Page 10 of Lord of the Hollow Court
“We can’t.” He tilted his head against the wall as she slipped her hand closer, the two of them inching towards a fantasy he’d had of her for years. “If anyone sees us—Madeleif, why now?”
“Because I have wanted to do this to you for ages, that’s why. Because we are both still young and beautiful and the pleasures of life are ours for the taking. And because you have never been with a woman who will do the things to you that I will—unspeakable things that will make you blush when you recall them. Things you’ll love and hate me for, and then beg for me to do again because I did them so well.”
Braam did not know what to say, was left stammering by her intensity.
“You’ve never been with a woman with no boundaries before,” she murmured seductively. “I can tell.”
“Everyone has boundaries,” he breathed.
“Darling, I am queen. Boundaries are for others. I’ll prove it. I will call in a crowd to watch us if you want it.”
His laugh was stilted, careful. Part of him couldn’t believe this might actually occur. “I don’t want that.”
“No?” she teased. “Then I’ll have you in my husband’s bed, next to him if that’s what it takes.”
“Gods no!” Braam barked out a laugh, which she met with a soft smile. He had not known this about her, that she was this playful beneath that perfect regal veneer. That she could befunny.
She was joking. Wasn’t she? That sly smile made him question everything—the one that kept him bound in knots for years, wishing for her instead of the women he did or could have. He’d tried to resist her allure once, when he was young and defiant and saw her only as the colonizer queen. But even then he’d known: despite himself, he’d give a great deal for a single night with her.
Madeleif was his unattainable, his ideal. She wasn’t supposed to be here, kneeling on the floor before him in some dark corner, telling him she wanted him. But she didn’t. She couldn’t. The Lady of Lindendam was both powerful and perfect, and he was a nobody from a court of waning magic.
“Dear Braam, don’t be afraid,” she said softly. “I want you, a hundred times before the year is done. I want to worship and defile your body in every way I can imagine.”
“Why?” he asked, swallowing. “Why me?”
“Because you love me. I see it in the way you look at me. Don’t deny it.”
He couldn’t. He regretted how obvious he had been, but there was no hiding it. To him, she was perfect.
“It’s that love I need, even if we must be discreet. You belong with me,” she said. “You are my antidote to everything, my fondest wish, my most loyal subject. I want you to be my lover. I want to know what it’s like to be loved by a man like you, to have your respect and appreciation and desire. To wake beside a man who looks at me the way you do. You’re everything I had not known I was missing, but when you are here, I wonder how I can go on without you. Every time you leave to return to your court, I think I’ll stop breathing.”
Braam could only gaze back at her, stunned. He had never dreamt any woman would speak to him this way, let alone his flawless queen.
“Say you’ll have me,” Madeleif said, her bright eyes pleading. “I can’t share a bed with a man who does not love and respect me any longer. I’ll die first, or give up my crown—and I’m far too stubborn to do either of those things.”
“Madeleif,” Braam said, his voice low. Grasping her forearm, he drew her to standing. “I want nothing more than to be with you and show you how I care for you. But not here. Not like this.” He swallowed, wondering whether he was sealing his fate. Somewhere within him, he could feel his younger self raging against his present one. “Tonight. Tonight, if you can get away.”
“I can.”
He ran a hand back through his hair, strain showing on his face. The part of him that was Golden Fae, that knew the lands of the Hollow Court were his birthright and not hers, was winning an argument. “Only I—Madeleif—No, we should not—”
Mere seconds later, there was no room left for talking. Her lips were upon his, passionate and insistent. He could taste her perfume. He bit into his fist to quiet his groans of pleasure as her hands began to roam, as her lips traveled the length of his neck and her teeth found his ear lobe. But he did not let himself touch her. He couldn’t. How did one touch a woman who was both goddess and tyrant—especially when that goddess was not his to touch?
“Not here,” he said. “Please.”
With a surprised “oh,” Madeleif pulled away. “You really mean it, don’t you?” She laughed. “I thought you were being coy.”
“I mean it.” He hated it a little, but this was hardly the place. The voice of his younger self vanished. “This—here—this isn’t the respect you deserve. Discretion doesn’t have to mean tawdry.”
“But it’s so much fun when it does.” She ran her hand up his thigh again. “Still a no?” She laughed softly. “My sweet lordling, I’m going to have to teach you to respect me a bit less.”
“Never,” he replied.
“Then damn your honor.”
Her peerless beauty became a terrible thing when she was angered. Braam thought she meant it, that she was truly seething, even as she gave his buttocks a squeeze before turning for the door. She left him standing there, trousers in a heap on the floor, confused and with cold air swirling around his boiling hot body. She cast a final look over her shoulder as she went.
“Mark my words, Lord Braam, I will doanythingto have my way.” There was a darkness to her smile then, one he mistook for seduction.“I’m going to find you tonight, sweetling, and we’re going to run away together—just for a little while. I may be angry now that you’ve turned me away, but something tells me you won’t make the same mistake twice.”
