IceSurrender by Marisa Chenery Read Free Book Online Page B

lips to hers. He kissed her slowly and deeply. They were both
breathing harder when he finally released her mouth.
    “My ancestor had rotten timing,” Ryder said as he met Wren’s
gaze.
    “Really bad. If he’d given us a few more minutes we would
have finished.”
    “A few more minutes? That’s not saying much about my
lovemaking if you think it would have been over that quickly.”
    Wren slapped his chest. “All right, not a few minutes. How
about an hour? Does that sound better?”
    Ryder chuckled. “Yes.”
    “Are you sure we can’t finish what we started now?”
    “It can only happen in my dreams. I now know a lot of things
I didn’t before. I even know the spell my ancestor used to turn the sentinels
during the ice age. I also know I’ll have to go through a couple more changes
to obtain the full potential of my powers.”
    Wren visibly shuddered. “Really? And will you have to go
through this again?”
    Ryder shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, but I would have to
say more than likely.” He ran his gaze over her face. “You’re worried.” He said
it as a statement rather than a question. From Wren’s expression, he already
knew she was.
    “Of course I am. Not being able to wake you up and you being
so feverish, it’s scary. I don’t mean for you to take this the wrong way or
anything, but you’re mortal. Sometimes mortals don’t recover from things like
that.”
    He squeezed her tighter against him and kissed her forehead.
“I’m fine though.”
    “Yes, you made it through this one. Next time, you might
not.”
    “I doubt I’m in any kind of danger. I’m meant to go through
it.” Then it dawned on Ryder why Wren would be so uneasy with it all. “It’s
because of your mom. She was mortal and died from an incurable illness.”
    “Yes.” Wren looked down and played with the tie on his
pajama bottoms. “What you don’t know is I was her primary caregiver. I did
everything for her when she no longer could for herself, right up to the end.”
She paused. “Seeing you lying there on the bed, not responding to anything,
brought back all the memories of what my mother had endured. I wouldn’t wish
that on anybody.”
    Ryder scooped Wren up in his arms and placed her on his lap.
“What is happening to me isn’t caused by cancer. It’s supernatural. My ancestor
is waking up my dormant powers. Instead of growing into them, as I did with
what I had before, it’s coming awake suddenly. It will have some side effects,
but it won’t kill me. You said so yourself last night that you ‘saw’ me with my
full powers. That means I’ll be fine.”
    Wren met his gaze. “And us? Are we going to be fine as
well?”
    He let Wren change the subject. It was obviously something
she’d remain uncomfortable with. “I’m not going to lie. I didn’t think we could
be together, even after I gained my full powers. I was afraid I could hurt you
if I got caught up in the moment, let my guard down and ended up striking out
at you. But after what you did, I don’t think that way anymore. You have some
kind of sway over me. A simple touch and you reinforced my control.”
    Wren shifted so she straddled his lap, facing him. She put
her arms around his neck. “That makes me happy because I wouldn’t have let you
walk away from me anyway.”
    She lowered her head and kissed him. Ryder soon took
control, once again getting caught up with the arousal that pounded through his
body. His cock hardened, rising between his and Wren’s bodies. She dropped a
hand to it and stroked it through the material of his pajama bottoms. He
groaned.
    Ryder stopped Wren after a minute more. He would be pushing
it if he let her continue for much longer. He broke away from her mouth and
tugged her hand off him. “Enough,” he said as he fought to catch his breath.
“We can’t.”
    “But you didn’t get to finish in your dream.”
    “And I’ll have to wait for another one before I can.” Not
wanting to test the limits