Page 31 of The King's Maiden
A tendril of fear unfurled inside me when he reached for his belt and unbuckled it.
“Face down, Maiden,” he ordered. “Now.”
Chapter Nine
QUINN
Ifroze, torn between running from the room and finding out what he’d do if I obeyed.
Curiosity overruled my fear.
Sinking down slowly onto the mattress, I couldn’t hide the way my body trembled. Or the way I jumped at his touch.
He grabbed my ankle and tugged me back toward him on the bed, his thumb stroking along the curve of my ankle bone. “Do you remember the safe words from your contract?”
“Y-yes.”
“Tell me.”
“I…” Wracking my brain for the words I had all but tattooed on it, I struggled to wade through the haze of desire overwhelming me. A hint of fear lingered as well, as the words grew harder and harder to pull from the fog. My breathing quickened. “I know them.”
“I know you do.”
He traced circles over my skin, his tone shifting effortlessly from demanding to soothing. But the gentle strokes of his fingers only aroused me further, and I couldn’t focus on thepatterns he drew any more than I could siphon one clear thought in my mind.
“I need to hear you say them, and you’ll need to know that I heard them.” He stroked up and down my leg. “So, you know you’re safe.”
Dragging his fingers along my calf, he pressed down into the muscle.
I groaned. “I can’t think while you’re doing that.”
His touch danced higher, the mattress shifting beneath me as he settled his weight above me. He brushed the skin of my inner thigh, and I buried my face in the mattress to stifle a moan. I only came up for air when his touch retreated, and his palm stroked the hair back from my face.
My eyes closed.
He braced his forearm on the bed, hovering over my right side as his hand made its way between my legs again. This time, he drew closer to my center, inching toward the apex of my thighs as if he was trying to drive me insane. My heart raced when I felt that first graze over my core. Featherlight and fleeting.
I whimpered.
Trying to hide my face, my moan morphed into a cry of surprise. My hair was pinned under his arm—hehad pinned it—and he refused to let me hide.
“If you can’t think when I’m touching your ankle…” His fingers skated the line of my panties. “How will you be able to tell me what you need when I’m doing this, Maiden?”
Desire pooled between my thighs. And I moaned, lifting my hips off the bed. Seeking out his touch. Wanting more. Needing it, when he drew his hand away.
A growl of frustration burst out of me, and again, I struggled to turn my head. But he kept me trapped beneath him. A position I didn’t mind as long as he kept touching me.
But he wouldn’t budge.
“I don’t remember.” I wriggled on the bed, rubbing my thighs together to create friction. “Landon,please.”
He dropped his knee between my legs and forced them apart.
But he still didn’t touch me, even though he prevented me from taking care of things myself. He had no idea how quickly he’d worked up my body, how starved it had been for this kind of touch, or how every second without it felt like the most exquisite kind of torture.
I squeezed my thighs around his.
His other knee joined the first, spreading me farther.
