The Snow Queen's Captive (7 page)

But now that she had…changed, he wanted to see how she’d react to his offer.

Her jaw dropped a little, her mouth working, but nothing came out. She recovered a moment later with a small shake of her head. “I…no. I…” Her brow furrowed as she stared at him, at his darker, tanned skin, then back at her own bluish-white skin. He could practically see the question written in her mind.
How does that work
? But she didn’t ask, and he was surprised. “No,” she said after a moment. “Thank you.”

Against his will, his mouth quirked into an amused smile. She was thanking him? “I am here for your pleasure, as you have so often reminded me,” he told her. “If you have needs, they are mine to service.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Then why did you try to kill me the other day?” She extended one foot out from under the table and he could see the dark-colored welt around her ankle, where he’d grasped it.

She was cleverer than he’d given her credit for. “Madness from the enchantment,” he lied quickly. “It confused me.”

“I see.” Then she shook her head again, squirming slightly in her chair. Then, as if it made her uncomfortable, she bolted up from it and paced across the room. “I don’t want you to hurt yourself simply to please me. I’d never ask that.”

But she
had
asked that, many, many times. It only convinced him further that somehow her mind had snapped, taking away the evil and leaving behind a stranger. A deadly, albeit fascinating one. And he found himself standing and following her.

“There are many ways I can please you without injury,” he told her, surprised at how much he wanted to show this to her. He was fascinated by her wide-eyed reactions to everything. What would she be like in bed? He hated that he even wondered it. He should have been thinking about escape, not about throwing her down onto that snowy bed and ravaging her just to see her gasp. “Shall I show you?”

She trembled, but she wouldn’t look at him, as if shy.

Shy.

He moved to stand behind her. He wanted to reach out and touch her, but didn’t. He knew from experience that it would hurt her – and him. Instead, he shrugged off the polar bear skin he had wrapped around his body. “May I touch you?”

“I….I don’t know.”

He draped the fur over her shoulders. “I’ll be gentle.” And he rubbed her skin through the fur, gliding a hand along her limbs.

She shivered, biting her lip. Her hands went to the fur that threatened to fall off her shoulders and held it tight. “We shouldn’t—“

“Shh,” he told her. And his hand skimmed down a fur-covered arm. Her shoulder became exposed as the bear-skin slipped over one arm, and he leaned in and gently blew a soft breath on the exposed skin.

She moaned aloud, her eyes closing.

He froze in place, stunned by her response. Before, she’d never shown any sort of reaction. It had always been coldly clinical to watch her during sex, and he knew that even if he felt pleasure, she got more out of his eagerness for the pain she’d dealt than any caress.

But now? She moaned when all he did was breathe on her.

And his cock became hard as stone in response.

“I wish I could touch you,” she whispered.

Just like that, he had a mental image of her, pale hands caressing his cock, that soft, sweet look on her face as her white hair fell about her shoulders. The look of wonder on her face as she explored him. And he was hit by a surge of lust so strong that he staggered. “There are ways,” he told her. “You only have to ask.”

But she shook her head, looking soft and sad for a moment. “I can’t ask that.” She shrugged the furs back off her shoulders and held it out to him, turning. “But thank you.”

And he noticed that her gaze avoided his naked body.

All right, then. More games. If that was what she wanted, he’d be happy to oblige. He turned back to the table and gestured at the food there. “You might as well finish your meal, My Queen.”

The sharp crackle of ice was the only hint that she was using her magic until it was too late. He turned around and barely caught a glimpse of her escaping through one of the icy walls, leaving him alone in her chamber.

She’d fled.

Chapter Four

Charlotte rubbed her arms as she paced the halls of the castle, surrounded by the glassy gleam of ice. Her mind was whirling with everything she’d learned from Kai, and it was too much to take in.

The snow queen was as bad as she’d feared. When she’d seen the ice covering Kai’s groin, she’d had a niggle of doubt in her mind that things were bad, but after talking to him? She found out that things were very, very bad, much worse than she’d hoped.

The Queen had been a sadist, and she’d been using Kai for her own pleasure. God, he must hate her. The only person in this icy fortress other than her, and he’d been abused by her. That made her stomach turn. Not only was she stuck on the wrong end of this fairy tale, but she was in the body of a torturer. Suddenly this entire thing had taken an ugly turn.

She gave a self-pitying sniff. She didn’t want to be the bad guy.

This was a nightmare. To think that she’d been moderately excited to be the snow queen! To have cool ice powers and a beautiful castle to live in? She didn’t want any of this anymore. She wanted to be the heroine. The good guy. Not the one that was enchanting the sexy hero so she could abuse him.

Charlotte…

She froze. Looked around. “Is someone there?”

You know who I am…

The voice didn’t sound familiar. With another glance around, Charlotte continued down the hall…and then paused.

She was standing atop the room with the mirror in it.

That creepy, creepy mirror that oozed bad magic.

I can help you…

Swallowing the nervous knot in her throat, she called out, “Um, no thanks! I’m good.”

Are you truly?
The eerie voice laughed and mocked her.
You seem unsatisfied to me. Perhaps I can help…

“I’m pretty sure I don’t want your help,” Charlotte said, stepping out of the hall and adding another layer of ice.

She’d never come down this hall again, if she could help it. She shuddered. Just what was in that mirror, she didn’t know, but she didn’t like it.

Not one bit.

~~ * * * ~~

When Charlotte returned to her room later, she found Kai asleep in her bed, wrapped in the polar bear skins. She was a bit thrown at the sight, then realized that the ice door to his cell was too heavy for normal humans to lift. With a small sigh, she headed to the wall, dragged out enough ice to form an icy couch, and laid down. She pillowed her head on her arm to sleep, wishing she could curl up next to him. He looked so deliciously comfy in her bed, so at ease.

But one touch of her skin would burn him, and she couldn’t allow that. Charlotte sighed and closed her eyes, determined to sleep in her new spot. As she drifted off, though, she wondered…

How had the snow queen touched Kai before without hurting him? He’d been covered in ice, but not burned, and he’d admitted they had sex. So what was the key she was missing?

~~ * * * ~~

Charlotte avoided Kai that morning. She slipped out through the bedroom walls as soon as she awoke and headed out to do her daily reinforcements on the ice castle battlements. Time was ticking away, and she had to be ready when the heroine showed up to save Kai. The irony of things? Charlotte didn’t want to keep him either — she was being forced to by the workings of the fairy tale. The fairy tale in which she should have been the heroine, damn it. Not the bad guy. Irritation made her magic surge, and the wall she was working on sprouted fierce spikes.

“Hard at work, I see?” The cheerful voice interrupted Charlotte’s thoughts.

She whirled, surprised to see the small, rotund form of her fairy godmother, Muffin, dressed in a crocheted beach cover up, and a floral one-piece swimsuit, and flip-flops. A wide brimmed yellow hat perched atop her head.

The sight of her startled the heck out of Charlotte. “Oh!” The magic at her fingertips surged and the icy spikes she’d just created shattered into bits.

Muffin raised her eyebrow at Charlotte from over a pair of enormous, oversized sunglasses. “Premature magic ejaculation?”

“Um. Not really? You just surprised me.” Though now she was blushing. She shook out her hands, her fingertips re-frosting. “It’s so incredibly nice to see you, though!”

“It is?” Muffin blinked in surprise, then gave Charlotte a pleased look. “I don’t often get that. Normally I get a ‘where the hell have you been, you old bat?’ I have to admit I like this much, much better! You’re my new favorite.”

Charlotte wiped her sweating – okay, more like frosting – brow. “I’m glad I’m someone’s favorite, at least.”

“Oh dear. That was a sad panda tone of voice if I ever heard one.” Muffin pulled a wand out of her oversized beach bag. She waved it at the snow and a bright pink inflated pool lounger appeared. She plopped into it and wiggled, the entire thing squeaking loudly. “Now, tell me all about it, sweetie.”

A second inflatable chair appeared next to Muffin’s. After a moment of hesitation, Charlotte sat down. “I…I’m just struggling, is all.”

“Really? You look like you’re doing pretty well to me.” Muffin waved a hand at the icy walls of the castle. “I see we’ve figured out the snow queen powers and we’re redecorating in a very angry sort of motif. It’s not my usual thing but I can dig it.”

Big, fat tears started to well from Charlotte’s eyes. “But I don’t want to be the snow queen. I was supposed to be the heroine.”

Muffin twirled a finger in the air. “Be positive, my dear. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!”

“I can’t make lemonade,” Charlotte said in a sad voice. “Just lemon popsicles.”

The fairy godmother chuckled. “Good one!”

Charlotte gave her a woebegone look.

“Now, now,” Muffin said, reaching over to pat Charlotte’s knee. She frowned when her hand stuck to Charlotte’s frosty skin, ripped her fingers away, and then blew on the red welts the touch left behind. “I forgot about that. What I was going to tell you, my dear, is that you’re still
in
the fairy tale. Things can always get better. As long as you are here, you have a chance to take charge and make changes.”

“But I’m the bad guy! Everyone hates me!”

“No, you’re the snow queen. You have to do the snow queen stuff. No one says you have to be all bad.” She shrugged. “I can’t change it. That nitwit intern of mine messed it up, but what’s done is done, my dear. Everyone only gets one fairy tale assignment per lifetime. I can’t change things. The only thing I can do is check up on you and see how things are going, and maybe offer a little advice here and there.”

Charlotte gave a sniff, and then wiped her cheeks. She was being silly. Of course, Muffin was right. At least she had a second chance. “I’m sorry. It’s just rough and I’m lonely.”

“What about that delicious young man that’s been hanging around?”

“Kai?”

“Is he the naked, hot one? Yeah, him.” Muffin flicked her fingers. “Go tell him you’re lonely. He’ll fix that fast, if I’m any judge of these sorts of things.”

Charlotte felt her cheeks grow hot. She remembered the hot look in Kai’s eyes.
There are ways…
“I don’t know that he’s offering…friendship, exactly.”

Muffin gave a ladylike snort. “That’s not what we called it back in my day, either.”

How embarrassing. “You know he doesn’t really want me, Muffin.”

“Of course he doesn’t,” the fairy godmother said, her expression one of patience. “He thinks you’re the snow queen. If he’s offering you something, it’s because he’s trying to gain some leverage.”

Charlotte crossed her arms over her icicled chest, a bit annoyed at Muffin’s words. “Well, that was blunt.”

Muffin straightened her oversized sunglasses. “Trust this old lady, my dear. I’ve been around the block a few times. Take what that boy’s offering, if you’re bored. No one’s going to judge, least of all not me. Just don’t expect more from him than a warm body and a few pretty words.”

It was the truth, of course. Charlotte wasn’t stupid. Kai had changed directions on her so suddenly that she’d almost had whiplash. The man who’d tackled her and tried to escape her suddenly offering her sex? Of course it was a plot of some kind.

And of course she was a doofus to even consider it. Just a little.

No one’s going to judge, least of all, me.

Muffin was right, Charlotte realized. There was no one to judge her, except maybe Kai. If he wanted to use her, couldn’t she use him back? Just a little? Take a bit of comfort from whatever he had to offer her, and run with that?

As long as she knew he was using her, and she used him back, what was the harm? She wanted companionship. She was utterly lonely and miserable as the snow queen, and working on the walls only burned through so many hours of the day. What would it hurt to spend more time with Kai and entertain him in his thoughts of escape? It wasn’t like she was going to NOT let him free at the end of the month.

Charlotte considered this. As long as both parties got what they wanted, what was the harm?

~~ * * * ~~

That night, she decided to test Kai. After a dinner of flavored cubes (and his soup), she gave him a cheery smile. “Want to go for a walk?”

“A…walk?” He gave her a skeptical look, as if expecting a trap.

“Yes, you know, that thing where you put one foot in front of the other?” She mimed feet with her hands. “And you move around? It’s quite thrilling, I assure you.”

He snorted. “I know what a walk is.”

“Oh, good. Then I don’t have to explain more of the logistics to you.” She teased, brightening. There was none of the bubbling resentment in Kai today, and it made her feel a little better. “Come on, then.”

“Where are we going?”

“Just around the castle.” She’d been working in the courtyard for hours that day, reinforcing the icy lattice of the walls and trying to figure out if she could somehow make a moat. The problem with a moat, of course, was that it kept freezing over. Still, this place was horribly defended and if she didn’t want to lose her head when Kai’s girlfriend came calling? She had to do something. So she made the walls thicker and steeper, and they were no longer as pretty but a good deal safer.