Page 6 of The King's Maiden
More so, I needed to get the fuck out of there and take care of the situation before I did something stupid. If this favor were for anyone else, I would’ve split by now.
But no one shirked an order from the King.
Not even his best friend.
My position as such usually afforded me immunity from mindless errands, but this had been…sensitive.
The virgin daughter of his grandfather’s business partner conveniently forgetting to mention she wasn’t on the pill—at least not untilaftershe dangled her untouched pussy in a younger Knight’s face—qualified as urgent, apparently.
And I’d been given the honor of securing Plan B.
Although, if any of our younger pledges had listened to me one of the countless other times they’d fallen into this sort of honey trap, they could’ve saved me the trouble.
I wouldn’t be here trying to get a morning-after pill, rocking a semi over a girl without seeing her face. Picturingmyface buried between her thighs. Or my hands threading in her thick, dark hair, while staring transfixed as she ranherfingers along her scalp.
Again and again.
She tugged more strands free from her bun before snapping her hand away.
It was like she kept forgetting that she’d secured it up there, only to remember all of a sudden. And then, less than a minute later, she’d forget all over again.
A repetitive, anxious tic she couldn’t seem to control…
I found it fascinating.
That, or standing behind her as she cross-examined the pharmacist had bored me to the point of insanity.
My money being on the latter, I checked my watch for the hundredth time.Twenty minutesto pick up one medication? To go back and forth over copays and coupon cards? Couldn’t she charge it and let us all move on?
I checked my privilege there, hearing my sister’s voice reverberate in my mind.
But a triumphant sound burst past my lips, as a lightbulb flickered on above my head. I pulled out my wallet and slapped my card down. The loudcrackof my hand against the counter captured the pharmacist’s gaze and his pint-sized inquisitor’s attention.
“Whatever the medication costs, I’ll cover it.”
The pharmacist’s eyebrows rose. And while my eyes stayed on his face, staring expectantly until he took my credit card and got to work swiping it, my focus wasn’t on him. It remained solely on the space beside me.
And the sharp intake of breath that came fromher.
Not the clearly audible gasp I expected for that pay-it-forward moment, however self-motivated it might’ve been. The inhale that followed caught me off guard as it echoed in my ears. It sounded wrong. It was too high-pitched.
Too tight.
Pained.
I recognized it. And my mind jolted back to the last time I heard it. My heart raced and palms grew slick instantly.
As if almost ten years hadn’t passed since the worst moment of my life.
Stumbling forward, I gripped the edge of the counter.
It took everything I had not to pass out.
The pharmacist finished charging my card. He turned from the register to hand it back. His eyes widened when he saw my face. Voice muffling in my ears, his words came out garbled and asked if I was alright.
And he called himself a medical professional…
But then, a soft hand grazed my forearm, clearing the haze. Illuminating that single point of contact.
