Below Attica's streets lurks a bloodthirsty creature that feasts on daughters of the nobility, and twenty-year-old Sinbad is tasked with slaying it. If he finishes his job and leaves without scandal, he'll have secured the new Sindria's prosperity...
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It was a shame to let the fire die down. As the warm light shrank, Thalia inched closer, refusing to let the chill of the darkness reclaim her.
Sinbad, on the other hand, pulled his shawl around him more tightly, willing the cold away. He wasn't used to this temperature either. Most of his life had been spent in deserts and tropical regions. Though the air here was nowhere near the freezing climate of Imuchakk, he hadn't come prepared for anything beyond the normal temperature of an underground cave.
Practically on top of the fire now, Thalia had begun to shiver, curling up into a ball. She looked pathetic and miserable over there by herself. As a spoiled and sheltered princess in a moderate climate, she probably had never tasted the bitterness of cold in her life. An involuntary shiver ripped through him, and he glanced at her. There was one way they were going to make it through the night comfortably.
"If you're cold, I have a solution," Sinbad offered, attempting to sound dispassionate, like he wasn't just looking for excuses to touch her. "We could huddle together for warmth."
"Why- why can't we just b- build up the fire again?" She tossed her poking stick in the fire in a last-ditch attempt to keep it alive.
Lifting himself off the floor, he walked over to her, lowering himself to her side and drawing her into his arms. Her warmth was a welcome reprieve from the punishing air. For the first time, he noticed her scent, sweet and heady, probably a blend of luxurious perfumes. His heart leaped in his chest, but he ignored it, instead answering her question. "It's dangerous to leave a fire burning unattended. I have to sleep too, you know."
Though, he wasn't sure if that was going to be possible when the woman next to him was so tempting.
She sank into him, warming her cold hands against his stomach. Her touch sent a jolt through him, raising his hair on end. She felt it too, right? The way she'd looked at him that first night, had that been part of her act?
"This is highly inappropriate," she muttered.
"Only if you want it to be." This time, it wasn't a reflex. He was genuinely offering.
She laughed into his neck, her shivering finally subsiding. "You truly are fearless, Womanizer of the Seven Seas." Her words were quiet, the light brush of her warm breath teasing his collarbone with every word. "My father would kill you."
"He doesn't have to know." Sinbad laid down, pulling her with him. "I have a feeling this won't be the first thing you've ever hidden from him."
She hooked a finger in the collar of his shirt. "My list of sins grows longer each day, but I'm afraid you won't be one of them."
He grinned. "We still don't know how large this dungeon is. You'll have plenty of time to change your mind."
Squeezing her eyes shut, she rested her head on his arm and gave him that secretive smile. "We'll see."
