The Taming of a Beast

Chapter 13

A/N: Enjoy!

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"Could...could you stay?"

Evelina held her breath while Adrian paused. In the darkness, Evelina couldn't see Adrian's expression. It only made her hate the darkness even more, and she couldn't bear asking Esen and Cassandra for the expense of extra candles to be lit at night while Evelina slept.

"Never mind," Evelina retracted. "You must be tired---"

The straw mattress sank a little with the addition of Adrian's weight as he slid under the covers. Evelina scooted over a few more inches until he was fully settled.

"Are you cold?" He asked in a murmur.

With the addition of Adrian's body heat and the blankets piled around them, Evelina was quite warm on the outside, but the nightmares had chilled her insides and mind. She couldn't help but shiver as she recalled how she had felt, trapped and unable to move.

Mistaking her shivering as being cold, Adrian slowly drew her into his embrace. She was startled but her body began to relax as his arms wrapped around her.

"Is this all right?"

Evelina could hear the drowsiness in his voice. He had already had a few nights of restless sleep when they were hiding out in the woods, and now she had disrupted his sleep again. She swallowed the feelings of remorse and resolved to heal him quicker next time.

"It's good," she murmured back.

Despite being a water mage knight with ice abilities, he was warm. Evelina also controlled herself from accidentally firing off a spell as she felt the immense amounts of mana wavering off of him. He was fast on the road to mending as she sensed his mana reservoirs refilling more and more every day.

Perhaps by chance, her head ended up being near his chest. Listening to his slow and steady heartbeat, Evelina finally drifted off into the waters of dreamless sleep.

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When Adrian woke up, he immediately discerned the presence of a soft being in his arms. Something soft brushed against his nose. As he opened his eyes, he was greeted by black hair just below his chin.

Evelina was still curled into his side, reminding him of a cat curled comfortably. Gently, he brushed a stray strand of hair from her face in case it bothered her.

The witch murmured something incomprehensible and wiggled in his arms. He found the corner of his lips lifting up as her eyebrows scrunched up together. Adrian poked her gently in the forehead, trying to unknit the wrinkles in her brow. It was still a miracle to him that he could be so near to someone without ice encasing them.

But unfortunately, he found that another part of his body was also lifting up. Evelina was leaning her whole body against him, and as much as he could pretend to, Adrian could feel every inch of her curves pressed against him. Every movement of hers against him was both torture and pleasure as she brushed accidentally against that stiff body part.

Grimacing, Adrian willed his mind to conquer his body. In all his twenty plus years of his life, he had not experienced such an embarrassing situation like this. He scolded himself for his body's reaction. You're not an animal, Adrian thought. Evelina was his savior, and he shouldn't be acting like this to her.

He tried to carefully extricate himself from her limbs, but Evelina, perhaps sensing that her comfortable body warmer was moving away, suddenly pulled on his arm so Adrian was back in his original position.