Page 59 of Fae Champion

He resisted, though his erection was straining to reach me so ferociously that its tip peeked out above thewaistband of his shorts. It glistened and throbbed, a swollen, desperate pink.

“What is it?” I asked—a throaty rasp.

“You’re barely not a virgin anymore.”

Immediately, my teeth clenched and I stopped trying to tug him against me, no longer strained to line up my core with his.

“Seriously? This again?” I asked, disappointment and annoyance threading through each of my words.

He went to run his fingers down my cheek. I pulled away.

He smiled gently, perhaps sadly. “No, not ‘this again.’ What we did earlier … there’s no going back with that. You’re not a virgin anymore even if West, the bastard, wouldn’t leave us alone. But…”

He reached for my cheek again, and this time I let him. Like feathered wingtips, his first three fingers alighted along my skin. And though his touch was infinitely light, I felt as if it reached deep inside me.

“You’re probably sore,” he said.

“I’m not,” I assured him right away, though I was so tender I didn’t forget what he and I’d done for long.

He smiled gently, as if he knew I was lying. “And you hurt your wrist earlier.”

“My wrist? What wrist?” I flopped it around. “This thing? Nah. It’s fine.”

He chuckled, also softly, even though I hadn’t meant to be funny. My body and mind were at odds with each other. My body wanted only him, and all my energy was going to that end, too little left for sillythings such as coherence and socially accepted behavior.

“Just outside you said you wanted only to sleep,” he continued.

“Mmmhmm.” I tapped the heel of my shoe to his back and pulled my leg closer against his bare waist. “Clearly I’ve changed my mind.”

The whirling of his eyes stilled and the mirth vanished from his features. “You’ll be fighting tomorrow. You need your rest.”

“Same goes for you.”

“Yeah, but?—”

“Don’t you dare start with the ‘you’re a male and I’m a female’ talk again.”

A deep chuckle tumbled through him, wiping some of the seriousness from his face. I breathed more easily. He rolled his hips against mine, his dick hard as before.

“I haven’t lost sight of how you’re a female since I first met you. I’d think that’s obvious.”

For a few beats I stared at him. Even in this dim light I could make out his beauty. I’d never seen a man more gorgeous, even among the fae, and many of them were graced with otherworldly—almost too perfect—looks.

“Do we have to talk about the fighting? About tomorrow? ’Cause I don’t want to. This might be our only chance for … this.” I pumped my hips against his.

Deep in his chest, a groan rumbled.

“Let’s leave the queen and whatever she might try to do tomorrow out of this. Right now it’s just you and me.Tonight, you aren’t my enemy, you aren’t the queen’s spy, and you aren’t my opponent in the ring. You’re just my…”

Rush wrapped an arm around my shoulders, its muscles firm as he dragged me across the bed to press against his chest. My dress was made of gossamer chiffon, light and airy, and yet it felt as substantial as a stone wall between us. I wanted it all gone. I wanted us stripped bare for each other.

“I’m your … what?” Rush asked.

My enemywas the only answer that popped into my mind, but it didn’t feel entirely true, even if it was.

“I don’t know, Rush,” I said. “I really don’t. But I do know … whatever comes tomorrow, I don’t want to look back to tonight and think I wasted our last chance to experience whatever this is between us.”

His laughter was arrogant. “You mean my dick?”

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