One step forward, three steps back. Whatever, she could use some time to collect her thoughts. One second she’s devouring him with her eyes, the next she’s practically begging him to kiss her, and then he’s giving her ominous warnings.
Abby found some cooked meat sitting on a big plant leaf in the stone house. She ate it with relish and by the time she came back out Alrik had returned looking tightly in control of himself. She sighed and scrubbed her hands down her jeans.
“What’s on the agenda for today?”
“We’ll work the same spell again and this time practice on just me. After you get me to move, we’re heading south.”
Her eyebrow rose. “South where the dangerous rogues are? Why are we going there?”
“I need supplies. I might be able to get some there.” He walked some twenty paces away from her then stopped and faced her. “My mother will also be south.”
Abby wracked her mind for times and dates. Her mother must have heard about what had happened to her by now and would be worried sick. She’d been gone, what, three days now? God, she wasn’t even sure.
“Just how long will it take to reach your mother?”
“I don’t know.”
Abby rolled her eyes, her patience waning. “Well, try to guess, please.”
He was silent for several moments, his gaze calculating. “It may take three weeks, maybe longer.”
She choked. “Three weeks or more. I can’t be gone that long!”
His dark eyes narrowed. “If your magic was at the level it needs to be at then we could head there now. As it stands, you are not nearly strong enough to fight my mother. She’ll kill you in an instant.”
“Isn’t that nice...”
“Do not take this lightly, Abbigail. The queen has strong magical blood in her veins. She’s spent years using it, harnessing it behind closed doors. I can only guess at how powerful she’s really become.”
“I wasn’t being...oh, whatever. Let’s just do this.”
Alrik nodded and crossed his strong arms across his chest. What a shame he’d put his shirt back on, but it was for the best. She couldn’t do with getting distracted by a pretty body.
Abby called upon her magic. It filled her body making her skin warm and her eyes burn with glowing light. She focused with her mind on Alrik. She envisioned throwing him far back. But she didn’t let her magic couple with the vision. She worked up to that. This was practice to get her focused.
“Do it already!” he bit out.
Abby clenched her jaw then raised her hands to him letting the magic fly from her fingertips. Burning energy soared from her like not needed lightning escaping from her fingertips, blasting against Alrik knocking him clear off his feet and sending him flying back through the air.
An ecstatic squeal escaped her as he landed hard on the ground. He was slow to stand, so she took that time jumping up and down and doing a fist pump.
“I did it! Ha! Take that, Alrik. I wiped you clean off your butt.”
He wiped dirt off his pants then came back to the spot he’d marked before. “Do it again.”
Her jaw dropped. “No way. There’s no way I’ll be able to do that again.” She could already feel her body tiring just from that one exertion.
“Do. It. Again.”
She started to yell or say something biting but clamped her mouth shut. Bitterness filled her. “Can’t I even get a ‘congratulations’ or a ‘good job’?”
He crossed his arms across his chest in response.
Of course not. God she hated him.
Abby went through the whole process again. This time she was determined to send the jerk even farther.
Yet, she couldn’t do it.
She kept trying as hours passed. Sweat formed and fell down her cheeks, the warm beads reminding her how cold her skin was. Light faded from the sky turning it dark and hazy. Alrik still stood there without saying more than “do it again.”
After God-knows-how-long, she dropped her arms and sank to the ground. Her entire body hurt including her head which sported a massive, pulsating headache at her temples.
“That’s it I can’t take it anymore.” Hours of work led to nothing. She’d moved him right off the bat and that was it. No more progress, and if that was progress she couldn’t tell.
She saw the disappointment and anger on his face that she was quitting but it didn’t faze her one bit. She was done for the night, totally. If she continued with how she felt now she might accidently curse him.
“Fine, I hope you’re ready for a cold night of sleep.”
She groaned at the thought. Her breaths didn’t form clouds but it was close. She shivered and walked gingerly with her aches back into the stone house. The floor was too cold to sleep on so she huddled back against the wall—not much better. Before she realized it, exhaustion took her and she fell into a fitful sleep.
She never saw or felt Alrik come into the room and pull her close, wrapping her in his heat. And she never saw him put her back where she’d been come morning.
Chapter Nine
Alrik woke at first break of light.
Something soft, warm, and feminine was curled in his arms. He stiffened; he’d almost forgotten. He’d been so angry with her for giving up on him last night after making so much progress that he’d wanted her to suffer the cold.
Yeah, well, he hadn’t managed to keep that goal. When he came in to sleep she’d been tossing and turning, her brow pinched, and arms wrapped tightly around her. Something had softened in him. He told himself he was just protecting her for his own purposes, that if she stayed cold remove she may not stay in peak health like he needed her to be, but even he wasn’t sure if he believed that.
She was steadily breaking down something inside of him. First, by flashing her bare skin at him at the lake. Then taunting him yesterday with her heated eyes and pouty lips. It had nearly undone him not to kiss her, and she’d wanted him to do it. To have a woman look at him with desire…no one had done so since Arianna. He’d brought forth passion in Arianna with his touches but Abbigail had looked at him with passion without his touch. She did it of her own free will and that had thrown him. He’d wanted to give in to her so he could show her what she was asking for, and mostly so he could taste her and feel that passion for himself.
He didn’t know how much more he could take before he caved. Already he felt his resistance waning. Every moment around her, he had to remind himself that he needed her for a purpose that could lead to her death. It wouldn’t do giving in to the carnal heat she awakened inside him. This task was proving harder to deny than he could ever have imagined.
She rested in his arms so perfectly. Her backside pressed into the curve of his body with his arm tucked around her slender waist. She’d snuggled against him in the night. Her delicately scented hair taunted him and he couldn’t escape it. He’d had no choice but to bury his head there and breathe in her unique scent all night long. She smelled feminine and gentle, as a woman should. The scent stirred his cock.
After he took her in his arms, she’d stilled for a moment before falling into a deep sleep while he’d slept on and off all night. She fit him well. Small and delicate, curvy and soft where he wasn’t. It didn’t help that the image of her naked body haunted him. Hardly a moment passed that he didn’t remember her heart-shaped bottom, firm thighs, and rounded hips.
Morning light spilled over her now casting her hair into something much prettier than he’d originally thought. Shafts of gold and copper colored her hair. He shouldn’t have slept with her. What if she had woken during the night to see that he’d taken her into his arms?
Her bottom moved against him again making his body stir and his blood heat. His cock filled with blood, turning hard and demanding against her. He stifled a groan at the erotic sensation. He’d lingered too long already.