Page 103 of The Forbidden Fae King

“Keira,” he says, stalking toward me until he grips one arm and tilts my chin up to peer into his face with a single finger. “I am going to ask you a question, and I want you to answer meveryhonestly. Can you do that?”

My mouth turns dry and I manage a nod.

“That morning in the grass, when I had your skirts hitched up around your waist, would you have had regrets if we weren’t interrupted?” He rumbles.

My stomach dips and my breath hitches. “No,” I whisper. “My regrets were that we didn’t get to…” I let my words trail off.

Aldrin nuzzles his head into my neck, kissing the sensitive flesh until he reaches my ear. “Do you have any idea how much the image of you spread wide and bare beneath me has plagued me for the last two days?” He growls.

“Yes.” I pant. “Yes. I think I do.” He pulls away eyes hooded. “Aldrin?”

“Hmmmm?”

“Before I woke you…were you having a dirty dream about me?” Heat flushes through me at the idea, pooling low in my body.

“Probably,” he says as though it happens all the time.

Aldrin grabs my hand and tugs me down one of those paths. The sudden change in pace has my head spinning. The heated look he gives me from over his shoulder tells me he is taking me somewhere to utterly devour me.

I bite my lower lip as the last of my reservations flee me.

Why should I spare a thought for Finan, for my kingdom or even tomorrow, when I have this beautiful man here, right now?

The path opens to a pool of water enclosed by thick tree cover. The surface shimmers like thousands of jewels, and its cyan-blue depths are completely transparent.

Aldrin gives me a wolfish grin as he pulls me to him and kisses me so tenderly, a soft brush of our lips and a slow caress of our tongues. I step out of his grasp before he can pin me to his chest. The hint of a frown pinches his eyebrows as he reaches for me and I take another step back.

I give him a sly smile. “Don’t touch me until I say you can. I want you to watch.”

Heat simmers within his eyes, but his lips quirk up in a cocky half-smile as he raises his hands, then takes a seat on a low boulder.

I hold Aldrin’s gaze as I unlace my cotton corset, my breasts spilling out of the restraining garment, covered only by a thin tunic beneath. I unthread each loop with a painstaking slowness, revealing more and more of the shape of my breasts until he looks like he is going to combust.

Tendrils of air pull at those strings, making them fall apart faster, and I give him a sharp look. He smiles at me wickedly as I toss my corset to the ground.

The shape of my breasts and peaked nipples are abundantly clear through the gathered fabric of the tunic. I undo my belt and chuck itto the side, then I loosen the fastening on my pale blue riding skirt and slowly shimmy it down my hips, until it falls to the ground.

Aldrin sucks in a sharp breath as my legs are almost completely exposed, the loose tunic the only thing that covers my hips.

Light dances in his eyes as he reaches out a hand for me, but I take another step back. A light breeze curls around my hips, flicking up the hem of the soft fabric covering them.

I bite down a smile at Aldrin’s impatience.

I pull free the laces of my tunic, until generous amounts of my bare, curved breasts are visible through the gap down to my waist.

Aldrin follows my fingers eagerly as I teasingly drag out every motion.

He swallows when I pull at one sleeve, revealing a shoulder, my entire arm, and then a single breast. I repeat on the other side until there is nothing holding up my tunic and the thin fabric floats to the ground and pools around my legs.

I am completely naked except for a lacy undergarment that covers very little.

A heated flush creeps across my skin at the look Aldrin gives me, roaming up and down my body, lingering at my breasts, down my stomach to the mound between my legs, to the curve of my hips and thighs, and back up.

He is like a man dying of thirst but too afraid to take a drink. It has anticipation rolling through my stomach.

I step out of my clothes, toward him, and slowly remove the pins from my hair. The crimson and gold strains fall across my chest as I toss my head. I take another slow step to close the space between us, and he leans forward eagerly in his seat.

“Gods, Keira. You are going to be the end of me.” His every muscle is taut, as though he struggles to restrain himself from pouncing on me.

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