Chapter 14 Out of Excuses
Out of Excuses
Raewyn
No meetings were scheduled for the following day, so apparently my services weren’t needed. I hadn’t seen Pharis all morning.
Perhaps he’d taken Dargan and chased down Lady Glenna’s carriage on the road last night, changing his mind about accepting her “offer” after all.
My ribs constricted at the mental image, making my organs feel cramped and queasy.
Restless, I prowled about the castle and tried reading, but it didn’t provide the usual escape. My mind kept drifting away from the pages.
In late afternoon, I decided to go for a walk on the grounds. I needed a change of scenery, and as it was peak leaf season, the estate was ablaze with beautiful fall colors.
Kem and the other girls were busy with their duties, so I was left alone with my thoughts as I walked.
Unfortunately, they kept turning to Pharis’ teasing voice and hypnotic cyan eyes… and the drawing of me that he’d kept by his bedside.
Why? The question refused to leave me alone. I couldn’t help but think he must care for me.
But if he did, why did he keep denying it?
And if he didn’t, why was he keeping me here? He had enough glamours of his own at this point—did he really need my “help” to do whatever he was doing with the visiting nobles?
At some point during my stroll, I decided that the next time I saw him I would confront him and demand an explanation for his bizarre hot and cold behavior.
That, or kiss him and find out where he really stood on the matter.
It was chilly out today, the tree leaves rattling in the breeze and the temperature dropping rapidly as the sun sank lower in the sky. I pulled my shawl around me and walked a little more quickly.
This part of the winding path was quite far from the house, but it led directly past the estate’s hot springs pools. Though they were still at a distance, I could see steam rising from them into the cool early evening air.
I headed in that direction with a mind toward standing at the edge of them and warming myself in the comforting steam heat or maybe even taking off my shoes and wading into the shallows a bit to soothe my cold toes.
I’d bathed in the natural pools a time or two when I could persuade Kem to take a few minutes off and join me. It was a little late for that today, and I had no bathing outfit with me, but just looking at the mineral pools was pleasure enough. They were a wonder like nothing I’d ever seen before.
Composed of white travertine and descending down the hillside in a stairstep manner, the individual pools joined to form a sort of honeycomb configuration. It would be beautiful to see them at sunset, reflecting the waning rays of the day.
When I finally rounded the bend and the terraced pools came into view, though, I stopped abruptly.
Pharis was there, bathing in one of them. And he was naked.
At least the part of him that I could see.
He was facing away from me and appeared to be watching the sunset. Admittedly, it was a gorgeous sight, the high, thin clouds painted in magical shades of pink and orange.
But the sight of him was even more breathtaking.
There in the golden light, Pharis was the most magnificent thing I’d ever seen.
I should have turned away and hurried back around the bend to give him his privacy.
Should was apparently not happening today. I couldn’t seem to look away. Or move.
Lean and perfectly formed in every way, Pharis’ body was a natural wonder in itself. The mounds and valleys of his muscles were highlighted by the shine of the water on his skin.
His wet hair hung down his back, nearly touching the water that gently lapped the tops of his hips.
Though I’d seen him shirtless several times before, it still stunned me. I doubted I could ever get enough of looking at this man.
Either my breathing was loud or my thoughts were leaking again, because Pharis turned his head suddenly and caught me watching him.
His turquoise eyes against the water’s matching color made him look like some kind of magical sea creature.
And the front view of his body was even more mind-blowing than the back. Standing in the pool as he was, only his lower half was submerged.
My eyes involuntarily traced the whirlwind shape of his Gleaner tattoo, following its narrowing funnel down over his distinctly segmented abdominal muscles to where it ended in a thin line of black hair beneath his naval that disappeared below the waterline.
Heart racing, I dropped my head and looked at my feet as I resumed walking, trying to pretend I hadn’t seen him.
I wished I hadn’t—my mind was permanently etched with the stunning image of his wet, masculine body, the steam rising all around him.
“Raewyn, stop.”
My feet halted mid-stride. My heart was pounding so hard I feared he’d be able to hear it.
“Come here please,” Pharis said.
Fighting to breathe normally, I turned back to face him.
Mercifully, he’d sunk lower into the water. Only his head, shoulders, and chest were visible above it now.
I was still embarrassed. He knew I’d been looking at him.
Hopefully he didn’t know what I’d been thinking.
All I wanted to do was walk—no, run—away, but I felt my legs moving, carrying me closer to the pool instead.
My eyes felt incapable of looking away from Pharis.
Lifting an arm, he gestured toward the sunset behind him.
“Lovely evening. Enjoying the view?” he asked with twinkling eyes and a laugh in his voice.
Shaded stars.
His self-satisfied expression told me he knew I’d been far more interested in the view of his body than the spectacular sky serving as a backdrop.
“I’ve seen better,” I answered defiantly.
Pharis gave me a roguish grin. “Really? Perhaps you’re having trouble seeing clearly from that distance. Come a little closer.”
While his irritating arrogance made me want to turn and storm off, my feet began moving in his direction again, taking me to the very edge of the pool this time.
“Wait a minute,” I said, horror dawning on me. “Are you using your Sway on me? Stop it, Pharis. Stop it this instant.”
I couldn’t believe how powerful his Sway was. All Elves had it, but it was almost as if Pharis had Compelling glamour on top of it.
He grinned wickedly. “How do you know it wasn’t your own idea to come closer? Your thoughts are still pretty loud there, little Wyn. Might need a few more lessons in control.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “My only thoughts concerning you are that you’re a pig.”
Pharis laughed out loud.
“A very warm, very comfortable pig. You look cold. Why don’t you come in and join me?”
I was overwhelmed by the urge to do just that. Nothing seemed more enticing than the idea of stripping off my dress and sliding into that glistening, rainbow-hued water with Pharis.
Gritting my teeth, I fought the impulse, beginning to sweat.
“You promised me you’d never use your Sway on me,” I said. “You also said you always keep your promises. You must be really desperate for attention.”
Pharis’ eyes flared in offense, then he shook his head, turning away.
An invisible string between us snapped, and I fell back a step, released from his magnetic pull.
His back to me, he said, “I don’t need to compel women to get attention. Most of them anyway.”
He sounded sullen, keeping his back to me. “Go on then. Run back to the house… before I come out of this pool in my ‘full glory’ and drag you in here with me.”
Perhaps I should have been frightened by his threat. No doubt it would have been the wisest thing to run away.
But I didn’t.
Instead, I stood there a moment, frozen in indecision. Then I began unbuttoning my dress.
This was the perfect opportunity to make Pharis put up or shut up. To end this whole maddening come-closer-now-go-away dynamic between us and force him to admit his feelings for me.
Slipping out of the last of my clothing, I quietly waded into the water, my heart pounding so hard my chest vibrated.
The heat was delicious on my bare skin, and I sank into the water to my shoulders, waving my arms out to either side of me to stay afloat as the pool got deeper.
The small waves I created flowed across the pool, reaching Pharis.
He whirled around, his eyes going wide in surprise.
“Raewyn. What are you doing?”
“Accepting your invitation to come in and get warm,” I said.
His brows pulled together sharply. “But I dropped the glamour.”
“I guess it was my own idea after all.”
Now that he’d gotten what he wanted, Pharis looked almost frightened. He must not have actually expected me to take him up on his cheeky proposition.
His eyes dipped to take in my bare shoulders and chest, and the shock on his face was replaced by something else. His lids closed halfway, his nostrils flaring as he stared at me.
“You’re playing with fire here, Wildcat,” he said in a warning tone. “You should go back inside.”
But there was also hunger in his voice. Yearning.
And I realized I wanted nothing more in this moment than to give him what he yearned for.
“I’m not afraid of a little fire—I like to be warm,” I said, shocking myself with my own audacity.
I swam closer to Pharis and gripped his arms so I could stay aloft without treading water.
“Raewyn.” He groaned my name in a tone that was half-warning, half plea.
It was all the encouragement I needed. Pulse thrumming in my veins, I slid my hands up his arms to his shoulders then clasped them behind his neck, letting the front of my body drift closer and make contact with the front of his.
The breath hissed between Pharis’ teeth as he inhaled sharply, and his chest muscles went rigid.
Though the water surrounding us was hot, I could still feel the heat of his skin, and its texture against mine was as delicious as it was disconcerting.
Pharis was clearly affected by the contact as well. His hands gripped my waist, and his eyes staring down at me were dark with desire.
The sight of him looking at me like that, the way he did in my near-nightly dreams of him, had me trembling all over. It was a good thing the water was supporting my body weight because if I’d been standing, my knees would have buckled.
And yet Pharis didn’t make a move. He didn’t kiss me.
He just kept holding me in front of him in a grip that was nearly painful, devouring me with his eyes like a dragon about to consume a lamb in one bite.
“You’ve got me in here,” I prodded. “Now what are you going to do with me?”
His jaw flexed as he gritted his teeth.
“I know what I want to do,” he said in a guttural tone.
“So why don’t you?” I purred.
Undulating my body in the water, I pulled myself upward so our faces were nearly at the same level.
If Pharis didn’t kiss me soon, I thought I might combust.
“You know this has been coming for a very long time. Why are you resisting it?” I whispered against his lips.
“Because it’s not real,” he whispered back.
But then he lowered his mouth to meet mine fully, and things got very real very fast.