A Kiss of Fire (A Kiss of Magic #2)(26)

But silk wasn't very warm and she was bare beneath the clothes she wore. The snow she had seen upon their arrival had been cleared away from the courtyard. When she stepped outside she realized her feet were still bare and the ground was ice cold. As a matter of reflex she warmed herself.

“My feet are bare,” she said.

He looked down in surprise.

“You were given no shoes?”

“No. And, as you pointed out, I am dependent on you for everything.”

“You should have asked for something for your feet.”

“And how would I do that? I’m locked away all day.”

“You can ask Mariah to tell us. Or you can tell the guard outside of your door. Anything you need, you need only ask for it.”

“How about my freedom?” she asked, although they both knew the answer to that already.

“Outside of that,” he said needlessly.

He turned to a serving girl and gave her rapid instructions. Within minutes a pair of fur boots were brought out to her. She slid her feet into them and found them to be a perfect fit. They were sturdy and comfortable.

Once they were on her feet, Sin picked her up by her waist and hoisted her onto the saddle. Used to riding sidesaddle, she felt awkward and unladylike riding the horse astride in a skirt. The skirt rode up her legs so that her knees were exposed to the cold air.

Then Sin mounted the horse behind her.

It immediately put them into intimate contact with one another. She couldn’t help but have her backside settle against the insides of his thighs and her back pressed to his chest. He reined the horse around and they trotted out of the courtyard.

She tried sitting up away from him, but the curvature of the saddle made it impossible. Besides, he crossed his arm over her and pulled her back into contact with his body.

As they rode away from the building, she got a good look at it from over her shoulder. It was very large, three stories at present, and a veritable hive of activity. People were moving in and out of the building constantly. There were a great many workers there, many of whom seemed to be working on the building in spite of the freezing cold temperatures.

The building appeared to be a perfect square, save the round courtyard, and as they rode away she could see a minaret and columns shaped gracefully around it. There was also a huge stable set not too far distant from it that matched the house in design and beauty. She could hear the soft whickering of the horses within and the aroma of horse manure was prevalent as they passed.

“Do you have many horses?” she asked. She was a connoisseur of horseflesh. She had an impressive stable of all kinds of horses from many different lands. Including Kiltianan horses. She appreciated the hearty breed. Her Kiltianan horses were the horses that pulled her carriage when she went out.

“I have a fine stable,” he said. “I will take you there when we get back.”

She didn’t let him know that the thought pleased her. In fact, she would not let him know anything that affected her in any way. She was determined to present a flat aspect to him from now on. She would give him nothing to be admired, nothing to be engaged with.

As they rode out she could see the makings of a new town being built up all around the main building they had come from. He saw her noticing it and he said, “This will be our capitol city, with the temple at its heart.”

“The temple? Is that what you call it?”

“Yes. It used to be in the heart of Kilt…what Kilt used to be. And soon it will be again. Kilt is being rebuilt all around us. There is land enough now for us to live in.”

“And you live in that huge temple all by yourself?”

“Who told you that?” he asked with a startled laugh. “No Kiltian lives by themselves. Even with all this room, it is not in us to separate from our families. No. I live in the temple with my heir—my brother—and his wife, concubines and children, and my mother is also living there.”

“So your brother keeps concubines. I had heard that was the practice of ruling men.”

“Not one I subscribe to,” he said. “I have no concubines.”

That surprised her and she knew he could see it on her face because he chuckled and said, “This surprises you? Did you think I kidnapped women from all over the world and made them my sexual slaves?”

“It is the only experience I have to go by,” she said dryly.

“This is true,” he said with another chuckle. “I do not need to kidnap my women. I am offered concubines or wives from every quarter, every foreign land or wealthy Kiltians with their lovely daughters.”

“And yet you have kidnapped me rather than take those willing women?”

“Yes,” he said simply.

She didn’t know how to feel about that, so she remained silent.

Sin kicked the horse into a faster pace and before long they were cantering swiftly over the vast landscape that surrounded the city that was rising up around the temple. Then he headed north toward the mountain range she could see in the distance. They rode in silence most of the way there, with only a break now and then as he pointed out things along the way.

“This is a homesteader’s claim,” he said, indicating the small cottage and the stakes set out around it in the distance. String had been looped around the stakes and set out like a fence of sorts marking the borders of the claim.