Snow White and the Huntsman: Revenge From the Grave

Chapter 16

William lay wide awake listening to the slow and even breathing of Snow beside him. He had no idea what time it was but he felt like he had been frozen in place for hours. His back ached and he needed to adjust his position but he was afraid to move and come into contact with the soft body lying asleep next to him. He had already lost the circulation in his fingers from gripping the sheets beneath him so hard his knuckles were white. The need to reach out and touch Snow was nearly overwhelming. What kind of torture was this supposed to be? He reminded himself for the hundredth time in the last couple of hours that he must go to confessional first thing in the morning. God must have taken it upon Himself to see him punished for his sins of late. Maybe if he begged forgiveness God would see fit to take some of this torture from his life.

Just as the last thought crossed his mind Snow rolled and put her head on his chest, her hair tickled his nose and her fingers managed to find the open V of his night shirt and curl in a small fist in the hair lightly sprinkled there. His body responded instantly and he gripped the sheets even tighter as he looked up at the ceiling, a sardonic look marring his face, beseeching the almighty to have mercy on his poor soul. He was reminded of a time when they were children and Snow had soundly walloped him for breaking her favorite china doll. She had managed to get him face down in the dirt with his arm twisted up behind his back demanding an apology, the pain in his shoulder excruciating. If only a cry of 'Uncle' could get him out of his predicament now.

The soft scent of strawberries drafted across his senses and he realized it was the smell of Snow's shampoo. He couldn't stop the soft groan that escaped him. The sound disturbed Snow and she moved again this time snuggling even closer by putting her leg over William's, her breasts and belly pressed fully against his side. William knew his body couldn't take anymore torture so he began to inch his way out from under Snow's grip planning to sleep on the rug by the fireplace. He managed to get a mere few inches when Snow's soft, questioning whisper made him freeze, "Will?"

Will's strained whisper answered her, "Yes?"

"What are you doing?"

"I am going to sleep by the fire. I think you will sleep more comfortably if you don't have me taking up so much of the bed" Will was only thinking of escape at that second, because no matter how much restraint he had he was still a man with the needs of a man, and it had been a very long time since they had been met.

"Will?" The quiet question in her voice stopped him and made him turn to look at her.

"Do you remember when we were children and you used to tell me stories of prince's and princess's to cheer me up when I had a nightmare?"

Will didn't trust his voice to be even so he just shook his head to the positive as he stared at the milky smoothness of Snow's skin in the moonlight that was filtered through the draperies.

"I wish we could go back to that time. When life's problems were so much easier to solve. Do you think our lives will ever be so simple again?"

Will closed his eyes against her beauty before answering softly, "If I could make it that simple for you again, I would give my last breath to see it done, but I think that the grown up world, even without our problems, leaves little room for such simplicity." The weight of the truth of his words fell quietly over them both.

"Will?"

"Yes?"

"Can you tell me another story, just this one last time?"

Will opened his eyes and stared at Snow. Her face was turned up to his, the emerald of her eyes a fathomless ocean in the glimmer of light mixed in the dark. What story could he tell her to take away the pain, the sadness, and the years of captivity, the loss of her mother or her father? Life had left him with only one last story for him to share with her.