A Kiss of Fire (A Kiss of Magic #2)(29)

“It takes effort to maintain such constant heat. I can tolerate a little cold.”

He took both of her hands in his and, very gently he warmed her hands using his power. It was the first time she had seen him use his ability. His control over his fire was flawless. He warmed her perfectly. Not too little and not too much.

She sighed before she caught herself. Then she snatched her hands away, rubbing her warmed palms down her thighs. He did not take offense to the withdrawal.

“Come. You will rest. Tonight we take our night’s meal together.”

“I would rather eat alone,” she said sharply. She had been forgetting herself. Forgetting why she should be on guard against him.

“Unfortunately you do not get to decide this. You will eat with me. Tonight and every night.”

“Oh! How could I forget for even one moment what an insufferable ass you are!”

She turned and stormed away from him, marching back into the temple and finding her room unerringly.

“Well? Open it!” she commanded the guard who was sitting in a chair outside her door.

He rose and hastened to obey her. She made it clear she was a woman used to having her commands obeyed. She would not come across as meek and passive.

The door opened and she swept inside. She turned and halted him with a hand on his chest on the other side of the doorway.

“I would like to be alone. I may have to have my night’s meal with you, but that does not mean you will abide in my room every minute until then.”

He gave her a slow smile. He picked up the hand on his chest and brought it to his lips. He pressed a kiss in the center of her palm. She jerked her hand back as if she had been burned.

“You forget. Every minute of every day of your life is mine now to do with what I please. If I wish to stay, then I will stay. If I wish to leave, then I will leave. However, I am open to requests should you decide to ask me…nicely.”

She openly gaped at him. Of all the nerve! Ask him nicely?

She smiled then. A sugary, fake smile. She leaned in to him and said, “Please…go fuck yourself.”

He smiled at her genuinely, humor dancing in his dark eyes. “If I do, you will be made to watch,” he promised her.

She gasped and turned her back on him. She marched over to the chair before the fire and sat down in it.

To her surprise, he ordered the door locked and closed…with him on the opposite side.





Chapter Nine


Mariah dressed her for night’s meal as properly as she would have done had they been in Saren. Ariana had had a bath and her damp hair had been dressed up in her favored style. What she did not realize was that it was Sin’s favored style for her. The way her curls tumbled perfectly down the back of her neck, some escaping to spill over the paleness of her exposed cleavage, it was divinity.

He wondered that she didn’t defy him by allowing herself to be dressed down and unattractively. Not that she could be unattractive. In fact, he longed to see her mussed and tumbled and looking as though she had just rolled out of bed.

His bed.

The thought made him physically uncomfortable. It took a great deal of effort not to let her arouse him. She was just that stimulating to him. And since the skintight breeches he wore were hard to hide things in, it would become quite obvious the bend of his thoughts. He did not want to come across as any more of a brute than he already had so he studiously avoided any thoughts that would lead him to lose control. But that was hard to do when he walked in the room and she was looking so good.

For this meal he had decided to eat with her in her rooms. He was not about to introduce her to his brother and the whole family in the main dining hall. As of right then, as far as he knew, they were unaware she was there and definitely unaware of who she was. Only the men who had brought her from Saren knew who she was, and he had sworn them to secrecy. He trusted Lindo of course. And even Hundor and Graf. But Mordol and a few of the others he was not as sure of. He had tried to choose those most trustworthy, but in the end it had come down to whom he had thought would best protect her should they come across foul play during the journey back.

He had had a small round table set up in her room and it had been set for two. His instructions had been for the place setting to be set side by side, but when he arrived he saw Ariana placing a fork down neatly in position across the table from the other setting.

She had moved the place setting, putting the table’s distance between them.

Very well. If that was what made her feel more comfortable, then he would allow it…this time. But in the future he would move it right back to where it belonged. As he walked in the room she lifted her chin, defying him to say something about the place setting. But he did not. He was tempted, but he did not.

“You look lovely this night,” he said to her, his eyes riding over her slowly. He liked her in Kiltian clothing, but he might have to say he liked her better in the elegance of Saren clothing. The Sarens, as a rule, wore far too much clothing. The men wore shirts and waistcoats and jackets and cravats. Just the idea of a cravat choking off his breathing made him shudder. The women wore floor length dresses, some with long sleeves…and while they displayed the bounty of a woman's breasts with their low square necklines, the layers of chemises, petticoats and drawers and such must be a suffocating weight to carry around all day.

Ariana wore it well. Hells, she wore everything well. She was wearing one of the more well-shaped blouses the Kiltian women wore, different from the shapeless ones that a woman swam in without benefit of a scarf to tie it close to the body. This blouse was more fitted to her breasts and slender figure. And she had beautiful breasts. The breasts of a young, healthy woman, high and proud and tempting.