I wasn’t using my Morgen magic now, and yet I got a glimpse of how I looked to him. A quick flicker of how he saw me—breasts straining against the wet tank top, nipples hard, cheeks flushed, my legs spread a little, lips parted as I looked up at him. He was trying his best to resist his desire for me, trying to remind himself that my innocent appearance belied a dangerous spirit.
He swooped another circle over my thigh.
Slowly, the pain subsided, the fire simmering down. I sighed audibly as his magic danced over my body.
For a moment, his deep blue eyes were locked on mine, looking distinctly troubled. Then he focused on my thigh again. My pulse started to race as he leaned down. He pressed his warm mouth against my thigh, his tongue moving against my skin. My back arched a little at the sensation. He was going to suck the poison out.
As the pain subsided, a pleasurable warmth washed over me. No, not just warmth—an animal craving. Heat was moving up my thigh toward the apex of my legs as the toxins left my body. My breath hitched. All at once, I was acutely aware of the feel of the wet clothes against my skin, as if my breasts were growing heavy and swelling against the wet cotton.
Stop it, Aenor.
It felt like warm water was spilling over my cold skin. All the pain was disappearing, replaced by a new, more disturbing sensation: a burning need for him. My body was ripe with aching desire. His long hair brushing against my thighs was like a sexual torture, his lips moving against my thigh.
What was wrong with me?
I tried to ignore the raging desire. And yet my gaze lingered over his powerful warrior’s shoulders. I felt my chest and my cheeks flushing, and molten lust spiraled out of control.
The entirety of my attention had narrowed to the feel of his mouth on my thigh. The ice was melting right off my body as my skin heated, curls of steam rising. Gods, please tell me he won’t see my flushed chest. The only thing worse than enjoying this. If I lost control and let out a moan of desire, I could already imagine the smug smile he’d flash his little captive.
Another stroke of his tongue, and electric shivers rippled through me. I’m pretty sure my hips moved. Gods have mercy.
I hated men. I needed to remember that.
Crush your desire for him, Aenor.
I forced myself to think of Giles Corey—an old bloated man crushed by the weight of rocks, his swollen tongue sticking out. Total passion killer.
At that moment, the Ankou pulled his mouth away and spit the poison onto the floor.
Good. Okay. My breath was slowing, and we had spit and Giles Corey.
I tore my gaze away from his perfect face to look at my leg. The dark poison had started to disappear.
“It’s done,” I said through a clenched jaw. “You’ve done enough. Do not touch me anymore, and keep your hands and lips off me in the future, or I will cut them off.”
Just as before, he pulled his hands away like he’d been stung. Still, he snarled, “You’re welcome.”
All at once, the ice returned to my body, and my muscles seized up.
“What was that?” I asked through chattering teeth.
“Leanhaum-shee. That’s what that creature was. They have venomous tongues. Beira let you live, just about.”
Shivering, I said, “I want you to know that I have not enjoyed my time here so far, and I despise you very much.”
He pressed his hands on either side of my head, leaning down. His gaze slid over my bare skin like a caress. I knew that as much as he hated me, he liked how I looked. “You need to warm up.”
“Well, well,” I murmured. “You’re as perceptive as you are pretty. Was it my frozen hair that gave it away? Take the bindings off me,” I rasped. “Or I will find a way to kill you with my mind.”
“We’ve established that I can return from the dead.”
“I will scourge you over and over,” I seethed. “And I will make it hurt.”
“I’m going to turn you over to get the bindings off.”
Without his magic, my muscles were frozen stiff. “I can barely move.”
He shifted me onto my side, facing away from him. I stared at the night sky outside. The setting sun had nearly slipped down past the horizon—a sliver of pumpkin under a blackberry sky.
My teeth wouldn’t stop chattering.
I felt a strong tug as he ripped the bindings off my wrists, and I brought my hands in front of me to try to rub them, but my fingers weren’t moving properly. Next thing I knew, he was wrapping me in a soft blanket and pulling me into his lap. He held me against his hot chest, and I felt his heart pounding against the blanket.
As much as I loathed him to his core, I found my head resting against his shoulder. His body was warmer than the bed. “Men are worthless.”
I breathed in the scent of almonds.
“I’m trying to warm you.” He pulled me in tight, close to his body.
My throat felt like sandpaper, and I glanced at a pitcher of water on the bedside table. And next to the water lay his arm sheath and dagger. I wasn’t sure which I wanted more—the water or the weapon.
I ran my tongue over my lips, tasting salt. Then I nodded at the pitcher. “I need water.”
He leaned over me, reaching for the pitcher of water, and poured it into a cup. He handed it to me, and I clutched my stiff fingers around it.
I didn’t think I’d ever been this close to a man for this long. I’d had precisely two sexual encounters in my long life, both quick and disappointing.
Now if I were the kind of person who got excited over hot guys, I’d be thinking about the Ankou’s bulging muscles, or the strange tattoos that marked his skin. My pulse would race at the thought of his perfect mouth so close to me. I’d be picturing my legs wrapped around his body.
What on earth was happening to me?
I sipped the water. Had water ever tasted so amazing? My hands shook a little. When I had drained the cup, he pulled it away from me.
“Look at you,” I said. “Showing kindness to a dirtling.”
“I need to keep you alive. And you’re still not warm enough.”
He lifted me and carried me across the floor into a new room—one with arched sandstone windows that overlooked the sea, and ornate copper lanterns that hung from the ceiling. An enormous marble tub stood in the center of the room, and steam coiled from the water.
Heaven.
He lowered me to the ground, and I let the blanket drop. I climbed into the bath, letting out a sigh as warmth enveloped me. I leaned back against the smooth marble tub. At last, my muscles started to relax.
A thin stream of blood coiled from my chest where the Winter Witch had pierced me, and it turned the water around it pink.
I folded my arms around my legs. Had the Ankou really made good on his promise about Gina? “Tell me where Gina is,” I said.
“At the Savoy Hotel. We established that.”
In the bath, my white cotton underwear had become completely transparent. But the Ankou wasn’t looking at me anyway.
Instead, he leaned against the wall in the shadows, staring out the window at the ocean, arms folded. The light from the lanterns danced over the beautiful planes of his face.
“Do you need to be in here?” I asked.
“I need to make sure you don’t pass out and drown while you’re in the bath.”
I glanced at his blackened wound, just barely visible above his folded arms.