Page 10 of Knightfall
I glanced at those grey eyes. Rough. They definitely screamed rough. My thighs trembled at that thought. And for a second, I was glad I’d run before I’d seen him. He’d tempt the devil into sweetness. Half-elves were dangerous that way.
Quinn grabbed a lock of my hair and twisted it around his finger.
Welcome home, wife.
I started. It was as if I’d heard his voice in my head. No. I was overtired. We had traveled through the night.
If his stern face had anything to say, it wasn’t welcome home. It was: I sarding hate you.
I looked away to gather my wits and saw the staring crowd.
Quinn pulled my attention back to him when his body pushed into mine, and even though we’d regained our clothes, I felt every hard inch of him pressed against my stomach.
Part of him didn’t hate me, at least.
I nearly made a bawdy joke about him holding me at sword point. But the expression on his face made me pause.
Maybe I should apologize first, I thought.
“I—”
Quinn didn’t let me speak. Instead, he held a finger to my lips. He ran his hand over my long brown curls, then up my neck, sending shivers of delight and fear down my spine. He traced my brow and the underside of my hazel eyes. His fingertip was warm, and a stark contrast to the fall air.
My skin came alive at his touch. Heat pooled in between my legs. I forgot myself for a moment and pressed into him.
I forgot he’d only meant to use me to show his prowess. His catch. To rub in my nose the fact that I’d been captured. That the spy master had been successful.
He turned me into a simpering barmaid. Stupid, temptingly handsome man. And me, the idiot, acting like we were lovers.
Quinn stepped back, taking my wrist in what might have been mistaken for a protective gesture.
But I knew better. It was a shackle.
He turned me toward the courtyard, where nobles and servants and soldiers had all stopped what they were doing. They all stood stock still, staring at us.
I’m sure I was a sight, disheveled, in a servant’s black dress, one that was too big on my naturally slender form. At least Quinn wasn’t much better. His outfit still had hay sticking out of it from the barn at Kylee’s. His nose still had the cat scratch I’d given him. I couldn’t see how his neck had fared.
Quinn marched toward the front doors. I struggled to keep pace with his long legs. There was no way I’d let him drag me through my own courtyard like some criminal.
No sarding way.
People’s eyes followed us. The silence was deafening.
“Princess Bloss?” a woman’s voice called out.
I turned to see Lady Agatha, a snotty and entitled woman who’d spent far too many years fawning over my mother.
“Yes?”
“What happened to you?” she put a hand to her chest in mock horror. Or maybe it was real horror. For a woman who’d only ever worn silk, perhaps a woolen dress was horrific. Still, she was only asking to satisfy her own nosy curiosity. Not out of any concern for me.
“My husband and I were just copulating in a field. You should try it sometime.” I winked at her as Quinn jerked me up the stairs.
He didn’t give me enough time to enjoy the way her jaw dropped down like a door with a broken hinge.
But I did hear him mutter,I hope your mother thinks you’re as funny as you do.
I met his eyes as two servants opened the double doors to the castle.
