"Your highness, your face has been grazed by a branch," said ili. "Sit down and let treat it."
The prince slid down and sat beside the stele and ili fetched so packed snow. She knelt down beside him and pulled a handkerchief from her décolletage. It was wet through so there was no need to dampen it, but its hiding place on her body was not lost on the prince, and he reddened as she gently wiped his face with it.
She wondered why he was embarrassed. Was it because she was so close to him? Well, it couldn’t be helped. She must clean the wound and she needed to be able to see it; it simply couldn’t be done from a distance.
She leant in closely and applied the handkerchief filled with ice to the graze, cleaning and soothing it. He stared closely at her face, surrounded by a fur-lined hood, re inches from his.
She was too damnably beautiful for her own good. No wonder her parents had locked her up in the inner courtyards.
He fully intended to do the sa thing if he secured her. His protective instincts flared whenever he was around her.
He tried not to get too inflad by her proximity, but she had to go and compound it by gently blowing on his cheek. Now he was fully ablaze, his imagination running wild.
He swallowed deeply. ’T...thank you Miss i," he choked out.
Tan Bowen laughed and shook his head in disgust.
"Don’t laugh, Tan Bowen," she scolded him.
The poor prince was simply embarrassed by his proximity to a woman; that showed him to be honourable, she thought.
Not like that monkey who had fallen on her in the hot spring and then taken the opportunity to look salaciously at her chest!
"How can I not. Look at him, he’s blushing like a schoolboy."
The prince rose to his feet and stepped nacingly towards Tan Bowen, pushing his chest out.
i ili put a gentle hand on his shoulder, turning him back to face her.
"All done," she said, admiring her handiwork. It wasn’t a deep graze so it should heal nicely.
The last of the light disappeared and there was nothing left to do but try to catch so sleep.
Tan Bowen slid down beside the prince against the stele, huddling next to him for warmth much to the royal’s disgust.
Bai Li went to rest against the opposite pillar.
ili took the pillar opposite Bai Li, keeping a modest distance from all three n.
She tried to sleep sitting up on the hard stone floor, but she was so cold it proved completely impossible. She lay down and curled herself into a tiny ball, pulling the cloak over herself and pulling the hood down as far as she could, but she still shivered uncontrollably.
She lay there for so minutes, thinking she would need to get up and walk about to keep warm, and should give up entirely on getting any sleep this night.
Suddenly, she felt herself being scooped up in sobody’s arms. Her hood fell back, and she saw that it was the prince.
He carried her across to the stele and placed her carefully on the floor, sitting down beside her.
"You’ll have to excuse , Miss i," he said politely as he wrapped his arm around her tiny shivering shoulders. "Desperate tis call for desperate asures."
’Desperate tis call for desperate asures’, thought Tan Bowen sourly. There was a pick-up line if ever he’d heard one. And it wasn’t even a good one!
Tan Bowen tucked himself closely on her other side, and now she found herself sandwiched between two n in a position she had never found herself in before, nor expected.
They both slled very male after battling a blizzard, but she found the position strangely comforting in its protection and gathering warmth.
Tan Bowen tried to put his arm across her shoulders also, but the prince pushed it roughly off.
She sat stiffly upright, certain she would sit like this all night with no chance of rest, but gradually, the warmth generated by the two n’s bodies, and the soft pattering of the snow which glowed gently in the moonlight, set her head to nodding.
The prince gently pulled her head to rest against his shoulder, a small smile playing across his lips.
Tan Bowen, anwhile, was trying to inch under his own large fur-lined cloak that she wore.
It was huge on her, he reasoned, she certainly didn’t need it all for herself. There was room for two and it would be warr for both of them if he was under it with her.
He felt the prince’s arm reach around behind her and push him out of the cloak’s shelter. The prince resettled the cloak tightly around ili, tucking it under her so Tan Bowen would not be able to share it.
"Why are you so an?" Tan Bowen hissed.
"Shhh," hissed the prince. "Make your own warmth. You’ll share a cloak with her over my dead body."
Bai Li smiled from behind his closed eyes.
As the long night drew on, and the prince rested his eyes, Tan Bowen tried again, lightly lifting the edge of the cloak to steal one arm underneath it.
The prince imdiately pushed him again. He sighed, giving up on the idea.
Eventually, sleep overtook Tan Bowen, and he started to lightly snore, his head dropping to rest on i ili’s shoulder.
The prince gave him a shove, and his body slipped to the left to lie on the cold floor, where he continued to sleep heavily.
The prince nodded with satisfaction, pulling ili closer now that her left side was exposed to the cold.
He watched her beautiful sleeping face in the light cast by the moon on the white snow. My God woman, he thought. What have you done to ?
Across the passageway, under his lowered hood, Bai Li silently watched the prince.
It was incredibly uncomfortable for him to watch the man holding her so intimately while she slept, but he was his Lord, so he would not challenge him unless he did sothing unacceptable.
He watched the man intently all night, looking for any signs his hands were wandering where they shouldn’t. He would certainly step in if that happened!
The prince appeared to be the perfect gentleman, until, just as dawn was breaking, Bai Li watched him lower his lips towards her forehead.
"Ahem!" Bai Li cleared his throat loudly and indignantly.
The prince flinched and looked up to find Bai Li glaring at him from under his hood, like a dark-faced demon.
He sat back up, staring nonchalantly at the man.
What had he done? Nothing at all. Yet...
Reviews
All reviews (0)