Page 102 of Clash of Kingdoms

When I looked at it more closely, I saw the dragon in the background, the symbol of their kingdom. Wordlessly, I took the chest piece from her and fastened it to my body, and it was a perfect fit. “I don’t know what to say.” It was an expensive gift, something only the king wore.

Huntley patted me on the shoulder. “Don’t say anything—just put it on.”

Before I walked to the front door, I felt her mind.

I felt her desperation, the arousal that ached between her legs. It was a distinct sensation, heat from the summer sun right on the back of my neck. I stayed in front of the door and absorbed it, so struck by her desire that I was immobile. She wanted me before I even came into the room, so anxious she’d gotten started without me.

My dick was hard when I walked in the door. Naked on the bed with the thin sheets barely concealing her body, she lay there, her hand still between her legs.

I dropped the pieces of armor as quickly as possible and stripped down to my bare skin before I approached the edge of the bed. I grabbed her by the ankle and dragged her to me, bringing her ass slightly over the edge.

“I’m sorry…”

I folded her at the edge and pinned one of her feet against my chest before I sank inside her, smeared with the wetness that had started without me. It felt so good that it felt like the first time, like I’d never been with her before. “Baby, I’m here now.” My hand dug into her hair and fisted it while she held on to my shoulders and arms.

I thrust into her hard and fast, doing the opposite of making love to her, but it’d been so long since I’d had her that I couldn’t slow down. I just wanted to thrust over and over, make her little body shake underneath me, listen to her moan as I pushed her to the edge of her climax. She’d already hovered there before I’d walked in the door, so she was ready to come once I was inside her—and she did.

“Aurelias…” Her head rolled back, and the sexy tears streaked down.

I tightened my grip on her hair and forced her stare back on me, watching the tears fall from her eyes to her ears. I fucked her like I’d paid for her for the night, except my heart was full of love instead of lust. She didn’t seem to mind, the dry spell torture for her too. With a heavy moan, I filled her, gave her a week’s worth of a load in a single release.

Her hand cupped my face, and her thumb brushed my bottom lip as she stared at me. “Now you can make love to me…”

My arms were locked behind her knees as I kept her folded underneath me, her little body so bendable. Hours had passed, and we had been locked together all that time, kissing, touching, moving our bodies together because they were still soaking wet. It was the first time I’d really made love to her because now she knew who I really was.

When I told her the truth, I’d expected her to be appalled…and afraid. But neither of those emotions burned in her body. In some complex way, she seemed to love me more. There were no sour eyes of judgment.

I wish I’d told her sooner.

“I don’t think I can come again.” Her tightness had been taking me all night, and once the morning came, she would be too sore to have me again.

“Come on, baby.” I tilted my pelvis to grind against her, to give her my kiss and my tongue. The sheets were wet and sticky from our sweat and the wetness that dripped down her slit to the bed below. I ground into her harder, pushing her clit with enough force to make her inch toward the edge.

She began to moan into my mouth, starting off small then slowly growing louder, more demanding. Her fingers dug into my sweaty hair as her hips moved back against mine, fighting for that friction that made her tighten around me.

“Almost there…” I could feel her grip me like a firm fist. I could feel the tremble of her lips as she started to pant. My dick hardened inside her because now I wanted to come. My ego burst with my accomplishment, and now I was right at the edge of release.

Her beautiful moans sounded in the stone cottage, masking the sound of the dying flames in the hearth. She grabbed on to me as she writhed, as her nails scratched down my chest. Her hips gave uncontrollable thrusts as she finished, her eyes wet again.

I let myself go, filling her so many times I’d lost count through the hours. It was our longest session, the best make-up sex I’d ever had. I’d been on top of her the entire time because I missed being between those soft thighs with her little body below me. But now the fatigue crept into my veins.

I rolled off her, my head hitting the pillow for the first time that night.

She immediately moved into my body and ignored the sweat that coated us both. She pressed a kiss to my shoulder and closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep almost immediately. Her breathing changed right away.

I stared at the moving shadows on the ceiling and felt my eyes grow heavy. The world was so quiet, just the flames in the hearth. It was easy to forget everything that had happened, everything that was bound to happen, and just drift off in peace.

But then the horn sounded…and that peace was gone forever.

TWENTY-THREE

HUNTLEY

It was an hour before sunrise.

The horn sounded from the scouts in the distance, so the guards sounded our horn as well, alerting everyone in HeartHolme that battle had arrived on our doorstep. I wasn’t sleeping in my bedchambers, staying in the barracks with the other soldiers, taking naps here and there. I knew there would be limited warning for the attack, and it wasn’t right to expect my men to be on guard all day and night if I weren’t willing to do the same.

But now, it had arrived.

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