Page 30 of The King's Maiden
His voice rumbled softly in my ear. “Take off your robe and get on the bed.”
Swallowing past my fear, I turned toward his voice and found my own. “I can’t see anything.”
“You don’t need to see.” He gripped my upper arms, holding me steady as my body shook.“Feel.”
But all I felt was him.
The roughness of his palms despite his gentle grip. The tremor running through his body as it pressed into mine. And the strain of his cock against my lower back, growing harder with every second he held me close.
“Move, Quinn.” Pressing me forward by the arms, he created space between our lower bodies. His palms slid up and over my shoulders, his fingers slipping under the edge of my robe, tracing a gentle pattern over my collarbone. “Go on.”
I stepped forward, relishing the slip of silk over my skin as the robe fell from my body. He let it drop and sucked in a tight breath, as if just the awareness of my nearly naked body affected him.
My core clenched in response.
Groping my way through the dark, my hand found the bedpost. I clung to it, needing a minute to settle my nerves. I’d been ready for this. I wanted it.
But the reality made my head spin.
He came up behind me. “As you were told, Maiden.”
His gentle prod held a note of promise. A reminder of what awaited me for the next thirty days. He would give the commands, and I would follow them.
This was what I’d signed up for, wasn’t it?
And so far, nothing he’d done—only what I’d heard about him—had given me pause.
Maybe it wasn’t smart. Maybe my therapist would have a fucking field day about how I ignored all the literal and figurative red flags waving in my face when this was over. But at that moment, I wanted to jump headfirst into this and enjoy theanticipation. I didn’t want to sink deeper into apprehension. Not over gossip.
I wanted—no, Ineeded—to keep going, instead of letting doubt stop me from moving forward.
The good thing was, I barely had time to think past that first wave of hesitation. With him pressing in at my back, I had no desire to disobey his order.
All I could do was feel.
Placing one knee on the mattress, I climbed onto it. I crawled to the center as Landon moved to the foot of the bed. A rustle of fabric came from the wall to my left, and moonlight streamed in through a thin glass pane near the ceiling, lighting the bed with me in it.
I peeked at him over my shoulder, a little unsure of what to do next. And the way he stared at me sent a shiver of desire down my spine. It also reminded me I was still on all fours, practically serving myself to him on a fucking platter.
But I had to admit, I didn’t hate that thought.
“What do you want me to do now?”
His eyes, a honeyed hue in the Round Tableau, darkened to the color of clove as his pupils dilated. Hands balling into fists at his side, he ran his gaze from the tip of my heels up my thighs and over the curve of my ass. His lips parted as he drank in the sight of me, in no hurry to give further direction.
Emboldened by the way his tongue darted out to wet his lips, I couldn’t help myself. I arched my back.
He groaned, his eyes flying to mine as he cut off the sound.
We both froze, my heartbeat fluttering like the flap of a butterfly’s wings inside my chest as I sensed a change rippling through the space between us. What had felt like a wave of desire building slowly now felt like a tsunami clearing everything in its path.
He blinked away the haze of lust in his eyes, his next command cracking like a whip through the quiet room. “Lie on the bed.”
It snapped again when I moved to turn over onto my back.
“No.”
I searched his face for an explanation. Something to explain the change in his demeanor. But his shuttered gaze gave away nothing. He simply stepped to the edge of the bed and bent his knee on the mattress.
