Page 74 of Slaying the Shadow Prince
‘Should I even ask what’s on your mind now, Warsword?’ she asked from beside him as the afternoon wore on.
‘Why do you say that?’
She straightened in her saddle. ‘It’s a rather different silence to the one between us this morning…’ she ventured.
‘I’m not sure you can handle it,’ he teased.
‘Try me.’
‘I want to pick up where we left off on our first night in the tavern…’ he said slowly.
‘And?’
Talemir wet his lips. He might not have been ready to tell her about the shadows that called to him upon the new moon, but when it came to this, he was not ashamed of what he wanted and how badly he wanted it. He met her gaze and didn’t hesitate. ‘I want to make you come so hard you see stars.’
Drue blinked at him.
‘I want to make you come so hard you forget your own name.’
Her lips parted slightly.
‘I want to bury my cock so deep inside you that all you remember is mine.’
A blush stained Drue’s cheeks and spread down her neck.
Talemir nudged his horse closer to hers and leant across the gap between them. ‘And that’s just the first hour, Wildfire… We have all night ahead of us…’
Biting her bottom lip, Drue nodded slowly, adjusting her grip on her reins. ‘Then we’d best pick up the pace, Warsword.’
Talemir barked a laugh. ‘I’ll race you.’ And he didn’t wait. He urged his stallion into a gallop, for the sooner they returned to the tavern, the better.
Warsword and ranger raced across the Naarvian plains as the sun dipped behind the hills and the abandoned miners’ settlement appeared in the near distance.
Only it wasn’t abandoned anymore.
A wide shadow cast across the dirt road in grand, sweeping rotations.
Talemir’s gaze shot up to the sky. Where a hawk circled among the clouds.
Terrence.
Talemir heard Drue’s intake of breath.
And on the horizon, he saw them too: Wilder and Adrienne, and the Naarvian forces at their backs.
While Talemir was relievedto see his protégé, fully healed and chomping at the bit to deliver justice to the raiders, he couldn’t help but curse the young Warsword’s timing. At their approach, the night Talemir had envisioned for himself and Drue vanished before his eyes. But as Drue dismounted and flung herself into Adrienne’s arms in front of the tavern, Talemir smiled. There would be time for him and his ranger soon enough.
He tore his gaze away to find Wilder grinning before him. ‘You came all the way to Naarva only to make camp atTheDancing Badger?’
Talemir clasped his protégé’s shoulder and embraced him. ‘It would seem that way, apprentice.’
‘Reunited for less than two minutes and you’re already dishing out that shit?’ Wilder quipped, clapping him on the back and returning the embrace.
Breaking away, Talemir smirked. ‘You’d think I was ill otherwise.’
‘True, I’d likely go into shock.’
‘We couldn’t have that, now, could we? Only just got you back in one piece.’
