Heart of Ice

by Brynn Paulin

  If only there was a way to touch her. He needed to feel her smooth flesh beneath his palms, skin to skin. Soft against hard.

  Her submission, while not perfect, was perfect for him. Wyn was everything he could have desired in a woman, a mix of all the things he liked.

  When he’d come, he’d withdrawn the toy from her. Now he tossed it near the chest. It would need tending before he put it away, and he supposed it would be used a lot while he was here for this season.

  A sudden pain slashed through him when he thought of leaving her. How could he desert his precious woman? It should seem odd that they were this quickly connected, but it felt completely right. Perhaps, in part, it was his connection to winter and her long-standing knowledge of him. There were still discoveries to be made, especially on his part, but he couldn’t mistake the prevailing feeling that they were meant to be together. Somehow.

  He got off the bed, trying not to wonder about how long he could go on without touching her. He liked contact. He liked the warmth of flesh-to-flesh. A frown tugged at his lips. Even if he could touch Wyn, he wouldn’t have that. Despite the clothing that had separated them, the iciness of her body had seeped through to him.

  “I’ve displeased you?” she asked, her own brow furrowed at his look.

  “No.” He shook his head and gave her a smile as he headed for the scarves about her wrists. “Just thinking. Figuring out things.”

  “What things?” She bent and wiggled her arms to loosen the muscles as he released her.

  “Touching.”

  “Oh…” She sat up and pulled the blindfold off the rest of the way. Sadness filled her eyes as she faced him. “You…like to touch?” she asked. “Some men don’t.”

  “I do. I like it a lot. I need it.”

  “Oh…”

  It frustrated him that all she had to say about it was “Oh.” There had to be a solution. There had to be some way… What on earth? He realized suddenly that her gaze slid away at the mention of touching, as if she were keeping something from him. He held back his instinctive growl. In time, he’d find out what was going on.

  He pulled on the glove he’d removed earlier then took off the clamps still squeezing her nipples, she gasped then let out a low groan as the blood flooded into the tips. He placed one of the silk scarves over her breasts, ripped off his gloves then ran his palms over the distended peaks. Absolutely no pain. He could touch her through silk…

  A plan formed in his head, and his cock twitched in anticipation. The spent flesh roused eagerly as he continued to stroke her.

  “Will your wardrobe work for me if you’re not standing before it too?” he asked.

  “Yes. You’re my, um, consort for the season, so it will provide whatever you might need.”

  He didn’t like how she’d phrased that, as if she had a new man here every year. “I want to see you naked,” he said. He plucked at her corset strings and loosened the laces enough that she might slide out of it. With a few twists and shimmies, she was free of that garment, her stockings and gloves.

  The silk wrapped around his hand, he gently pushed her back until she reclined against the pillows. “Stay there,” he said.

  She smiled languidly, her eyelids at half-mast. “Yes, Master.”

  Gripped with a desire to kiss her, now, he left the bed and headed for the wardrobe before he indulged his need. As quietly as possible, he made his request then scooped it up a moment later. A large silk sheet fit for a king.

  At the bed, he dragged it up Wyn, starting at her shapely toes and ending with it just below her eyes. He wanted to see her expressions, and to have her see him. Leaving her shrouded in the white silk, he stepped back from the bed and removed his clothes. The lust in Wyn’s eyes pleased him.

  Returning to her, he climbed over her on the bed and covered her mouth with his. He explored her lips through the silk, feeling her cool breath as she kissed him back just as fervently. Her legs parted beneath him and came around his hips once more. He sighed at the feel of the luxuriant fabric against him, but still wished for nothing between them. What had he always been told? You get what you get. He’d be happy with this.

  His cock pressed to her pussy. He ground against her. Her icy arousal dampened the sheet. What would she feel like around him? Cold water tended to shrink a cock, but he was growing harder and longer as the lips of her sex held him.

  Glorying in the ability to touch her, as hampered as it was by the sheet, he molded her breasts. Wyn writhed beneath him, her sighs and whimpers an alluring counterpoint to his own groans.

  “Oh!” she cried as he pinched her nipples, knowing they’d still be sensitive from the clamps. “Again, please,” she begged. “Please, more.”

  “More what?” he growled, dropping back into the role they both enjoyed. He squeezed the tips again then palmed the mounds.

  “Oh,” she moaned. “Master…please…”

  “I think I might fuck you now, although…” He paused. Her arms had crept up around him, and though he liked it, he grasped her wrists and brought them to the mattress. He held them firmly. A light of desire flared in her eyes, and he knew she enjoyed the treatment.

  “Although,” he continued, “I might not. You seem to be a rather naughty slave. Should I reward you?”

  “Spank me,” she said. “Or use the flogger or the clamps again. But please, please, fuck me, Master. I need you so bad. I’ve needed you for years.”

  “Years?”

  She looked away.

  “Wyn, answer me. Now.”

  “I’ve watched you. I’ve sometimes seen you with women—not doing the things we’ve done here with your devices, but I’ve seen you dominate women, and um, have sex. They seem…very happy with your, um, rough ways.”

  “You’ve watched me have sex?”

  “I never thought you’d be with me, that you’d want me or that we could do any of what we have. But I wanted it to be me. I wanted to send out the icy wind I possess and freeze those girls so that you couldn’t… Well, you know what I mean. I’m sorry—”

  “You knew my tendencies toward dominance before you brought me here, then?”

  “Yes, I suppose so.”

  “And somewhere inside you knew it was right for you?” It shocked him that she’d watched him, but it pleased him as well to know that she wanted to submit to him. While she hadn’t wanted to give into him easily at first, she had chosen this. “You carry so much responsibility, and you need someone who will take that away from you for a little while. Someone who will command you and give you some relief from the pressure.”

  “Not just anyone,” she muttered.

  He climbed off the bed and whipped away her sheet. She stared up at him in surprise, fear in her eyes. He knew she thought him angry at her admission, and at the moment, he didn’t mind. A little apprehension on her part was good—for now.

  A tendril of wind wrapped around him and pulled him back toward her.

  “Stop that,” he ordered. “You are not in charge here.”

  The air immediately stilled.

  “On your knees, slave,” he rasped. “You want to be mine, then you will submit. Turn away from me. I want your ass in the air and your shoulders to the bed.”

  She swallowed and nodded, then scrambled into the position he’d indicated. The worry hadn’t left her face, but he knew she’d be fine as soon as he started touching her once more.

  “What did you do when you watched?” he asked. “Did you touch yourself?”

  “I just watched,” she whispered.

  “And after, when you came back here to your big, lonely fortress and you were all alone in your bed? What about then? Did you touch yourself then?”

  “Yes…”

  “Yes?”

  “Yes, Master.”

  “And?”

  “And I thought of you. I pretended it was you.”

  Perfect. He smiled, loving her at his mercy, loving her hips in the air for him. “Get your legs apart,” he ordered.r />
  She complied.

  “More,” he demanded.

  Her knees moved a few more inches.

  “Now, show me. Reach with one of your hands and show me.”

  Tentatively, she touched her pussy, sliding her fingers along her crease and rubbing her nubbin until her pelvis jerked. Wrapping his hand in the silk sheet, he pressed his fingers to the same places. He stroked her until she moaned and rotated against him. Her arm curled back under her head as she took any touch he’d bestow. Her ass rocked backward, and he drove two of his covered fingers into her sopping cunt.

  Wyn screamed, her passage immediately convulsing around the digits inside her. Adjusting part of the sheet so it covered her back, he rested one arm across her spine to steady her while he fucked her relentlessly with his hand. Her breathing and the tightening of her body told him she was about to come. Ruthlessly, he pulled free. His palm smacked to her silk covered ass.

  “Kai…please…” she moaned.

  His hand came down again. He wanted the heat of the spanking flooding her pussy. Even more, he wanted her to know who it was who possessed her. No yearly consorts. No spying and wishing—

  “You’re mine,” he ground out.

  “Yes!”

  “Say it!”

  “I’m yours. I’ve been yours since the first time I saw you.”

  Making sure the sheet was draped over her to keep their bodies separate, he wrapped a portion around his cock and guided it toward her opening. Without preamble, he surged inside her. He thought he might die from the pleasure of her intense grip. Her muscles were so tight around him.

  The moment his cock was fully seated inside her, she went wild, pumping her hips frantically against him and fucking his cock as if he’d pulled it away any second and never let her have it again. Grabbing her waist, her guided her and slowed her movements. She was not in charge here.

  She cried and thrashed as he moved in a sedate, measured pace. He felt a gust of air pushing him and smacked her ass in response. “Stop, or I won’t let you come.”

  Still, he moved faster. The cold from her body was beginning to bite. It wasn’t the sting from before, but just a seeping ache that headed toward the bone for a deep chill. The faster surges staved it off, the exertion warming his body. Wyn’s channel started to squeeze his cock and he knew she was close to release.

  “You can come, little one,” he told her. “You don’t have to wait.”

  “Yes,” she screamed. Her whole body tensed and her cunt grasped him tight. As he came, he realized it had started snowing around them.

  He pulled out, then rolled to the side as the delicate flurries danced through the air on invisible currents. Wyn turned onto her side, facing him.

  “What’s this?” he asked, indicating the snow.

  She grinned sheepishly. “I hadn’t realized…”

  “It’s pretty.” It was especially pretty as she rolled to her back, and the fat flakes landed on her flat abdomen. They didn’t melt. Instead, they gathered like wispy feathers decorating her smooth skin.

  Her gaze languid, she watched him watching her. Her limbs were relaxed and her expression was as sex-sated as one could get.

  “I have to touch you,” he muttered.

  “No!” she gasped.

  Before she could stop him, he reached out and pressed his palm to her flat middle. The snow had cast them in an almost hazy glow as it had combined with the fire. The muzzy light disappeared instantly. Pain rushed forward in its wake. The agony was instant and completely unlike the sting he’d experienced when he’d kissed her. It paralyzed him and spread quickly from his arm to the rest of his body.

  “No! No…” Wyn screamed. Her hands pushed at him, but without the covering of the gloves, they only made his torture worse. He couldn’t tell her, though. The muscles in his throat refused to work. He could barely breathe, each intake an impotent struggle. His blood slowed as if turning to slush, and his flesh froze before blessed numbness crept over him. His vision grew dim. His last sight was Wyn’s panicked face.

  Wyn screamed in terror as she realized what Kai had done. Frantically, she struggled to disengage his arm from where it had settled on her. Frost curled up his arm, and his skin had turned a sickly gray. If they didn’t separate quickly, he’d die—she couldn’t lose another man that way! She couldn’t let Kai die. She loved him.

  Desperately, she wrenched at his arm then shoved his body to the side and over the edge of the bed. The fall wouldn’t feel great, but she imagined freezing to death might be worse.

  Scrambling from the bed, she grabbed up the long gloves she’d worn earlier and yanked them on. She swore as they gave her difficulty, twisting as if they knew her rush. Deciding they were on well enough, she grasped Kai’s arms and dragged him toward the fire. He had to get warm and quickly. Panic filled her. When she’d frozen her first would-be lover, it had been an accident, too. Then she hadn’t realized what was happening. She’d felt awful, but it hadn’t been anywhere near the terror she experienced at the sight of Kai’s frozen features.

  As tears filled her eyes, they blurred her perspective. His head thunked to the floor as she lowered him.

  “Sorry. Sorry. I’m sorry,” she cried.

  He groaned. A good sign. But he still needed to be warmer. Scurrying to the hearth, she tossed small logs on the fire then stoked the flames, wishing her powers included the capacity to make it rage. Alas, that ability belonged only to her sisters, Summer and Autumn.

  As soon as the blaze had risen—thankfully—to a roar, she rushed to the wardrobe and ordered it to provide brandy.

  “Wyn…” Kai murmured.

  “Yes, Master?” She shook her head to clear her racing thoughts. “Yes, Kai? I’m right here.” After grabbing the bottle and a glass, she returned to him and knelt by his side. Almost immediately, she realized she couldn’t chance him touching her skin, so she leapt up again and grabbed her dressing gown. With it closed and the tie firmly knotted around her waist, she settled again.

  “Calm down,” he ordered weakly. Slowly, he moved his arm and petted her thigh. “I’m still breathing.”

  Unfamiliar tears trickled over her cheeks. She rarely cried. She swiped at her face with one hand while she grasped his fingers with the other. “You almost died.”

  “But I didn’t. And now I know I need to use more caution with you. Are you all right, little one?”

  She nodded, bemused that he’d worry for her. No one had seen her as a vulnerable woman before or cared much for her feelings. More often than not, she heard, “I hate winter!” and people feared her. Kai… He seemed to…well, he wanted to protect her even when he’d come so close to death.

  “I wish there was a way for me to touch you,” he sighed. “I want to hug you, to have you press your face into my chest, to feel you fingers sliding over me.” He swallowed and looked into the fire.

  “I can’t…”

  “I know you can’t touch me.”

  She could have left it at that and let him believe that was what he’d meant, but the relationship developing between them demanded honesty. Her eyes closed. The truth might end them.

  “My parents left me with a means to someday claim my mate. A single shard of pure winter I keep hidden.”

  “What do you mean?” he asked sharply. She cringed at the barely concealed anger in his voice. She loved him and suspected he could be her mate. For years, she’d watched for the right man, but she hadn’t understood the weight of this decision until now.

  When she looked at him, hurt and fury lit his face. She quickly turned away.

  “It would be forever. The man I claim would be chained to my side forever.”

  “And?” he demanded, obviously unmoved by that fact.

  “And I can’t do that to anyone.”

  “Even if he loves you? Even if he wants to be with you?”

  She shook her head. This was selfless love, wasn’t it? She was doing the best thing for him though it was the last thing
she wanted.

  “Stay by the fire and get warm,” she said, getting up. “I almost killed you.”

  “There’s more than one way to kill a man,” he murmured.

  Unable to reply, she left the room.

  Chapter Six

  Kai stared into the fireplace at the far side of the main hall, contemplating his situation with Wyn. It seemed to be his main occupation lately—staring and thinking. He loved Wyn, and for the last two months, he’d done everything in his power to convince her of that. Her adamancy that she couldn’t make him her full consort never shifted. A few weeks ago, he’d stopped asking.

  The sex had been spectacular. It was everything his dominant spirit could have asked for, but underpinning it all was the knowledge there was still one part of herself she refused to submit to him. He couldn’t force her. It would have to be her decision.

  Though he was warm, he rubbed his hands over his arms. Two months without human contact was getting to him. He had to leave. That broke his heart, but he needed more. He’d never love anyone as he did Wyn, he might even spend his life alone, but he couldn’t live with her and not touch her.

  And spring approached. Wyn slept more and more as it drew closer. Right now, she was up in her bed. She’d awake toward evening, and the temperatures would drop. He should be sleeping too so that he’d be wide-awake for their activities tonight.

  There was nothing to do while she slept. The fortress was devoid of things to keep him occupied—something he would have changed if she’d made him her full consort—and leaving the dwelling was foolhardy due to the constant blizzard raging about the structure. He’d attempted it one day while Wyn had slept, only to find himself pushed back inside by strong gusts and blinding snow.

  While she was awake, it was as if the world transformed. Granted, it was mostly talking and sex between them. They enjoyed discovering new ways to find delight without touching skin to skin. Kai was partial to having Wyn tied for his pleasure. He knew she liked it as well.