Chapter 39
Fidgeting with the top part of her dress, Carwyn slipped the sleeves off her shoulders so the neckline would open up and rest across her biceps. Then she tugged them back up, so they sat over her shoulder joint before lowering them once more with shaking hands.
I don’t know which way it’s supposed to sit.
Both options looked correct, but lowering the sleeves so the tops of her shoulders and arms were seen appeared sensual. It also made the neckline sit lower down her full breasts, revealing more of her cleavage.
Giving up and keeping her shoulders bare, she took in her overall appearance in the long garnet gown. Her heart leapt and her cheeks turned pink, and she pulled away to pace.
I can do this, she told herself, her black slippers tapping against the carpet below her feet. It’s nearly been two weeks. I can do this.
She stole another glance at her reflection in the oval standing mirror Kier had brought into their bedroom. I’m beautiful. She’d never doubted that fact; she firmly believed she was lovely. I know I want him.
A hot shiver raced up her spine.
I’m confident. I’m strong. I’ve killed dark witches without batting an eyelid.
She cupped the sides of her head in horror.
So why does my heart feel like it’s going to run out of my chest every time he nears me as a human? I get so jittery and hot, I’m terrified I’m going to faint.
Her features grew ashen in the mirror. What if I do faint?! She wrung her hands. How embarrassing.
Her footsteps tapped faster as she practically wore a circle into the carpet that made their sleeping chamber warmer. She tried to ignore the nest of cushions they laid upon every night; she thought it might now be the softest place in the world.
Every pillow, every cushion, every blanket he possessed had slowly been added to ensure her comfort.
She ceased her pacing to cover her face.
I know he wants me. I’m no longer worried about that, but...
Gosh, it was her fucking heart. For some reason, it’d gone all bashful and shy, clamouring in her chest like a skittish beast bashing against a cage for escape.
What if it cannot handle his emotions and it actually bursts?
Was it humanly possible?
I won’t be able to think or be in control.
She’d be entirely at his mercy, and the mercy of his emotions as they seeped into her very flesh and ate away at her thoughts like poison.
Ugh! I want to have sex so badly!
She was constantly turned on, horny, aroused. Just looking at him made her nipples harden and her pussy grow slick.
It’s worse in the bath. Sitting on the opposite end to her, he’d be naked, he’d be hard, and his gaze would be predatory and hungry. He never covered himself, and it was impossible to miss the monster he had between his legs.
One that constantly had her mouth desperate for a taste.
She continued her pacing as she chewed on her thumbnail. And he was really mad at me yesterday – I think it pushed him too far.
Carwyn had thought she’d hidden it well. Had done all she could have to hide it by washing her hands thoroughly, but apparently... he’d been able to scent that she’d brought herself to release.
She just hadn’t been able to abstain any longer. Consumed by the waiting, the anticipation, the soul-rending need, she’d caved and had taken the edge off.
He’s never snarled at me or hurt me like that before. He’d squeezed her forearms in a crushing hold as he’d warned her that she wasn’t allowed to touch herself until after he’d been permitted to do so. I think he was jealous.
His behaviour had been cruel, animalistic, and frightful.
She’d panted so hard and was about to plead for him to take her right then, but he’d realised what he’d been doing and had stormed off to calm down.
He’d been regretful later, had tended to her bruises himself, and she’d felt so awful and guilty that her ribs had tried to cave in.
Carwyn took a long, deep breath that did nothing to calm her like she wanted, then looked into the mirror one last time.
I can do this, she thought, before taking in the garnet gown she’d been avoiding.
She almost faltered when it looked like she was trying too hard with the way her hair had been pulled back into a neatly twisted bun.
Her features darkened as she cringed, but she clenched her hands into gloved fists and stormed off.
Shaky determination propelled her forward like a runaway carriage until it derailed and its wheels came off when she found him in the entrance area with Aysu.
All her gusto whooshed out of her. She immediately teared up because she’d finally gotten the courage, worked herself up, and she wouldn’t have done that had she known they had a guest.
She immediately hid behind the wall before Kier finished turning around and saw her ridiculous appearance.
“Carwyn!” Aysu exclaimed, waving an iridescent pale-blue paw at her.
She was forced to stick her head out from the ring of rock that separated that area from the tunnel, and she waved back.
“Morning, Carwyn,” Kier stated with a genuine smile.
To Carwyn’s horror, Aysu bounded over, and she wanted to expire. Do I warn them away? She wanted to, but she imagined that would make her intentions obvious.
She didn’t have the courage to come out, even when Aysu was right before her, Kier slower on two legs.
“I was just telling Kier that I wanted to show you my lair at some point,” Aysu stated excitedly. “I have magic that will allow me to bring you under the water.”
Carwyn forced her cringe into a smile. “I would love that.”
“Yes, even I’m curious to go, as she’s never made such an offer to me,” he stated, coming into view while running his fingers through his black hair with a sigh. “Then again, I would need to shrink my form in order to–”
His words cut short when he finally took in the sight of her still huddling behind the wall. His eyes widened, and his hand lifted away from his hair as he took in the pathetic sight of her, and Carwyn wanted to disappear from this existence in a poof of fairy dust.
I’m so emb–
“Get out.”
“Pardon?” Aysu rasped, rearing her head back.
“Get out. This instant. Now,” he demanded, never taking his eyes off Carwyn.
“What? Why?” Aysu gestured to her. “I want to tell Carwyn about the journey we’ll be taking. She’ll need to know–”
“Aysu, if you don’t leave our home in the next breath, I will toss you from it.”
With a groaning growl of dismay, Aysu turned and stomped her way towards the exit of the cave. More than usual, her narrow fin tail flip-flopped in her annoyed haste before she dived over the cliff’s edge.
The moment she was gone, Carwyn pulled away from the wall and looked off to the side as she clutched her hands together at her chest. “I’m sorry. I probably look silly now that–”
“Beautiful,” he grated, grasping her biceps right below where the sleeves ended.
He glided his rough palms down the material over her elbows, then forearms, before taking her gloved right hand.
A squeak burst from her as he made her do a spin, and the skirt of it flared out.
“You’re even wearing the comb. Is this your way of apologising for yesterday? ”
Carwyn stumbled to the side and retracted her hand so hard and fast that it punched her in her sternum. Surprise widened her eyes while his bowed in awe at her.
“I eventually figured out why you wouldn’t wear it, which is exactly why I wanted you to. You look pretty in my red.”
Carwyn’s heart almost cracked open and fell out of her chest. All her trepidation ebbed under the power of his tender gaze, and the jitters returned.
She grasped the tip of her right forefinger nervously as she took in his beautiful features and his eyes that always seemed to pull her in, even from the start.
Then he lifted a finger and brushed it against her cheekbone – bare skin to bare skin – and she let out a choked rasp at the sensations from within him.
The unyielding affection that made her heart squeeze, the spike of lust that tripled her pulse’s beat. The restraint that felt like a collar taming something that refused to be mastered.
Then it was gone, as fleeting as always, and he clasped her hand once more.
“I was waiting for you, so I haven’t eaten,” he stated, pulling her panting form along to take her deeper within her new home. “I’d like you to teach me how to make that porridge. The one with the berries that you like.”
“Kier,” she whispered at his back.
She’d gotten into this dress because she wanted out of it. As much as she appreciated the way he didn’t intend to pressure her, keeping to his promise, she... couldn’t take it anymore.
His reaction to her had been sweet. It’d been full of care and devotion, and had been romantic.
It had warmed her soul.
It gave her the courage to take the last step she’d been worried earlier that she wouldn’t be able to.
She tugged his hand, forcing him to stop when they were almost at the cooking area. When he turned to her, she fisted the front of his white tunic and pulled him down to her as she rose to her toes.
I can do this, her mind whispered, as she pushed her lips against his.
His eyes flung open wide as the emotions from before trickled into her, gentled now that his attention wasn’t solely on her.
Surprise came in like a battering ram. Carwyn clenched her eyes shut at the wave of it, strengthening her resolve against how it made her want to shy away, then his hands found their way to the sides of her head to keep her still.
His lips moved over hers, and she could feel his pulse through the connection. Each beat reverberated against her entire being with need and joy. When she greeted the brush of his lips with her own, she felt the way it messed with his heart, and her own squeezed.
His breath hitched, and she swallowed the sound, then everything snuffed down to make way for an inferno.