He groaned.
She snatched her hand away, mortified. That hadn’t been a groan of pain like before. That had been one of…pleasure. Oh, mercy. Heat began to pulse, low through her pelvis. What kind of sick woman was she that trying to free this poor man was going to turn her on? “I’m so sorry,” she told him. “There’s no other way to do this.”
And she placed her hand on him again. Her own breathing was becoming raspy with that sick sort of excitement, and she stroked her hand down the ice again, watching as it melted away from his cock. At least he wasn’t blistered there, she told herself with relief, though his skin was reddened. A bead of pre-cum glistened on the head of his cock…and then didn’t slide down his skin. It froze there instead. Her arousal was making the room incredibly cold.
Charlotte looked up at the man, her breathing heavy, and noticed that those mirrored eyes were still watching her with fascination. “Sorry about that,” she told him. “It couldn’t be helped.”
“Will you not keep touching me?”
She shook her head, backing away a step. “It’s…it’s not right. I’m sorry.” She moved to his feet and melted the cuffs there, without saying another word. When she was done, he remained still. “Can you walk around?”
He got to his feet, rising to his full height, and Charlotte blinked, staring up at him. She was an average woman – or at least she had been – but next to this man, she felt positively dainty. He towered over her, all muscles and bronze skin, and she forced herself to keep her gaze on his face so things wouldn’t get weird, considering he wasn’t wearing anything.
“I’m very sorry about all that,” she told him.
“I had displeased you,” he told her in that monotone. “I deserved the punishment you gave me.”
“I’m not sure about that.” Charlotte chewed on her lip, thinking. There was still something really off about all of this. Kai was a bit weird, but the man acted like he wanted to jump her bones, not escape. Wasn’t this supposed to be more difficult? Or was this truly supposed to be this easy? She didn’t know, and Muffin hadn’t exactly left her a training manual. For the first time, she wished she’d paid more attention to fairy tales. Who knew that she’d be forced to interact in one at a later date? “Do you have any more ice anywhere else?” She could feel her cheeks blushing even as she asked it. “Anywhere I can’t see?”
“I do not.”
There was something about this still bothering her, though. She examined his face, and his strange mirrored eyes. Something gleamed in the corner of each one. Something shiny and unnatural. “Did I do something to your eyes?”
“Yes, mistress.”
Damn it. “Lean down.”
He did, and she got all disconcerted at the sight of him leaning in close. He really was beautiful, even if his warmth did feel a bit like standing in front of an inferno. Those strange eyes watched her, his face so close to hers that she would have felt his breath…but she realized he was holding it. Thinking of her, perhaps?
She studied his face. There was definitely something shiny in the corner of each eye. “I’m sorry,” she warned him. “But I’m going to have to touch you.”
“I await your touch with anticipation, mistress.”
“You won’t be saying that when I stick a finger in your eye,” she grumbled, but moved forward. She extended one finger close to the corner of his eye, and to her surprise, before she could touch him, the shiny object flew out of his eye and landed on her fingertip as if magnetized. She stared at it. It looked like a chip of mirror.
The mirror in her room had been missing two chips. “What in the world?” She glanced back at Kai and noticed that his eye was a dark amber-brown now, with a normal pupil. Her fingertip went to the other one and the mirror chip flew out before she could touch him again. She frowned at the twin chips in her hand, and then patted her dress, looking for a pocket. When she didn’t find one, she shrugged and slid the chips into her bodice. “Strange stuff, Kai. Do you feel better now?”
He didn’t answer.
She looked up at his face.
His beautiful mouth was twisted into a snarl, and those amber-brown eyes flickered with emotion. Rage. He bared his teeth in a grimace and lunged at her.
Charlotte barely was able to duck and sidestep as he went flying past her, skidding on the icy floors that caused her bare feet no trouble. He slammed into one of the nearby walls, and cursed under his breath. Then, he turned, big shoulders heaving. “Monster,” he growled. “I’ll have your heart.”
Her eyes widened. “Kai?”
“You have not earned the right to address me, foul creature!” He lunged at her again, big body launching from the icy wall toward her.
She gave a shriek of surprise and threw a hand up to protect herself, flinching away. She braced herself for the impact of his massive body on hers…but it never came. Instead, she heard a crackle of ice, and her eyes opened a moment later in surprise. When she’d thrown her arm up, she’d created an ice barrier, and it had protected her from Kai’s lunge. The barrier had shattered under the force of his weight, and he’d rolled to the floor, where he was even now picking himself up off the ground for yet another attack, his handsome face drawn into a rictus of anger.
Completely gone was the Kai that had begged her to touch him in that weird monotone. The man that stood before her now was huge and enraged.
“Stop it,” she told him in a quaking voice. “I just freed you!”
That brought a snarl to his lips. “Yes, you freed me for more of your sick, twisted games. Games that I want no part of. You will have to enchant me again if you wish me pliable, foul woman.”
Enchant him again?
The mirror shards in her bodice. Of course. No wonder he’d been so weirdly compliant. She shook her head and darted to the side even as he ran for her again.
She didn’t move fast enough; he grabbed her ankle even as he leapt and both of them slammed to the ground. Charlotte’s chin smacked into the floor, and the breath escaped her with a whoosh. A searing pain shot up her leg, and she cried out, kicking at his grip. He refused to release her, though, his teeth gritted even as her skin smoked as if she were being burned.
“Let me go!”
“You were not saying that yesterday,” he told her in a hard, sneering voice.
“Things…change!” She kicked at his face, her bare foot connecting with his jaw. Both of them yelped at the skin contact, and to her relief, he released her throbbing ankle. She scrambled away, crawling across the floors on all fours.
She heard him scrambling behind her, and knew he was going to grab her again if she didn’t think fast. So she did – she flattened her palm and smacked it, hard, against the icy floor.
The entire room jumped as the ice responded to her, and spikes shot up into the air around her, growing into massive protective icicles in the space of mere seconds. They surrounded her like a small fortress, glittering and dangerous.
Kai snarled his rage and punched at the icicles from the other side, but she immediately repaired them as soon as he did. He wouldn’t be able to get to her.
Charlotte exhaled in relief, her heart racing. What the hell had just happened? The queen had clearly been keeping Kai enchanted and pliable – and he had hated every moment of it. He’d just tried to kill her. She swallowed hard and sat up in her little icy fortress, glaring at him from behind the safety of her spiky icicles. “That wasn’t very nice.”
“I have no time for nice,” he sneered.
She curled her legs close and hissed at the bright red welt encircling her ankle. It hurt like a burn where he’d touched her. How could the snow queen be sexually interested in a man when it scalded her to touch him? Sick. No wonder Kai hated her.
She glanced up at him…and noticed he was no longer glaring down at her. Instead, he was racing to the steps, determined to escape. Crap! She laid both of her hands on the ice floor and visualized it wrapping around Kai’s feet and sucking him down. Sure enough, she felt the flooring ripple and a scarce moment later, before Kai could touch the bottom step, the floor wrapped around his feet and halted him in his tracks.
No wonder the snow queen lived in an ice palace – everything and anything was a weapon.
Kai yanked furiously at his legs. “Let me go!”
“I can’t.”
He gave her an angry glare, still jerking at his legs. “Set me free and I vow to you that I and my kin will never set foot in your lands again.”
Charlotte sighed. “I really wish I could, but I can’t. You have to stay here with me.” She wiggled her fingertips against the ice, and watched it ripple and surf like a wave, gently dragging him back to his bed in the corner, even as he was helpless to move. She had him trapped. Poor guy. “It’s for the best if you stay here, and since you’re going to try and escape, I have no choice but to leave you locked up.”
She dumped him in the straw. A moment later, she reformed the icicle fortress around him instead of around herself, trapping him there.
“You cannot keep me here,” he roared furiously.
“I don’t have a choice, and neither do you,’ she told him in a pert voice. “So just get used to it.”
Chapter Three
Curse the evil woman.
Kai shivered in his cell, furious at the queen. And furious at himself, really. It was his fault that he’d been captured again. He didn’t know what had possessed her, but when she took the mirror-shards out of his eyes that kept him enchanted and complacent, he should have killed her. Planted his hands on the sides of that delicate jaw and twisted until he heard her neck snap.
But he hadn’t. Instead, he’d hesitated while she stared up at him so pretty and soft.
And that hesitation had cost him.
It was a mistake he’d made twice now. The first time, when he’d seen her in the snowy woods and she’d looked so regal and pale. He’d been struck dumb by her, and hadn’t known who she was until she’d touched him and placed the magic shards in his eyes.
And then he’d found out. He’d been helpless to disagree even as she’d stolen him away from his village, taken him to her icy keep, and then amused herself by finding new and ghoulish ways to torture him. She was attracted to him – that much was obvious – but because she couldn’t touch him without burning herself, she settled for torturing him and arousing him against his will. That had been part of the spell – to make him lust for her no matter what awful things she did. Even when she stabbed him with icicles or brushed her burning fingers against his cock? He’d still wanted her even though he despised her with every ounce of his being. She’d known he’d despised her, too, and simply hadn’t cared. She’d simply smirked at every monotone “Yes, I want you more than anything, Mistress.” She’d known the truth behind those words, and loved to make him say them.
It was just another way to break him. She did love her games.
Today must have been a new game, Kai decided as he huddled on the straw and pulled his legs close to conserve body heat. She had tired of being the hard, cruel snow queen and decided to go with a slightly different tactic. When she’d arrived today, she’d been soft and sweet, her words half amused and half chagrined. The little fluttering touches she’d made, careful not to brush his skin, had been achingly sweet. And when she’d reached for his cock and stroked the ice off of it? There’d been a pretty bluish tint to her pale cheeks that told him that she was blushing like a virgin.
It had made him hard…and it had made him despise himself. This was just another game, and she excelled at messing with his mind.
She was an excellent actress, too. She’d pulled out the ice shards and had acted as if she’d had no clue what they were. She’d looked shocked and hurt when he’d attacked her. Even her overall demeanor had changed – she was somehow softer, less cruel. Less brittle around the edges. The hard, cunning look in her eyes was gone. When she smiled, it looked as if she’d meant it.
So of course, he knew it was a ruse. And he hated that his body had responded to it. Was he that desperate for a woman’s touch that he’d welcome the icy caress of his enemy?
He was betrothed to Gerda, his childhood friend and playmate. And while there wasn’t love between them, there was respect and friendship. Never unabashed lust like he felt for the beautiful, fragile-yet-strong snow queen.
And he hated that more than anything. It should be Gerda that filled his dreams at night, not a demon with blue-tipped fingernails and silky, white-blonde waves of hair.
The trap door opened above, and he tensed, getting to his feet. He forced himself to stand tall and proud, despite the chill in the air and the pain shooting through his weary muscles. He was starving, too, but he wouldn’t ask her for food. He’d learned weeks ago that she liked to withhold anything he asked for, so he’d learned not to ask for anything.
Footsteps. A moment later, she came into view, the polar bear skins that normally covered her lush bed in her arms. To his surprise, she dropped them on the floor and then picked up the first one, bundling it in her arms and then lobbing it over the ice.
It landed at his feet with a splat. He made no attempt to touch it, only watched her.
She tossed the next one over, as well. And then the final one. When he didn’t move a muscle, she frowned. “Aren’t you cold?”
He was; he’d never admit it to her. So he said nothing.
She moved closer to his prison, and that blush stole up her cheeks again. He watched as she raised a hand to shield her eyes, and carefully avoided looking at his nudity. “Do you have any pants? I can get them if you can tell me where they are.”
Kai’s eyes narrowed. Was this a trick? Get him to admit that he desperately wanted clothing and then withhold it from him? Worse, dress him in female garb and make him beg for favors? Humiliate him?
She looked sad that he wouldn’t respond. “You’re not going to talk to me, are you?”
“I have nothing to say to you, Snow Queen.”
She chewed on her lip. “Boy, they weren’t kidding when they said this bad guy thing would be a challenge.” She tilted her head, staring at him, then said, “You don’t have to call me ‘Snow Queen’. My name is Charlotte. Charlotte Ross.”