Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
~Her~
“Who are you?” she whispered, reaching a tentative hand to his bare chest. “I know you, but I always thought you were just a dream.”
“Feel this?” His hand covered hers, anchoring it just over his heart. His intensity wrapped her up like the arms of a warrior. The steady thrumming of his heartbeat coursed down her hand and synced with her. Two hearts beating as one. “I’m not a dream, love.”
She was inexorably drawn to him, and the small space between them suddenly felt like a gaping chasm. Each inch was a canyon, and her every cell called out, insisting on closing the distance.
“But you’re mine.” His voice went hoarse, emotion threatening to choke him. She stared as his Adam’s apple bobbed several times. It helped, knowing he was similarly affected. “You’re more, actually. More than I deserve. More than I ever could have hoped for.”
Her head wanted to reject his words as insanity, but her heart defied it. This apparition of a man who claimed magic as his own spoke to her soul. Nothing about it made sense, but deep down, she knew he was always meant to be hers. And she his. Insanity prevailed, and her walls crumbled.
“I don’t understand.” She hadn’t meant to say the words aloud, but his eyes showed compassion and overwhelming love.
“I know, but I promise you will.”
Somehow, through this stilted conversation that was more in the things unsaid than said, they made their way back to the bed.
He wrapped an arm around her, and she nestled into the perfect hollow he created for her.
Thoughts tumbled in a waterfall through her, some escaping loud enough for him to hear.
He chuckled as she wondered if this was the afterlife.
“No, love. I couldn’t let the cold take you.”
She smiled into his chest, his pet name taking root within her, and her worries melted away as he stroked her back.
Between his steady heartbeat and his ministrations to her tired muscles, her eyes grew heavy and drifted shut.
The comfort was incredible. It called her to rest, and she willingly obliged.
He hummed a tune that tickled at her memory as she relaxed.
“I still don’t know who you are,” she mumbled around a yawn. “But I don’t want to wake from this fantasy.”
His body trembled with laughter, and she pulled away just enough to see the amusement sparkle on his face.
She was right to want to hear the sound of his joy.
Though he seemed out of practice, his laughter enriched the world.
The flowers blooming along the ceiling released more of their tantalizing fragrance, and the water rushing from the waterfall seemed to giggle along with him.
She knew in an instant she would do anything to hear the sound once again.
“Forgive me, love. I’ve been alone a long time and have forgotten myself.
” He withdrew from her, leaving her wanting nothing more than to chase after him.
He bowed to one knee alongside the bed, bringing his right fist to his forehead and lowering his face to her outstretched hand.
“Among my people, we carry three names. One we are given as we grow, one we find as we quest for our purpose, and one is only known once we are gifted with what defines our heart’s desire. ”
His chin lifted, pale blue eyes shimmering with magic as he met her gaze. “As a seedling, I was known as Hayle. I grew from a mother of snow and a father of storms, and as they liked to tell it, I was as hard on the furnishings as a hailstorm.”
She giggled at his recounting, as he had intended, and he placed a light kiss on her knuckles before continuing. “As one on his journey, I answered to Sleat. My voyage was rough, and at times, it was hard to find my way.”
Her eyes darkened with sympathy and intimate knowledge of the kind of loss that could cause one to take a name like his. Unable to help himself, he kissed her hand again, brushing away the cobwebs of memory brought forth by his past.
“As one who has now found his heart’s desire”—he gazed at her with love and adoration—“I know my true name.”
His magic swirled around them, chilly and sensual.
She was a novice in the ways of this new world, but intuition sang with the knowledge that what was happening was of great importance.
Perhaps even life-changing. The magic throbbing through the chamber spoke of the enduring patience of earth, the passion of flame, the playfulness of water’s ebb and flow, and of air’s never-ending circulation.
He smiled up at her, and her heart resounded with absolute certainty of the rightness of the moment. “Please, my love. Call me Frost.”
Halo's breath stuttered as she reached for him. Her fingers trembled, not with fear this time, but anticipation. She ran them through his silky white tresses, and he rose from his crouch, taking her hand as it fell away.
"I don't know exactly what just happened, but my heart tells me it was important." She nestled into his arms as he slid into the bed beside her. Tracing her fingertips along the geometric lines of his tattoos she smiled. "I like your name, Frost.”
He raised an eyebrow, and she laughed.
“It suits you." She looked up into his hooded gaze. "I'm Halo.” Her insides squirmed as he mouthed her name. “If this is a dream, Frost, I don't ever want to wake from it. If it's the afterlife, then I must have done something extraordinary to deserve you."
She placed a gentle kiss directly over his heart and smiled as his chest rumbled in response.
"Tell me, Frost"—she couldn’t stop saying his name—"why do I know your face? Were you really there all those years ago?"
Halo still thought he might be a hallucination.
She took in his perfection and decided she didn’t care.
If this was a delusion, death, or the product of psychoactive drugs, it didn’t matter anymore.
Knowing this small amount of time with him, she’d never again be happy with anything less.
Lifting her face to his, he stroked her lips with the pad of his thumb.
Her tongue traced his path, tasting him.
"I've always known you, I think. Even before you were a thought, you were a promise in my heart.
" His gaze darkened to the turbulent blue-grey of a stormy sky, and she cupped his cheek in her hand, trying to give comfort.
"I've been led astray and invested myself in someone who left me.
But I think now, it was because I was supposed to wait for you. "
The shadows left his expression, and the spark of mischief she saw before re-ignited. "I first noticed you as you were singing songs of fairies and mermaids to a nest of robins waiting for their mother to return."
Halo grinned, remembering exactly what he was talking about.
She'd been playing with her daddy’s compass under the boughs of the tree when their little hungry cheeps caught her attention.
She’d climbed the tree, even though gran warned her to always be careful, and found four little birds wailing for their mama.
The loss of her own mother fresh in her heart, she sang to them until the mama bird returned.
A tickle at the back of her mind nagged at her, and with a little coaxing, Frost appeared just in the periphery of her memory.
"I remember!" She pulled away and sat up on her knees, practically bouncing with excitement. "You were just beyond where I could see clearly!" Another gasp. "I was about to fall, and I swear the wind caught me..."
The corner of his mouth quirked up. "Guilty. I couldn't let you fall after comforting those little ones so beautifully." A slight stain spread across his cheeks, and his tone softened. "You have a lovely voice, Halo."
Her soul soared at hearing her name uttered in his deep baritone, and her cheeks warmed in response. Understanding, she crawled over to him and straddled his lap. "Thank you, Frost." She leaned forward to place a gentle kiss on his lips.
At first contact, all thoughts of chastity fled, and fire coursed through her. Tingles spread from her face all the way down to her toes, and she melted into him. Roaming hands explored every plane of his sculpted body. She vowed to memorize him like the work of art he was.
Her hands snaked around his shoulders, pulling herself tighter to him and causing delicious friction in all the right places. She moaned into his mouth, never once breaking the kiss. The rumble she felt from him turned into a growling purr.