Page 35 of Fae Champion

But I could have my dignity later, when he wasn’t around any longer. I’d have the rest of my life to recover from putting myself out there with abandon, and the memories of my time with him to soften my mortification.

“Don’t overthink this,” I urged him as much as myself. “Your dick’s about to bust through your pants toget at me. I want you. You could be inside me in the next minute if you drop all your weapons and clothes right now and get in here.”

I studied the many daggers, swords, and knives, and the bow and quiver filled with arrows strapped to him, and amended, “Okay, maybe five minutes, but in five minutes you could be slipping that hot hunk o’ meat into my?—”

“Shut up. Shut up already. You’re making it hard to think.” But he unbuckled his weapons belt and baldric in record time and set them on the counter next to the tray. His armor and tunic came off next, dropping to the floor near a puddle of water. I salivated at all the hard planes of muscle. His tattoos were shining bright as a full moon, suggesting they responded to the intensity of his emotions. Next, he unfastened the straps on his boots and yanked them off. When he stepped out of his pants, his erection was level with my gaze. It was gloriously thick and hard, and all my earlier boldness fled like a stumbling, startled bird, leaving my mouth dry.

I couldn’t help but stare at the magnificent “sword” inches from my face.

“I hope you like what you see,” he said, his tone several octaves lower than normal. “’Cause you look a little shocked.”

That snapped me out of my trance. Itsked. “Don’t flatter yourself. I was just making sure you’re equippedto satisfy me.”

He stepped a foot into the water, and my core pulsed tightly.

Eyes boring into mine, he said, “I might not be able to promise you much, but I can promise you this: I’ll satisfy you so thoroughly you won’t even remember your own name while I’m inside you.”

For once, I could be entirely certain he was telling me the truth.

11.WORST TIMING IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF TIMING, AKA COMPLICATIONS COULD SUCK IT

Now that he was decided, Rush didn’t waste another second on hesitation. Before I could properly register what all was happening—and that after so many years of anticipating the moment when I’d finally lose my maidenhood, it had arrived—Rush lowered to his knees in the water, once again giving me that spectacular view. The head of his erection was swollen and slick with his desire.

He slid a muscled arm around my waist and bent legs and pulled me toward him. I slipped along the tub bottom as he sat and lifted me onto his lap. He guided me to straddle him, and perhaps truly one minute after he decided to give into temptation, nothing but a bit of water preserved my virginity.

“I’ve wanted this since the moment I first saw you,” he growled, tangling his fingers in my hair and yanking me forward, halting with his lips so close to mine that I could taste his breath—crisp and clean, with thefaint aroma of sweetgrass that clung to him even when naked.

“When you opened the door to your chambers that first day, and I was standing there, ordered to guard you … do you remember?”

I nodded, my upper lip catching on his plump lower one, unable to grasp the words to better reply. My flesh zinged all over. I couldn’t relax.

“You looked at me like I was some weird stranger you wanted nothing to do with.”

No, I’d looked at him like he was the most stunning man I’d ever seen.

“Your enemy,” he added.

“Ihadjust been kidnapped,” I said.

He stilled. I sensed he was moments from pushing me away at the fresh reminder of how dangerous our predicament was, how opposed our allegiances were.

Shaking my head around his fingers, I clamped my thighs around his. “No thinking. No more talking either. For right now, we’re not the queen’s prisoner or guard. There are no Fae Heir Trials. Nothing outside of us. Okay?”

His eyes remained distant, as if he were running through a list of all the reasons this was a bad idea.

“Rush.” His troubled eyes flicked up to mine. “I want this. I really fucking do. But if you can’t handle it…”

“I can handle it,” he retorted immediately, gruffly.

“You want this?”

“So bad I canfucking taste it.”

“Then screw the queen. Screw the king too. They don’t own us.” Even if it felt a bit like they did. “We get to have this. We get to live our own lives. They can never own our essences.”

He arched his brows. “Are you suggesting we’re connecting on a … spiritual level?”

“Maybe. If you can satisfy me the way you swear you can … that sounds transcendental to me. But then again, maybe you’re all bluster and no?—”

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