“Her life’s not sorry, you little…” He reached for the gnome, but Ronald had always been too fast for him.
“Her life is sorry, and if you knew anything about her, you would know how hard she’s had it since you left.” He shook a finger at Marcus. “I’m warning you, lad, take great care with how you go about this.” He gestured to the cabin. “All this is fine and good, but real life will rear its ugly head before you know it.”
“This is real life,” Marcus grumbled.
“No, it’s the life you want. It’s not real life. There’s a difference.”
Ronald crossed to the window and threw open the sash.
“There’s a perfectly good door, you know,” Marcus said.
“Why use a door when there’s a perfectly good window?” The gnome glared at him for a moment and then turned and flung himself out the window.
Good riddance.
Ronald had no idea what he was talking about. This wasn’t a storybook life. This was real life. This was his life with Cecelia. This was real. Wasn’t it?
***
Cecelia stood beside a frozen lake, her arms flung out to the sides as she looked up at the night sky. Her father stood on one side of the lake, beckoning her to come to him. Instead, she fell back into the icy waters. She let them slide over her skin and suck her under the lake’s surface, until there was no air left to breathe.
Cecelia awoke with a start. There was coldness all around her, but she was safe beneath the comfort of Marcus’s warm counterpane. Yet an icy, cold something pressed against her back. She leaned back to look up at Marcus’s face, where he rested on his elbow, looking down at her. “You’re freezing,” she complained, pulling the counterpane closer about her naked shoulders. She looked down and realized she was completely naked. Then she looked over at him, and so was he. The only heat in the room was what crept up her face, apparently. “Where have you been?” she asked, looking everywhere but at his smiling face.
“I went to find food,” he said, snuggling his cold body closer to her. He flung one leg over her thighs and nudged her hip with… that couldn’t be…
“And took a dip in an icy loch, did you?” she asked. “You’re freezing.”
“I lit a fire in the kitchen and one in here,” he said, cupping his hand over a yawn. Then he looked down at her. “Did you sleep well?” he asked.
She nodded. She’d slept better than she had in a very long time. She looked toward the window. The light was waning. Hadn’t it been morning just a short time ago? “What time is it?” she asked.
“Dusk,” he said. His voice sounded like it had been dragged down a gravel road.
She sat up, and the counterpane fell below her chest. She snatched it back up with a gasp. “I slept that long!” She flung her feet over the side of the bed and started to get up. But he wrapped a strong arm around her waist and drew her back to him. She didn’t protest. Not really. She wanted to stay with him forever, never to go home. But reality would intervene before long.
Cecelia lay back against his arm, which had slipped beneath her head somehow. She turned to face him, their noses no more than inches apart. “Did you sleep well?” she asked.
“Not as well as you, I’m afraid.” He picked up a lock of her hair and toyed with it. “I love you, you know,” he said softly.
“Not today, Marcus.” She held up one finger. “One day. You promised,” she reminded him.
“I’ll never stop telling you, Cece,” he declared, and a lump formed in her throat.
Her stomach grumbled and she laid a hand upon it. “Oh, dear,” she said with a laugh. This was Marcus. He wouldn’t care if her stomach grumbled in a very unladylike way.
Marcus jerked the counterpane from around her shoulders and shoved it down so he could trail a finger over her belly. “Hungry, are you?” he asked softly. Then he bent and pressed his soft lips to the tender skin just above her hip.
“Mmm-hmm,” she murmured. Though she was not thinking about food at the moment. “Unless you had something else in mind,” she teased.
“I have a lot of things in mind,” he said with a laugh. She covered her breasts with her hands, and he looked up at her and rolled his eyes. “I think we’re past that point, don’t you?” He climbed up her body and whispered in her ear, “I’ve been inside you, Cece.”
Her heart leaped and a throbbing began between her thighs. “Yes, you have.”
“And I plan to do it again,” he murmured, kissing across the sensitive skin of her belly, until he could come up and kiss her lips quickly.
“Thank goodness,” she breathed.
He looked at her askance. “Do you want to eat first?”