Page 2 of Queen Takes Rook
:Yeah, I get that,:Guillaume replied.:Me, neither. But what would Shara prefer? After one more night, we’ll go home to her nest and have her to ourselves again. Mayte only has two nights, and this night is nearly over.:
:The stud has a point.:Ezra grumped, but acquiesced, letting his bear flow up to the surface as he carefully slipped out of the bed.
Guillaume’s hell horse was trickier, without the same flexibility as the grizzly. He chose instead to drop backwards off the bed and shift from the floor. Watching a hell horse try to tiptoe so his gigantic hooves didn’t ring loudly on the tiled floor and wake our queen made me choke back a laugh.
:You’re next,:I told Daire.
He’d flattened out enough beside me to cradle Shara’s head on his chest, taking up more room without Ezra at his back. He inched closer, his purring shaking the bed.:She’ll wake if she doesn’t hear me.:
Probably true, but maybe she would want to wake up, now that her queen had come to her.:Go. If she wakes and wants you back, then she’ll call you.:
Daire shifted to his warcat and Shara rubbed her face in his fur. Even in her sleep, she tangled her fingers in his fur and held on. Daire let out a pleased little huff as if to say,“I told you so,”and continued purring without leaving.
I looked at Mayte, standing silently as the Blood left the room. Her eyes searched my face.:She doesn’t want them to touch me, does she?:
:Not at all. But she doesn’t want to touch your Blood, either.:
:I’m grateful that she allowed me to keep my Blood at all.:She sidled closer, coming around the foot of the bed to the opposite side.:I’ll be careful. I won’t touch anyone but her.:
Without Guillaume against her side, Shara’s lower body sagged down to the mattress, though she still draped across my chest. Mayte slid in close to her, and pressed her face into the hollow of Shara’s lower back.
Even though Mayte’s bond was not mine, I felt an intense surge of pleasure and longing in the bond. She breathed deeply and lightly stroked her fingers along the curve of Shara’s hip. She kept her touch soft and gentle, but I still felt the stirring in Shara’s bond. She didn’t lift her head or move to indicate awareness, but she touched my bond.:She’s here?:
:She asked to be near you while you slept. She came alone, and agreed to touch no one but you.:
She lifted her head, and I felt the leap in Mayte’s bond. Hope, longing, agony that she might be sent away. Shara rubbed her face against the warcat’s neck, but released him.:Go, my furball purring machine.:
He rumbled deeper into a lower register that made my bones throb, but agreeably hopped down lightly and padded to the door. She watched him go, and laughed softly when he flipped his tail from side to side and looked back over his massive shoulder.
:Even when I’m a warcat, you can’t stop staring at my ass.:
:You know it. Thank you for shifting so she didn’t see how gorgeous you are.:
She rolled over a little to look into my face. I lifted my head, pressing my lips to hers.:Would you like me to leave too, my queen?:
Slipping her hand around my nape, she held my head, as if she feared the strain on my neck. When I would crack every vertebra in my spine to be close to her.:No. I want my alpha to stay, unless you wish to leave.:
:Never.:
Mayte sat up on the edge of the bed and slid the silken robe off her shoulders. “I’m at your disposal, my queen. How may I pleasure you?”
* * *
SHARA
Waking up with the assurance that I’d never be alone again was wonderful, though I had never woken up to the smell of flowers before.
Mayte’s dark hair fell loose about her shoulders, trailing over her full breasts. Her nipples were hard, peeking out from behind her hair, and I suddenly wondered what they would feel like on my tongue. What mine would feel like on hers.
“What do you like?” Eagerness tightened her voice. “You allow Blood to take Blood, so perhaps you like to watch. I can call Etzli or Tepeoyollotl to fuck me for you. Any way you like. Maybe you want them to hurt me. Or we can deny our Blood and make them watch us together. Torment them with what they cannot have.”
I tried not to frown, but none of that sounded… sexy to me. I did like to watch, at least when it came to my Blood, but I didn’t get off on watching someone being hurt, humiliated, or denied. Mehen had hurt Daire, yes, but it hadn’t been punishment or denial. Mehen had only given Daire what he wanted, and I’d been privileged to see how carefully the more dominant Blood had handled him. Rough, but not brutally so. Even the mighty king of the depths could be tender, and he’d controlled himself to make sure Daire was safe. That kind of rough lovemaking I’d watch anytime, day or night, and want more, more, more.
But I didn’t like the idea of making our men stand at the bed, watching their queens touch. Denying them. Making them hurt with need simply because I could. It was a fine line. I didn’t mind pain, or watching someone deal pain to their lover, as long as they were all getting off on it. Rik would never get off on that kind of play. If I made him stand beside the bed and watch while I touched someone else, even another woman, it’d be torture for him.
Not pleasure.
“I don’t like such games,” I finally said. “I don’t want to encourage any kind of jealousy, resentment, or denial among my Blood.”
