Page 69 of The Captive's Curse
And then he leaned in, bumped his nose against mine in a gentle, affectionate, teasing way that nearly stopped my heart, and kissed the indignant sputter—and the moan of pleasure, because somehow I found I could produce both at the same time—right off my lips.
A stunned silence fell, or perhaps I simply couldn’t hear anything over the rushing of blood in my ears.
Enzo broke the kiss long enough to say, “Lee, you’d really better be able to handle things here for the next couple of hours,” and then swooped back down, his tongue teasing into my mouth, his sigh of pleasure tasting sweeter than anything I’d ever known.
Oh, gods. He did love me too, and he’d said so in front of—Leander, and Finn, and fucking Hans, and who knew who else had been standing around watching. Not me, because I hadn’t taken my eyes off of the man I loved. Nothing had ever felt like this, like the bubbles in a fine, southern sparkling wine spreading though my chest and down every vein and nerve, sweeter than even my magic at its best.
I looped my arms around his neck and held on tight, and he began to move, somehow carrying me without stumbling while kissing me senseless. He stopped only long enough to open a door and then step through, kicking it shut behind us.
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
His kiss had made my lower half go hot and tight and needy, my spine melting, but…
“Onions,” I gasped, pulling my mouth from his. “This room? Really? Again?”
“It’s the only bedroom on this floor in this wing, and excuse me, but my arms are tired. Having them tied like that and then chained didn’t do me any favors,” he muttered, still trying to chase my lips, nibbling at my lower one, and moving again—no doubt toward that dreadful little bed. “I know you deserve better, Your Lovely Lordship. And I promise you, the private bath chamber and fluffy pillows are going to be next on my list of priorities, after I get rid of the Lord Asshole Constable and try not to be hanged by your brother.”
He laid me down and pulled back enough that he only had one arm around me, the other hand braced on the bed.
“Your Lovely—your—if you loved me, you wouldn’t tease me about the private bath chamber and the—the pillows.” I paused for breath, and to try to swallow down the lump in my throat. “I’ve had a long, long day and night, and it looks like it’s morning again, and I crawled across that—that—”
“I know,” he said, and I couldn’t even be angry about the interruption, because he spoke with such infinite gentleness that the tears threatening behind my aching eyes started to gather. “Cyril, sweetheart. I don’t know how you—it made my blood run cold when I looked at that wall and realized you’d crossed it. For me, of all the fucking—and in that storm, in the dark, with how afraid you are of heights, and—I’m not teasing you. I’m going to put in a giant swimming bath with piped-in hot water, and send for every gods-damned down pillow in Rabbion and Calatria, too, and then I’ll hope you’re gracious enough to stay here and make use of them. It’s not a joke. I wish it were a fucking joke,because loving anyone as much as I love you is enough to give me an aneurysm, with the trouble you get into!”
“The trouble I—really?” I gasped. “Really? The troubleIget into? Enzo, nothing dangerous had ever happened to me in my life before I met you!” The rest of what he’d said sank in belatedly. “A heated swimming bath? I’ve always wanted one. I heard the queen has one. Are you serious?”
“Entirely serious,” he said, but his eyes danced with a gleam I’d come to recognize, and the corner of his mouth twitched. “Baths are serious business. No, fuck, Cyril, don’t.”
If I’d been fully in control of myself, I might have made myself cry simply to retaliate forbaths are serious business. But I wasn’t, and tears of sheer, overwhelming exhaustion had started to slide out of the corners of my eyes without any volition of mine.
“I can’t help it,” I choked, feeling all kinds of foolish.
“Please try,” he said, and moved me a foot or so into the center of the bed, lying down next to me at last and taking me fully in his arms, tucking my head under his chin. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I was serious. I’ll do anything you want for the rest of my life whether I like it or not, gods help me.”
Well, that mollified me a bit. And knowing he couldn’t see my damp, probably unattractively puffy face made me feel better, too. I let my breaths even out, leaning my forehead against his collarbone and closing my eyes. Everywhere his body touched mine, a warmth more potent and deep than the merely physical seeped into me, soothing all my tense muscles and bruises. Deep within me, my magic stirred and sparked. I’d need him soon, to fill me and claim me and complete me. But for now, his presence, and his love, and the cossetting that I deserved would be enough.
Enzo drew a deep breath, letting it out in a long sigh.
“I know you think men only want you for how beautiful you are,” he said quietly. “And you are. And maybe most of them do, because they’re idiots. But that’s the least of it. Every one of the children’s been demanding to know when you’d be back to sing for them and tell them stories. All the servants say you’re the most gracious lord they’ve ever seen. Gods have mercy on anyone who kidnaps you, though. We end up either sent to the queen for judgment, or worse, in love with you.”
The fond smile I could hear in his voice had me smiling helplessly too, pressing myself impossibly closer to him.
He sounded much more serious as he went on with, “And you’re so brave—Cyril, you saved my life. You saved everyone, because Graf would’ve used me as leverage to force Leander to surrender, and instead they took the castle and got to the prisoners before Graf could murder them. He tried to burn them alive in the stables, the motherfucker.”
That smell of smoke…a shiver ran down my spine at the thought of what it must have been like, the heat and the coughing and the chaos and the terror. Although I couldn’t quite suppress a flicker of pride at my own cleverness in correctly predicting Hans’s plan.
“That was what I thought he meant to do. But I thought he’d do it sooner, before the rain started. I knew I was running out of time.”
“Your timing couldn’t have been better. And Leander’s wasn’t bad, either. It’s all right. It’s over.” His voice went low and grim. “And I’ll make sure no one ever hurts you again.”
Probably through hurting them preemptively, and he’d have no objections from me. I wasn’t made to be a man of action, I didn’t think. Once was more than enough.
Enzo petted my back, up and down, and I subsided into relaxation again. I could really get used to this: someone so attuned to my moods and my feelings that he spent most ofevery day successfully thinking of ways to make me happy.I’ll do anything you want for the rest of my life whether I like it or not, gods help me. I wormed my hand in between us and petted him, too. The soft, satisfied sound he let out had me smiling like a lovestruck fool. Maybe the trick to true happiness would be attuning myself to him in turn, and thinking of ways to make him happy, too.
Or maybe my happiness would make him happy. I wouldn’t rule it out until I’d tried it. Quite possibly, he’d enjoy my pleasure in the heated swimming bath as much as I enjoyed the bath.
Of course, I could also make it worth his while.
“I could suck your cock in the swimming bath,” I murmured, squirming a little as the picture that formed in my mind began to interest parts of my body lower down. “You’d have to sit on the edge. I’m very good, but even I can’t do that under water.”
