Chapter 12 A Storm in Paradise
A Storm in Paradise
The atmosphere curdled into a slate-gray wall as a blizzard descended upon the mountain.
The white erasure claimed the horizon as the mercury collapsed within the gauges Idan kept on his mantelpiece.
Lattaya’s peaks dissolved beneath a tide of ice-mists.
The wind flayed the bark from the pines with the hunger of a predator.
The timber of the hut groaned at the mercy of the wild winter squall.
After dinner one night, Idan sat back in his chair, lost in thought.
With a jerk of his chin, he rose, gesturing to Sheba.
His timbre vibrated inside her mind.
The animals won’t be able to withstand this drop in pressure, salkia. Their lungs will seize before the frost even takes them. We have to move them out of the barn and into a warm cave behind it. It’s warmed by the geothermal springs and will keep them safe during the worst chill.’
To survive the storm, they geared up.
Sheba stepped into thermals made of compressed fleece.
Over this, she hauled on bulky wool trousers.
Idan passed her a heavy parka made from snow leopard hide and lined with even denser fur.
Idan, dressed in similar gear, was cinching a long rope of braided leather around his waist, and they slipped into thick-soled boots sealed with pine resin.
He handed her a pair of gloves and goggles, the lenses cut from dark obsidian glass to prevent ice-blindness, as well as a breather mask designed to pre-warm the razor-thin air before it reached her lungs.
Idan checked the seals on her mittens, then, gripping the door handle, he braced his shoulder against the impending shove of the storm.
They stepped into the gale, where the flurry lashed them, bashing them about.
Idan tied the length of rope to the external beams of the hut.
Taking Sheba’s hand, he led her to the barn through a full whiteout, their boots sinking into drifts that rose to meet their waists.
Idan’s Ssignakht sight ignited, and a lattice of golden light carved through the blinding opacity.
He charted the hidden contours of the buried path, his eyes detecting the way forward.
Sheba clutched onto his frame until they reached the wooden doors of the stable and rushed inside.
They found the animals, shivering in the cold, staring at them.
Dropping their snow-burdened outer coats, the couple moved fast to herd the flock of sheep and the five cows into the warm confines of the inner cave.
However, they first had to lead the animals down a corridor at the rear of the huge shed.
The creatures, scared out of their wits by the howling storm, were not in the least cooperative as the pair steered the wool-heavy ewes through the limestone passageway.
Left flank, Sheba! We’ve got some escape artists! Idan rasped into her mind over the roar of nature.
He caught a stray lamb by the scruff, his muscles straining as he shoved it and its sizable mother forward.
With his firm, gentle guidance, together, they forced the panicked animals into the mountain’s gut, Idan rolling a massive granite sphere over the entrance to the warmer, cozy cave.
They returned once more to the barn from where they dragged stacked mounds of dried clover hay.
‘What about water?’ Sheba asked once back inside with the animals.
‘The cavern has a natural spring,’ Idan drawled, leading her to a simple yet effective hydration rerouting system.
With a flick of a handle, clear, cool mountain water flowed into the stone troughs along the grotto’s wall.
They exited, and Idan spun the immense circle of stone across the entrance for the last time, sealing the flock inside.
The trek back was grueling, through thick, swirling snow and freezing winds.
Sheba clung to Idan with all she had, her fingers numb and her breath hitching in the frosted air.
The distance seemed twice as far this time, and exhausted from wrangling livestock, her stamina bottomed out.
Idan’s arms locked around her to keep her steady as they plowed through waist-high drifts toward safety.
The hut finally emerged from the haze, and with a twist of Idan’s mitt on the lock, they stumbled through the door.
Sheba swayed at the threshold, almost collapsing into him, her reserves drained.
Idan ripped off his goggles, muttered a curse, and grabbed the frozen leather of her collar. He peeled the heavy, ice-crusted leopard hide from her, the pelt hitting the floor with a stiff thud.
His voice resonated in her mind, smooth as dark velvet.
You’re quite the snow angel, salkia, one covered in frost.
His humor vanished as the final layer of synth-fleece fell away, to reveal Sheba’s body racked by violent shudders.
Her honeyed skin was gray, with a glacial translucent pallor, and her lips stained a bruised violet.
The chill, it seemed, had bypassed her gear and settled deep in her bones.
‘I’m close to hypothermia, I think,’ Sheba managed to gasp out.
Idan cursed. ‘Need to get you warm right fokkin’ now.’
He kicked the cloaks aside and scooped her up, strode across the room, and laid her on the bed.
As her jaw rattled with the shakes and her blood slowed to a sludge, he stripped the damp layers from her skin.
She protested hoarsely as he removed them all, revealing her nakedness. He ignored her blushes and murmurings and tucked her into the bed, burying her under a mountain of hides and furs.
Stepping to the hearth, he tossed split cedar logs into the grate.
The wood ignited into a frantic yellow blaze.
Satisfied, Idan shed his own clothes and gear.
Sheba scarcely registered his movements, lost in the waves of tremors and shakes.
He slid into the cavern of pelts and anchored his body against hers, pulling her head into the hollow of his chest.
Sheba gasped as their limbs entangled.
The contact was a furnace.
His chest radiated with glowing power, and his core temperature defied every law of physics, a stellar energy that hunted the ice in her bones.
He placed one hand on her chest, between her breasts, and the other he slid to cup her nape.
His body throbbed as his heat penetrated her organs, the sigils on his skin pulsed through the dark, casting an amber glow against the underside of the heavy pelts.
Slowly, her shivering began to calm, and the violent convulsions subsided.
She sensed the frost retreating from her fingers and toes.
In time, the chatter of her teeth finally died out, replaced by a silence.
As the last of the chill evaporated from her body, a new awareness took hold.
She noted how well she fit into his arms, and the unobstructed fever of his thighs pressed against hers.
The haze cleared enough for one realization to surface: all their barriers were gone.
They lay exposed to one another, stripped of any pretense, laid bare.
Welcome back to the living, he growled into her mind, thick with relief. Thank fokk.
Sheba shifted, her focus narrowing on the man holding her.
She reached up, her fingers tracing a luminous sigil on his neck.
Sante, she pulsed back.
She turned in the nest of furs, and he followed her, wrapping around her from behind.
He stroked her skin from shoulder to waist, and she trembled again, not from the cold, but from the searing path of his glyphed hands.
That’s when she sensed a jutting heat against her spine.
Idan had left a fur between their nakedness, but she found herself wanting to rip it away now as her nipples pebbled and her pussy clenched.
His breath hitched, and she inhaled, shuddering from the sensual heatwaves coming from him.
He craved her, and hell, she wanted him too.
She made a decision, twisting around to face him, at the same time pulling away the restricting pelt that separated them.
Their eyes met in a clash of emotion, and she jolted.
With an inhale, she threw caution to the wind.
‘Make love to me,’ she whispered, the words roughened with desire in the quiet of the hut. ‘Please.’
Idan held her gaze.
His eyes were twin flames of gold, burning with a heat that pinned her to the furs.
He studied her with the calculated somberness of a man measuring the cost of a lifetime.
‘Are you certain?’ he rasped in a raw timbre. ‘If we cross this line, my soul will tether to you and will not loosen its grip. The warriors of my kind possess mercenary hearts; we do not negotiate our attachments. Once we bond with a woman, we claim her for eternity.’
The warning should have chilled her.
Instead, it scorched her with startling clarity.
She had no fear, only a wild resolve, a sense of rightness she had never experienced with any man before.
She lifted her chin, threw caution away, and took a step of faith.
‘I understand,’ Sheba murmured. ‘I’m not asking to be spared either. Give me everything you’ve got.’
With a growl, he loomed over her and took her lips, his hands cupping her jaw.
His mouth was a heated, firm press, his tongue slipping between hers to lash her.
At the same time, his grip slid to her nape even as his length imprinted onto her.
Stars above Eden.
Sheba shuddered as his chest, burning and rippling, came in contact with her tits.
Her nipples pebbled into pebbled tips, and she arched her spine, wanting, yearning, desperate for the friction of his torso.
He grunted and lowered his palm to cup her right breast, squeezing it, flicking her nipple.
Moments later, his lips trailed down her neck, nipping, lapping his tongue over her skin until he took her breast, suckling it hard into his mouth.
He reached for her other tit, and he brought them together, lashing both nipples as her nerve endings screamed.
Raw desire punched through her, and she moaned and threw caution to the wind, throwing one thigh over his hair-dusted, thick upper leg.
His mouth returned to hers, in a wild melding as she sank her hands into the long tresses rippling down his back.
Seconds later, the pressure of his jutting cock scorched her tummy.
On instinct, her hands went to it as she attempted to clasp it.
She reared back, tearing her lips from him in a gasp, staring at him.
‘Idan?’