CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Severn Island
Jareth~
“Do you want to sleep alone?” he asked Iliana on the way to bed.
Iliana looked frightened. “Do you wish to rut?” she whispered back.
His heart sank. If he had needed further proof that their first time had been a fiasco, here it was. Rutting, for heaven’s sake! The familiar misery of his perpetual inadequacy engulfed him. He should have managed their first time better. Thought of a way to keep her safe without transforming her. Or found a means to make her first time special.
“No,” he said curtly.
“Then I will sleep in the room Lexi assigned me,” she said.
He put an arm around her shoulders, halting her. “Didn’t Aunt Anna and Lexi buy you a nightgown?”
“They bought me a sleeping garment. Two, in fact.”
“Don’t you want to show me?”
“Why? There is not much to them. They do not seem very warm.”
He hid his smile and smoothed her newly cut hair behind her shoulders. It was pretty, but it made her look like all the other girls, rather than his wild nixie. “Let me have a peek.”
She obediently opened her door and led him into a large and attractive room. It was furnished with light-blond modern furniture. The king-sized bed had masses of fluffy pillows and a thick down comforter with a blue and white floral cover. Like his room, this one had windows that looked out over the ocean. Unlike his, the blinds were tightly drawn against the night.
Iliana opened the dresser drawers until she located what she was looking for. A deep pink scrap of transparent fabric. “It is hardly worth wearing,” she complained.
His mouth dried as he imagined it draped over her lovely body. “It’s a pretty color.”
“When it’s bunched up,” she corrected. “When it is spread out, it is so pale it is just about invisible. See.”
He gulped. “I look forward to seeing you in it.”
“Oh.” She put it back in the drawer. “Why?”
“Because looking at you clothed yet unclothed will be a great pleasure.”
“Really?” Her eyes opened wide.
“Really.”
“And then you will wish to rut and give me a baby?” she checked.
“I will wish to make love to you, and make us a baby,” he corrected. What was up with her emphasis on rutting? As if they were animals. Or he was one. Or had acted like one.
She frowned. “Is making love different from rutting?”
He stroked her cheek. “As different as singing a lullaby to a baby is from shouting at it to go to sleep. And as different as our first time in the freezing north. A warm room and no hurry will make all the difference. I promise.”
Her skeptical expression remained.
“This has been a long day for you, sweetheart, hasn’t it?”
“And wearisome. Despite the fine clothes and the lim-o. And the helicopter. They were all exciting, but fatiguing.”
She did look tired. “I would like to just hold you until you fall asleep.”
“Why?”
“It would make me happy.”
She looked longingly at the bed before turning back to him. “Then of course. Do you wish me to wear the sleeping garment?”
Her courtesy broke his heart, but he had to try to please her. “Not if you will be cold. What did you sleep in before?”
“My skin.”
“Were you cold?”
“Not at all. This room is very warm, even though it has no fireplace.”
He suppressed his laughter and led her to the vent under the window. “This is where hot air blows. It keeps the room warm. There are three of them under the windows, and another by the bed. You won’t be cold.”
“Is the fire below?”
“You could say so. This house uses heat from the earth. The fireplaces are just an unnecessary frill.”
“Oh. I must wash my face before bed. The priestesses said this face-paint must be removed before sleep.”
“Priestesses?”
“At the spa-temple.”
He swallowed his smile. He could only set her straight so many times in a single day. “They were correct. I’ll go brush my teeth and come back.”
When he returned, the comforter was pulled up to her nose. To keep out drafts? Or him? He slipped off his bathrobe and raised the covers just enough to get underneath. “Are you warm enough?” he asked.
“Yes. But the wind has changed. There is a storm coming.”
“So there is. Still, the house will stay warm even if the outside temperature drops very low. And dragons do not feel the cold much.”
“Don’t they?”
“Not usually.”
“Good. I am tired of being cold.”
“And just plain tired too?”
“Yes.”
He stretched out a cautious hand and felt for the edge of her nightgown. It felt silky and thin. Probably that diaphanous garment she thought would not keep her warm. “Will you hold my hand as we did when we walked through Hel?”
She slipped hers into his. “I was so afraid,” she confessed. “I thought that at any moment we would die.”
“That did seem the likeliest outcome to venturing into the realm of the dead. I did not expect to survive either.”
“I wonder why the goddess let us go?” she mused.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Luck? Or maybe we have a destiny that she wishes us to fulfill?”
“I’m glad to be alive.” She moved slightly closer to him.
Their hips bumped. He felt the spark right to his toes which curled involuntarily. He squeezed her hand. “Me too. And gladder than I can say not to fear to fall asleep.”
“Because of the countess, you mean?”
“Yes. As long as I can remember, she tormented me at night with visions of my parents’ death and threatened the same death for me.”
“And yet you became a sailor.”
He shrugged, although she could not see him. “I am a Swede. And a Lindorm. We live surrounded by water. We sail and swim and join the Navy. I like the life, although I’m not a very good sailor, I’m afraid.”
“Are you not?”
“I have yet to earn my promotion, and I have hardly any honors. Not like Theo.”
“And yet you fought the apparition by my side, and went boldly into Hel. And brought us out alive. That is honor enough for any dragon.”
“I’m glad you think so.”
“I do.” She rolled onto her side. “Jareth, are we going to live here with Lexi and Theo?”
He ignored the zap to his senses brushing against her gave him. “Always, do you mean?”
“Yes. Or do you have a house elsewhere?”
“We won’t live here forever. I do not yet have a house. At least not one I live in.” He thought. “Actually, I suppose I have many houses. But I have not been inside any of them since my parents died.”
“Oh. Why?”
“I don’t know. I was very young when they died, and I went to live with my aunt and uncle on Lind Island. Older members of my family looked after my property. I believe my houses are all rented out. If you wish to live in one of them, we can. Or we can build or buy a new house just for us.”
“I think we should live in the warmest one.”
He kissed her hand. “I promise you will always live in a warm house.” Maybe she would never love him, but she could be warm.
“Thank you.” She kissed him shyly.
He returned her kiss, but did not try to turn it into a sensual experience. She needed her sleep. “Did you like Helsinki?”
She laughed. “I’m not sure. I like having pretty clothes. And I liked the spa-temple. The priestesses were very kind. But Anna and Lexi took me to someone’s house to eat. I thought our host was most peculiar. He welcomed us, Jareth, and fed us like honored guests. But he did not wish to feast with us, nor share our conversation.”
He controlled another urge to laugh. “The place where you ate your meal is called a restaurant. You paid for your lunches. The man who brought it to you works for the restaurant and never sits with the diners.”
“How very odd.”
He thought of a medieval equivalent. “It’s like a cook shop for rich people,” he explained.
She thought for a long while. “It is still odd.”