Page 31 of Queen Takes Knights
They both watched me, eyes growing heavy with desire. It made me put a little sway in my steps as I headed for the stairs. I glanced back over my shoulder, waiting for Alrik to look up from my ass and catch my gaze. It took him several long moments. “My queen?”
“Is it safe here?”
“Of course. We wouldn’t stay here at all if I felt you might be in danger.”
Daire stepped closer to him, pressing against his side. He draped an arm across his shoulders and whispered—but pitched so his voice would carry to me. “She means is it safe enough for us both in her bed.”
I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but Alrik’s eyes smoldered even hotter. He reached around Daire’s head and fisted his hand in his hair, pulling his head back a little, baring his throat. While he kept his eyes locked on me. “I’ll have to see the bedroom first. See how secure it is. And then our queen can feast on your blood while I fuck you.”
Oh. My. Hot chills raced through me, making me quiver. I should have turned around and led the way as quickly as possible to my room, but looking at them, I couldn’t move.
Alrik came up the stairs and lifted me against him, somehow without sloshing a single drop of wine out of my glass. I wrapped my legs around his waist and pressed my lips to his throat. His pulse pounded beneath his skin and he smelled so good. Hot stone, a hint of smoke, all that power and fury. I wanted to feast on him. On Daire. On them both.
I bit his throat and he let out a rumbling growl of encouragement, but I couldn’t do it. I pressed harder, I envisioned my fangs coming out, sinking into him, and I wanted it. I wanted to penetrate him with my own teeth and taste that first hot salty surge of his blood on my tongue. But my damned human genes wouldn’t let it happen. At least not yet. I made a frustrated sound half way between a growl and a wail.
And Daire was suddenly there. He actually knocked Alrik sideways into the wall with the force of his attack. A bottle of wine went rolling down the stairs. Hopefully that was the one we hadn’t opened yet. I smelled blood. Daire bit him higher, just beneath his ear, and let the blood trail down his throat to me. Sweeter than the wine, better than the food, better than anything I’d ever tasted before. The wound was bigger too, as if he’d torn open Alrik’s throat. So much blood. Surely that wasn’t good for him to lose so much blood…
“We’re Blood. This is what we live for.” Alrik shifted me higher against him. “Daire, go find us a bed.”
Daire licked up what I missed, swiping his tongue across the edge of my mouth and Alrik’s skin, but then he backed away.
Through the bond, I said, :Not my parent’s bed.:
“Which was your old room?”
I closed my eyes, clamping my mouth tighter to Alrik’s throat. My head buzzed as if I’d thrown back half a dozen shots, but I couldn’t get enough of his blood. I didn’t want to lift my mouth and waste a single drop. :Second door on the right, up the next flight of stairs.:
Daire raced ahead, scouting the way, and I felt the moment he entered my old room. Because a dark wall of rage hit me through the bond.
In a few moments, Alrik entered the room I’d grown up in. It was pitch black, but evidently they didn’t need light to see. There wasn’t much to see anyway. Just four walls, the door, and the bed.
I felt the need to try and explain. “It was the only room in the house that didn’t have windows.”
“This is a prison cell.” Daire growled, his voice so feral I could barely understand his words. “Not a bedroom. Especially for a child. Let alone a queen.”
“When I was little and Dad was still alive, I slept with them,” I whispered. “Mom said I never slept well alone. I would cry and fuss until she held me. She had no idea why, until she saw a monster trying to break through the window, tapping on the glass. After Dad died, I slept with her awhile, but as I got older, I really wanted my own space. I actually liked it up here. I called it my tower. The hatch in the roof made me feel like I could escape if I needed to, though I don’t know how I would have gotten off the roof without breaking a leg.”
Alrik leaned down and set me carefully on the bed. He didn’t straighten, but looked me squarely in the eyes. “This is not going to be your nest. We will find a place where our queen may have as many windows as she likes and still feel safe.”
“Deal.” I tried to hold his gaze, but he still bled. It stained his t-shirt, wet cotton sticking to his ripped muscles. Reminding me of the way his body had moved against mine last night. How much strength rolled through that big body of his. “So is this safe enough for me to have you both?”
He pressed his mouth to mine, stroking his tongue between my lips. Tasting his blood on my tongue. I forgot I still held my wine glass, until I felt Daire take it from my hand. He set the other glasses and the opened wine bottle on the nightstand beside the bed. Against my lips, Alrik whispered, “How do you want us?”
I pushed my tongue into his mouth, tasting the wine. Wondering what my blood would taste like on his tongue. “I want what you offered.”
“As my queen commands, so it shall be.”
Alrik
Blood still trickled from my throat. So I put it to good use while I waited for Daire to strip. I wiped fresh blood on the outside of the door in a large X and then shut and locked it. I turned, intending to pace the perimeter of the dark cell of a room, but every thought was wiped from my mind.
Naked on his knees before our queen, Daire was busy helping her remove her clothing. With his teeth. His bare, rounded buttocks a blatant invitation.
I’d fucked him many times over the years that we’d known each other. Out of every Aima I’d ever fed on, I’d fed on him the most, and I’m sure it was the same for him. Losing him would be like losing both of my limbs.
But I didn’t realize that I’d still want to fuck him even after we gained a queen. I’d assumed we’d take turns pleasing our queen and that would be the end. I didn’t realize I’d still want him. On his knees. For me and for her.
I had a moment to wonder if he felt the same way, or if he’d rather serve and please our queen than fuck me too, but then he glanced over his shoulder, that dimple in his cheek and twinkle in his eye telling me exactly what his intentions were.
