Page 58 of The Lost Guard's Healer

Realization slowly dawns on her and the horror goes from confusion to shock, and settles on gleeful surprise.

“Hey!” She slaps me on the shoulder.

I laugh. “I couldn’t help myself.”

Her pouting mock-frown comes across as adorably cute. “Anyway, I still have a lot to prove, it seems,” she says. “I guess that’s why father is insisting that I go with you all to the Kingdom.”

“What makes you think he is looking for you to prove yourself?”

Galene lets out a weary breath. “I thought my Task with you would be my big final one. But now it seems that saving the Kingdom and fighting an ancient army that’s only meant to exist in storybooks is my final task. But I wonder if my father will just find something else after. If we both make it back.”

“Hey,” I say. “Of course you’ll make it back.”

“He just wants to keep pushing me. As a punishment for being unwed and childless at my age. Do you know what Leila’s big Task was?”

I shake my head.

“Leila’s great Task was to collect golden apples from a region where ferocious bears and wolves roam, high up on the Westfall Mountain. She hadn’t technically been Tasked, as it was too dangerous to go alone, but she chose it herself as she wanted to prove her worth. She spent two weeks out in the wilderness on her own and collected twenty-four spirit apples. Those are the big golden ones, three times as big as an average apple. She almost got frostbite in her fingers and toes, but came back victorious. We planted the seeds of the apples we ate and grew our own golden apples from there on, and had a large festival to eat the apple pies made from them. She was a hero to everyone, and from that day, she was Proven. I think my father keeps waiting for me to do something crazy like that.”

“Everyone is different,” I say. “You don’t need to prove anything to anyone.”

Galene sighs and shakes her head.

My hands slip around her waist to comfort her. I do it so easily without thinking, like it’s the simplest action in the world. If she’s surprised by my hold, she doesn’t show it. She melts into my arms, stroking my upper arm and shoulder.

“Careful,” she says demurely. “Don’t get too close. I hate you, remember?”

“I do have problems remembering things,” I grin. We lock eyes and hold our gaze. The feeling of a deep, overwhelming connection hits me firmly in the chest.

I nod to where she’d just been hanging from. “That was an impressive feat. You’ve been practicing.”

She shrugs. “It seems to get easier the more I try.”

She has a conflicted, distant look that makes me ask, “What is it?”

“I just want to know what I’m capable of. To help others. To know that I can protect others. And myself.”

I tighten my hold, pulling her closer. I can smell her light sweat mixing with her usual floral and earthy scent. Our hips press together and I stir and grow against her. A gleam in her eye tells me she’s noticed.

“You are the most courageous woman I know,” I tell her, my voice low and soft. I want to tell her not to come with us to the Kingdom, but her father has already insisted she go. Leila will stay behind with the boys, but Galene, who has become most in tune with her magical powers, will be among those going to the Kingdom. “I just hope I can protect you. While you’re protecting others.”

Her glistening lips part. “And who will protect you?”

She slowly inches closer and I lean in. The world melts away around us as our lips meet. I lose all sense of myself as I take her in my arms and kiss her hard. Our heavy breaths bounce off each other as our pulses quicken.

My tongue teases at the seam of her mouth and she presses her body tighter against mine before slowly opening her mouth and letting my tongue slide against hers. She moans when I run a hand down her back and arch her hips against mine, pressing her against my hardness.

I pull my mouth away from hers to kiss her cheek and neck, moving down her neck to her collarbone. I lick and nip at her skin before sucking, her hands gripping my hair as she gasps. She tastes sweet and smells intoxicating.

Galene slides one hand from my hair and down my body, sneaking it between us. She gropes at my pants and rubs my cock through them, which grows even harder beneath her hand.

I’m pushing her back and she presses against a tree as we kiss. My hands don’t know where to settle. I run them from her waist down to her ass, squeezing and kneading before sliding up and under her dress, running them over her breasts, pleasure rolling through me when I meet bare nipples. She has nothing on beneath the dress. My fingers tease at her peaks before pinching, just enough to get a squeak out of her and for her to press against me even harder. Her hand is pressed between her hips and mine, and I have to wonder if she’s teasing herself at the same time as she is me.

I can’t believe this is happening, but I’m too lost in the ecstatic moment to think clearly. To wonder if maybe it shouldn’t be happening at all.

Fuck, I wouldn’t give this up for anything.

Especially as she helps me pull down my pants, her delicate fingers popping the button and pushing them down. Her eyes rest on my cock and her breaths become heavier. Shakily, she rests a hand on my bare cock and pumps it once, her gaze turning upward to stare at me from beneath lowered lashes. Those blue eyes tell me everything I need to know. She really wants to do this. That burning neediness is clear in both of us. That strong magnetism that spurs us on. There is no amount of closeness that will satiate us, but we will have to make do with this.

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