The Crown's Entrapment

The night was still young when Gideon and Freya reached the workshop. Seeing as that was the case, both of them decided to make full use of their time together with the former watching the latter how she made her pottery. He really tried his best to concentrate and listen while she lectured him on the step-by-step process, but he just simply couldn't understand the intricacies of the art.

In the end, he ended up simply staring at her beauty while inhaling her strawberry and summer fruity scent.

'Such torment!' Gideon complained to himself.

Truly, everything became so much harder for him ever since that day he had a taste of her inside his own bedchamber at the Everett Manor. She was oh so painfully within his reach, and he knew that he should wait, but the wait was still killing him.

[Hahahaha! And to think you've already managed to wait for years!] Eli howled in amusement. [Think you can handle just a few more just to keep your word?]

Gideon inwardly growled to himself as he did his best to ignore his inner wolf's teasing. Of course, he knew that he had done that already. After all, that was all by his own accord. He didn't care how long he had to wait then, only that he would be allowed to give it his best shot in courting Freya for his own.

[And yet here you are struggling and failing to keep it in your pants on the home stretch,] his wolf amusedly chided him. [What would King Darius say if Freya just suddenly showed up with a mark on her shoulder?]

[That's exactly why I'm doing my best here,] Gideon almost growled in annoyance. [Now keep quiet. Freya's trying to teach me something.]

Another howl of laughter echoed inside his head as Gideon inwardly rolled his eyes. If there was anything that he would allow himself to be distracted by, it was his mate's soothing voice as she did her best to teach him how to do all this pottery stuff.

Granted, he was still kind of distracted by just how much in control Freya looked whenever she worked the spinning contraption that enabled her to shape clay and mud to her wishes. Just looking at how her hands worked made him imagine just what else she was capable of if given something… stiffer to work with.

"I see," he nodded, pretending that he caught whatever it was that she had just said.

Raising an eyebrow, Freya gave him a scrutinizing look before she let out a resigned chuckle. "Clearly, you didn't understand a word I just said."

"Well, all of this artistic stuff just isn't for me," Gideon awkwardly admitted, scratching the back of his head as he replied. "I just can't help but stare at your work, Freya. You're really skilled at what you do."

"T-Thank you," she meekly nodded, her cheeks blushing red against the moonlight. "Still, I don't think you've even given pottery an honest chance. Maybe a hands-on approach would help you learn better."

[That's not the only thing you'd want her to be more hands-on with.]

Gideon quickly blinked away the image his wolf presented to him as he nodded. "If you think it'll help, then it wouldn't hurt to try."

"Great!" she cheered, her fingers still caked with clay as she stood up. "Go ahead and sit on my chair while I walk you through the process."

Once more, images of Freya doing a lot more with her deft fingers flashed through his mind as he sat on the chair she was just using. He couldn't help but think of the fact that she had been just using this chair, her warmth still radiating off it even as his own already superseded it.

"Right, now hold onto this lump of clay and gently shape it using your fingers."

Before he even realized what was happening, Gideon was already trying his hand at pottery. The spinning disc thing in front of him that he still didn't know what the name was almost made him hesitant as he gingerly did as he was told, Freya hovering behind him as she bent over his shoulder.

"A-Am I doing this right?" he asked as he did his best to mold the clay into shape.

"You're squeezing too hard," Freya quickly replied, her arms quickly moving around his as he guided her by hand. "Follow my lead. Keep a steady hand and concentrate on not letting the clay slip."

Gideon's eyes widened at Freya's sudden intrusion. Already, her hands were touching his, her body draped over his shoulders which only made the tension he was feeling reach even greater heights than he was expecting it to. Did… Was Freya doing this on purpose?

"Nice and gently now… Use those long fingers of yours to your advantage…"

He let out a hitched breath as he found himself transfixed with every word she said. Judging by her tone, it seemed as if she wasn't even aware of the effects her close proximity was doing on his body. His blood was practically boiling for him to turn around and pin her to the ground, to throw away all of this pretense and just go straight to the point without a care in the world.

"Stop shaking, Gideon… You're making the edges too jagged…"

With her every word, his ears took in her dulcet tones. Her exquisite aroma threatened to drown him as her closeness almost made him want to melt in her embrace. There was no way that he'd be able to resist if this kept on going for longer. Even his dreadful job at pottery was doing little to distract him from this inevitable mess!

No, he had to change the status quo as quickly as possible before his instincts decide to take matters into their own hands.

"F-Freya?"

He heard her gasp behind him, almost sounding as if she was caught off-guard. "Yes?"

"C-Can you take a step back?" he meekly asked. "I'm… I'm doing my absolute best to hold back right now, and your closeness is making it really hard for me in more ways than one."