Page 64 of Slaying the Shadow Prince
She did, beating him fairly and with no sense of modesty whatsoever.
‘Well?’ he asked.
Drue’s gaze scanned his bare chest again. ‘I could make you play the rest of the game nude…’
‘You could,’ Talemir challenged, gracing her with the lazy smile he knew she found infuriating.
‘But I won’t.’
‘No?’
‘Not this time…’ Drue caught her bottom lip between her teeth. ‘Tell me about the best book you’ve read. Your favourite of all time.’
It was Talemir’s turn to be surprised. He hadn’t been expecting that one. He went to his pack by the door and produced a midnight-blue tome from the innermost pocket. It was different to the volume he’d allowed the others to tease him about on the way to the watchtower. This book was special. He handed it to Drue, suddenly feeling vulnerable.
She turned it over in her hands, running her fingers across the embossed title. ‘What’s it about?’
He met her gaze. ‘It’s about a maiden who falls in love with a beast.’
Her throat bobbed as she carefully thumbed its pages. ‘Wishful thinking?’
Talemir didn’t move. ‘You tell me.’
‘I’m no maiden,’ she said quietly. ‘But I’ll wager there have been plenty who have fallen in love with you.’
‘I’m not concerned with others.’
Her gaze shot up to his.
Talemir didn’t flinch, didn’t look away. He let her see him, and everything he desired. ‘I don’t want to play anymore…’
‘Rules are rules,’ Drue murmured. ‘But perhaps… perhaps a sudden death?’
His whole body taut, Talemir threw each of his remaining darts, closing around the outer ring of the middle target. ‘Your turn,’ he managed.
Drue didn’t break eye contact. Instead, she flung all three of her darts at once without so much as a glance at the board.
The soft thud of impact sounded, and Talemir stared in disbelief.
All of Drue’s darts had hit the inner ring.
She’d won.
Talemir was hardly breathing. ‘Well, victor… What is it that you want?’
Drue rested a callused palm against his bare chest. His heart thundered mercilessly beneath her touch as she looked up at him. ‘Kiss me,’ she said.
13
Drue
The moment those words left Drue’s lips, Talemir’s mouth was on hers. He surged forward, his hand cupping the back of her head, his fingers toying with her hair as his huge frame enveloped her.
Her breathing hitched as his tongue swept against hers, eliciting a moan from deep within her.
That sound rumbling between them seemed to be Talemir’s undoing, for any notion of restraint was destroyed as he lifted her bodily from the ground, her legs parting around him, his hands roaming to her backside before he slid her onto the bar. There, he pushed her back, settling between her thighs, his hard length straining against his pants, pushing against her.
He was ravenous, as though he had bottled every ounce of pent-up energy since the hot springs and was unleashing it upon her now. Drue felt the same way, and she answered his demanding kisses with fierce ones of her own, her lips crushing against his, her tongue exploring his mouth in a desperate frenzy.
