, in spite of myself. I begrudgingly raised my respect for the woman willing to come bare-arse naked into a sauna full of her enemies and verbally spar with the person who owned her entire life.
Still, those were bold words from a woman whose backside had glowed like the moon itself in the dark night of the Summit.
Dmitriy pointed that out before I could. “If there’s a pasty butt in here, it doesn’t belong to a Socairan.”
A low chuckle escaped me before I could rein it in, and she looked sharply my way. Her delicate features were framed by a mass of expanding hair, and sweat rolled down her forehead, her cheeks, her chest.
It should have been enough to make me laugh again, but somehow that reaction was the furthest thing from my mind.
When her breath came in small pants she tried to hide, and she could hardly see for the sweat she continually wiped out of her eyes, I realized her pale, stubborn arse would rather faint on the spot than be the first one out of the sauna.
Storms , but she was ridiculous.
I tilted my head toward her, making eye contact with Kirill, who nodded.
“Come on, Princess. Let’s get you to the ice.”
She bounded to her feet, practically running out of the humid space. Several of the men followed, probably to see if the tiny Lochlannian would brave the icy lake. I had no doubt that she would, whether it killed her or not.
I scooped another cupful of water onto the stones, breathing in the soothing waves of hot air and taking the small reprieve.
Because it was a relief to have her gone, just like it would be after the negotiations.