Winter shook his head. “The other servants and tutors looked after them while Mother stayed locked up with me for nearly three months. When she finally left the room with me, winter was over, and the sun was shining. She said I’d beaten the brutality of winter and I should claim its name because I was stronger.”
Fox smiled and rubbed his face against Winter’s chest, pressing a kiss to his beating heart. “It’s true. You are stronger.” He paused and yawned again. “Stronger than everyone.”
Winter lay still with Fox on his chest, rubbing whatever parts of him he could reach and petting his hair, until the man fell asleep. He should have nudged Fox into his own bed, but he wasn’t ready to let him go. Instead, he carefully rolled Fox onto his back before slipping away to the bathroom. He ran the hot water, washed himself, and returned to the bedroom with a warm, damp rag and a towel. Fox didn’t stir beyond making a pleased humming noise in his throat as Winter carefully cleaned him off.
Winter tossed the washcloth and towel into the bathroom, crawled into bed, and settled the blankets around both of them. Sleep was slow in coming even though his body was blissfully relaxed. His mind was too awake.
He knew he should be turning over the stupid prophecy, but the thing didn’t seem so important now that he had the true wording of it. There was no question in his mind that Fox was the witch mentioned, but the rest of it? Disarm the Variks? That didn’t spell death and destruction in his book.
And the lost king? Damon was no king, lost or otherwise. He didn’t know what that part was referring to, but there was no proof that the prophecy was foretelling the end of the Variks.
But the problem was that Damon believed it. The bastard also believed Fox was going to make it all possible. That idea made Winter’s blood run cold. There was no way in hell he was going to let Damon get his hands on Fox again.
Every time he thought of something happening to Fox, a horrible weight pressed on his lungs and his mind spun. Cold chills flashed across his skin and he couldn’t breathe. Fox…Fox was quickly becoming so precious to him.
It was so much more than the special gift of removing his old curse. While he’d never be able to show his gratitude for it, the past week of living together had shown him Fox’s wonderful sense of humor, his innate sweetness, and a dark underlying insecurity about his own worth that tore at Winter’s heart. He was so damn special, and he just didn’t see it. It made Winter want to use his own body as a protective shell, to guard him against the world that tried to tear his sweet Fox apart.
Tonight might have answered some questions about the prophecy, but it had created far more about what he was going to do about his growing feelings for the man in his arms.
Chapter 18
Winter was slow to wake later that night. His sleep had been so very deep and restful. It felt like it had been his best sleep in decades. He didn’t want to stir from his comfortable bed and warm blankets. Turning on his side, he reached a hand out and slid it across the sheets. They were cool and empty…and that was wrong.
Blinking his eyes several times, he stared at the spot on the bed on his right, trying to pull together his sluggish thoughts. His bed hadn’t been empty when he fell asleep. No, Fox had been there. His warm slender body and soft skin had been pressed up against his own. Gentle, steady breathing had lulled Winter deep into sleep. Fox’s heady scent mixed with the lingering smell of sex had filled his nostrils.
But now he was alone.
Shoving upright, Winter’s eyes darted over to the clock on the nightstand, where it read just a bit after sunset. He would have preferred to wake with Fox still in his arms, but that wasn’t practical. The man had probably woken a couple of hours earlier and gone to find something to eat. Winter couldn’t force him to survive on vampire hours. It wasn’t logical.
His good mood crumpling a little, Winter got to his feet and headed to the bathroom where he quickly took care of necessities before pulling on a pair of dark-blue sleep pants. He wanted to see Fox first,