Page 11 of Settle Down, Princess

Whether I was untouched or not didn’t matter to me, not if I longed for his hands on me. This was my body and I’d be damned if anyone else would determine its worth on terms I didn’t value. Because all of this hoo-ha about virginity just seemed as though it was tied up with the veils we were forced to wear. We were hidden from sight, but also from seeing, from experiencing, outside of the women’s quarters. Every way of us interacting with the world was completely imposed by those in power. And, despite my title, I didn’t have that power. I was a princess—of all the women in the kingdom I was outranked only by my mother and grandmother—so why had I allowed myself to be denied something even a serving girl enjoyed?

“If it matters not to me,” I said, using my most imperious tones, “then I can’t think why it would to you.”

Roan grinned and stepped forward again, his eyes like molten gold as he moved to me, full of the promise of a thousand pleasures, but this time it was Arik’s arm that blocked him from getting any closer.

“No. She’s mine,” Arik growled.

Yes! That was what I needed: that. To be wanted with an intense kind of ferocity, the kind that had my body throbbing and my heart singing. If it was only for tonight, then all the better. I’d get up in the morning and leave, never to see any of them again. But for now… I needed to see Arik shove Roan back, for the other man to stumble. I needed to see Arik’s head drop down to look at me, his eyes filled with blue fire. I needed his hands clamping down on my arms to pull me closer, holding me tightly against him. It was too tight for me to be able to raise my own hands to touch his chest even though I tried. He worked out what I was about and his grip loosened. I mourned the loss of that tight hold for half a second until his mouth slammed down on mine.

Arik’s lips branded mine, claiming them as his in a way that made me fear he’d leave a mark long after I was gone.

And that when I was alone I would crave just that.

I leaned up into him, clinging to the massive breadth of his shoulders, seeking the grind of his teeth, the slip of his tongue. As though I’d asked the question, he picked me up in his arms. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he carried me across the room until my back was slammed against the wall. Air was driven from my lungs, but Arik breathed it in, right before funnelling it back. My nails dug into his shoulders, raking his skin, but that wasn’t enough. The fire was burning out of control.

And so was I.

Part of me wanted to take my time to inspect, touch, caress, and pet every inch of him. Later, I promised myself—later. I could spend the night just like this, riding the red wave of roseblood until it burned out, then I could catch a riverboat out of the capital as early in the morning as I could. But while I was making bargains with myself, my hands slid down, over an abdomen as hard as cobblestones, until I reached the leather ties of his pants.

“You can’t fuck her tonight.” Creed appeared beside us, his eyes glowing as they drilled into Arik’s. “Not like this. Her first time shouldn’t be on roseblood.”

Arik let out an animal growl of frustration, then turned me around in his grip and presented my naked body to the other man.

“Kiss her, and I won’t.” The command in his voice was clear, but Creed took a step backwards. “Kiss this very beautiful girl on the mouth. Kiss her like you mean it and I won’t shove my aching cock into the wet little cunt that’s rubbing against my pants right now.”

“I…” All the certainty seemed to go out of Creed then, but he didn’t back any further away. No, instead he came forward and the scent of cypress pine and cut grass filled my nose. “You know what that will mean, Arik.”

“I know.” Arik’s arms tightened around my chest, almost like a corset, but for far better reasons than fashion. His mouth dropped to my shoulder and placed a trail of kisses there before moving up my neck. The skin there was so sensitive that I couldn’t help but squirm against him, which had him moaning into my neck. “Kiss her, Creed. Because, gods be damned, I’m this damn close to giving her everything she wants.”

Creed moved in slowly, trailing long, sensitive fingers down my jaw and then across my cheeks, like he needed to touch me to see me clearly. When his callused thumb brushed against my bottom lip, my mouth opened and my tongue flicked out. I tasted salt and leather and something sweet, and I couldn’t help it—my lips fastened around the tip and sucked it clean, as if operating on instinct. He jerked his hand away and replaced it with his mouth.

Gods…

It was due to my pitiful amount of experience that I knew why he kissed me like this; like I was his last breath and he was forced to draw me down or die. He kissed me like he was a man drowning and like I was the siren pulling him into the watery depths. Creed’s kisses were brutal and unpractised, all teeth and tongue. And my inexperience saw its echo in his.

Creed had never kissed a woman before. I was his first.

Chapter 8

Arik

Seeing the princess in a dead faint in the corridor had been both a shock and a stroke of luck. As soon as word had reached the dais that she’d run from her mother outside the throne room, I’d begged leave of the king to go and find her. He’d given his permission because what else could he say? It had been the same when we’d presented ourselves to the king after we appeared at his city gate. We’d carried with us a summons from the King of Khean, and he’d been forced to accede to its contents or face annihilation.

Of course, Jessalyn, the Princess Royal, was not privy to any of that. The nobles of Stormare seemed intent on keeping their women in glass cages, grown like hot house flowers that would apparently expire on the spot the minute they were exposed to real world conditions. But I’d known better. I’d watched the princess at dinner, even though she was placed down the other end of the table to us with the other ladies; and I’d spied upon her going about her business at the castle. She was always veiled, trussed up in a corset, with every inch of her creamy skin that could be covered draped in rich fabrics. Despite all of that, somehow I knew her regal bearing came from more than just good training. I was willing to bet she had a spine of steel under all those layers of fabric.

But that was not the state of the girl in my arms.

My king might have sent me and my men to fetch his bride, but I would put money down that out of the many scenarios he’d anticipated, this wasn’t something he’d foreseen. His bride, naked, wet, and willing, writhing against my body as she kissed Creed stupid. The man pulled away when he was forced to come up for air, and I saw it then, the spell that she wrought. When he blinked and his wolf’s eyes refocused, they were entirely trained on her. Creed had never kissed a woman before because his beast wouldn’t ever allow him to. Wolves mated for life and the mating instinct was pushing him hard.

Which was perhaps why my hand slid up Jessalyn’s throat and I tipped her lips back to me. Creed growled low when her mouth sought mine, hungry for more, and then his snarl grew louder, deeper, less human, as I kissed her slowly, surely, thoroughly. Gods, the combination of roseblood and her… I got hard whenever I smelled the sweet scent of the spice, which was an awkward thing because it was used liberally in the palace kitchens. The whole court teetered on the edge of rut most of the time, something the king took full advantage of.

And so, he’d have to understand this situation.

He certainly wouldn’t turn away a girl in the first flush of roseblood. Indeed, I’d been forced to stand by as he’d taken great pleasure from such circumstances, brutally using girls over and over who were overwhelmed by the drug while he rode the effects of it, so, hopefully, he’d show us grace in the position we’d found ourselves in.

And fuck him if he didn’t.

This moment was mine, and so was the girl.

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