Ileus: The Dark Prince

Olivia felt her chest was squeezing in the metal plate. She wanted to remove it as beads of sweat burst on her eyebrows. Ileus and his wife Anastasia were supposed to be terror in the kingdoms of Draoidh and Silver Vales. It was said that Anastasia was a fae and a deity for she was the direct descendent of those who created the Lore. Gods, what it must be to be a... deity. Olivia was sure that Anastasia would be one stubborn and snobbish woman. She decided to stay clear from her and her husband Ileus. 

They entered a thick forest where the temperatures plummeted the second, they passed the first tree. The sun was as such pretty bleak and in this area, it couldn't even pass through its leaves. Her skin lined with goosebumps when she passed through the close formation of trees. They had all fallen into a single file. She relied on her horse's sense of direction as it followed Kaizan. Everyone kept their eyes in the front, wide open. She heard shuffling noises on the sides and hoped that they were wild animals and not the rogues. 

"The horses need rest," said Kaizan, drawing her out of her reverie. 

"Over here?" she asked, as she sucked in a deep breath. 

They rode for a few more hours until they crossed the thick forest. The hills that rolled in front of them were now bathed in silvery streaks of moonlight. Kaizan signaled the group to stop. "This is a nice place to camp," he remarked. And Olivia was thankful. She was too tired. 

She had never been out for so long in the cold earlier. It wasn't snowing, but the chill was crazy. Over the last two days she had schooled herself to sleep on one side of the pallet and not fuss around much so that Kaizan also slept peacefully. She was still embarrassed as to what she did to him last time. However, right now, her fur did nothing to stop the chill. She was wearing a thick sweater and a fur and gloves that she managed to extract somewhere from her chest, yet her fingers felt like ice needles. After an hour of activity everyone settled. The guards on watch lit a bonfire and Olivia wanted to feel warmth by watching it. She was alone in her tent and missed Kaizan's heat next to her which she was dangerously growing accustomed to. As if on her cue, Kaizan entered the tent. He knelt beside her on the pallet and took his cloak out which he placed over the fur they were supposed to share. This time he made no pretense and pulled her close to him. He wrapped his arm around her waist and his legs around her feet without saying a word. 

"What are you doing?" she asked, obviously not expecting this. For the past two days he was just sleeping close to her and she liked his warmth, but today… 

"I am ensuring that you reach Silver Vales as a human and not as a slab of ice. Because if you freeze to that level, it would make me a very bad person. What would Ileus think? Remember, I asked you to pretend?

Olivia's heart started thudding so hard that she thought it would jump out of her ribcage. As her teeth chattered, she said, "I won't be freezing!" He was so close to her that her breasts pressed against his chest. His heavy arm over her felt… possessive. It stunned her. 

"If you won't freeze then the amount you are shivering is going to attract every wild animal around this forest." Kaizan recalled how Ileus and he would sleep on both sides of Anastasia in Sgiath Biò. A smile crept up on his lips. 

"What will others think?" she asked a stupid question only because she couldn't think of anything else. She had never been this close to him consciously. 

She could feel him raising his eyebrow at her question. After a moment he said, "They will think that I am sleeping with my wife, which I assume is still a nice thing to do." He tugged her closer to him, his warm breath coasting over her cheek and nose. "And if you don't calm down your heartbeat, all the wolves around us will think we are having sex." 

Gods, this man was shameless. No. Father of all those who were shameless. 

Olivia's skin heated as she stared into the hard chest in front of her, trying not to be aware of his arms and legs over her. "I can manage!" she blurted and then regretted hoping he didn't leave her. Was she going crazy? 

"I doubt that," came the prompt reply. "I won't let you freeze to death. Besides, I am also feeling cold. So, if you don't want anyone else to sleep beside me, you will have to give me company." 

"What the hell? I don't want you to—" Heat suffused her cheeks as she snapped her mouth shut. He dared to say that to her? 

"I knew that, wife," he said, emphasizing on the word wife. He closed his eyes and buried his face in her hair. 

Olivia could almost feel him smelling her hair, forgetting that she was inhaling his masculine and fire scent. 

"Moreover, I wouldn't want you to shout in this part of the forest and attract wild beasts. With me you will feel safe." 

Safe? With him? 

He exhaled heavily. "Tomorrow we have a long and hard journey ahead of us, so I need you to be fresh when you wake up. If you continue to shiver like you are, I doubt you will have a single bone unbroken left in your body." 

Olivia could think of how to refuse him in a hundred different ways, but she was already settling in his embrace. Her feet were getting warmer and that was more than enough to put her to sleep. Besides, they were not doing anything that was related to sex, so… She bit her lip as she lay there in his arms, brutally aware of their proximity when something between them became hard.. It was all soft earlier, and then became semi hard against her belly and now it was rock hard.