Page 50 of The Time Of Kings

I quickly composed myself as I tried to take back my hand, something he wouldn’t allow.

“No, sorry, it’s just… umm…”

“Just what exactly?” he asked when I stalled for time. Which was why I decided to be honest…well, as much as I could be anyway.

“I don’t know why, but I just can’t picture you as a young boy running throughout these halls.”

He seemed bemused before making a ‘Hmm’ sound. Which was when I decided to test it further.

“What was your father like?”

His grin grew and he rubbed his jawline as if thinking about what he would tell me.

“My father was… should we say, a complex man who had many… vigorous pursuits.”

I couldn’t help my reaction, choking on my swallow that ended up with me coughing. He reached around me and started patting my back before rubbing it in gentle motions. He had also dropped my hand to motion forward a servant.

“Water,” he ordered and I nodded my head, telling him through coughing,

“Must have swallowed… gone down… the wrong way.”

He frowned at this and asked, “What do you mean by this?”

My eyes went wide before I told him,

“Oh nothing, just something my mother used to say.”

Of course, he didn’t look at all convinced by my reply but, thankfully, I was saved when being handed a drink, allowing me to gulp it down. Something that ended with me looking very unladylike as I wiped my mouth on the back of my glove.

Draven’s intense stare was starting to make me feel like I was under the microscope. It was also just another thing that made me feel as if I had not only stepped back hundreds of years, but skipped back through my own time. As let’s just say that this wasn’t the first time Draven had looked at me this intensely, and like he would soon unravel all my secrets.

Something that made me instantly defensive as I found myself reminding him,

“Well, you did say I wasn’t a lady.”

He then watched as I shrugged my shoulders, making his eyes narrow down at me.

“I see my words wounded your pride indeed.”

“And you? Would you be wounded if I assumed you to be anything but a gentleman?” I threw back at him, but then he surprised me as he hooked a hand behind my neck and pulled me closer. At the same time, he lowered his face closer to my own.

“Let’s put it to the test, should we?” he said before kissing me and swallowing my gasp of shock as the whole room silenced.

Of course, I was very used to my husband openly displaying his affection in front of others, I had spent many an evening in his lap. So, to say I was used to it by now was an understatement. However, that was the Draven of my time, when doing so wasn’t considered all that scandalous. But given how the crowd had all stopped to stare at us as a wave of silence swept through the room… well, that was not something I was used to.

“Hmm, I believe that answers that question,” he said smugly once he had finished. The cocky grin was now firmly in place, and it only grew when I took a few seconds to become coherent again.

“Er… does it?”I asked in a breathy tone. But then he stood up and offered me his hand, telling me,

“Yes, for clearly around you, my standing as a gentleman is forever in question…” He paused to lean down and whisper in my ear,

“…Especially after all the ungentlemanly things I will soon do to you.”

Nerves.

It was utterly ridiculous to feel nervous about sleeping with my own husband. The man I had spent practically every night with and very rarely without sex being involved. Christ, but sometimes we were still at it like fucking supernatural bunnies, or horny teenagers hyped up on hormones! If I were honest, it was how we even ended most of our arguments. As make up sex made for some of our hottest moments. Especially when it came with him chasing me and fucking me up against a wall or cocooned in his wings so I couldn’t escape him.

Hide and go fuck, Pip had once called it and well, she wasn’t wrong. And I had become very apt at hiding, and the longer I made him wait in trying to find me was something that only added to the experience.

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