Page 150 of Trust In Love (Love Mark 2)

“I swear,” she started, holding up her hand like a scolded child. “I didn’t mean to overthrow a kingdom and take their crown. It just kind of…” With a helpless shrug, she sent him a rueful cringe. “Happened.”

A Fortnight Later

The queen was waiting in my bed for me when I retired for the night.

Instead of turning her away, as I had the last one, I let a slow murmur of masculine pride take over.

“Your Majesty,” I murmured in greeting, loving how those words sounded when I applied them to her. “To what do I bestow this honor?”

She groaned, still flabbergasted by such a title. “Oh, no. Not you, too. In this room, on this bed, under these covers, I will only ever be Nicolette to you. Got it?”

Chuckling, I stripped out of my clothes with the speed of a man who hadn’t bedded his woman since the night before. “As you wish, Your Majesty.”

“Brat,” she teased, rolling her eyes, only to hum out her appreciation when I dropped my trousers, and my naked erection captured her attention. “Mmm, yes,” she cooed, summoning me forward with a crook of her finger. “Come, my love, and attend to your queen.”

Gladly.

I crawled under the sheets with her and pulled her into my arms, immediately placing my mouth against the underside of her jaw and relishing her familiar flavor.

“How did it go?” she asked, her mind clearly on the wrong subject if she was still able to question me about courtly matters and not focus on what was prodding her quite insistently in the hip.

“Settled,” I answered, hoping that would suffice. But she arched her eyebrows, silently requesting details.

I sighed. “The last of the forest dwellers seeking safe harbor from fire damage have been accounted for and are settling into new homes as we speak. Only a handful are left needing help with finding employment, which we hope to fix by the end of the week.”

Nicolette nodded, pleased to hear my report. She smacked a quick, congratulatory kiss to my cheek. “I must say, I chose the perfect top advisor to see to all these details.”

I grumbled under my breath as if my opinion conflicted with hers, even though a sense of self-pride swelled inside me.

Truth be told, I was strangely satisfied with my new role. Being the kingdom’s top advisor felt different—worthy. I was doing something big and significant in the kingdom, helping new laws develop and people settle conflicts. I’d been running around like crazy these past few weeks, making sure everything Nicolette wanted done got done. And I was exhausted. Greggor had made the position look like a plush job, but it was far from that. Being the top advisor was surprisingly demanding yet rewarding work.

It helped that the Donnellean army had agreed to stay for a fortnight and do a portion of the manual labor in physically putting out fires and transporting villagers who’d been displaced from homes. But I still earned my keep, doling out th

e queen’s orders and then some.

Nicolette remained busy throughout the day, too, taking in information and learning what she could about her new duties, already trying to better herself.

“And Roloff confirmed that we have the funds to support the purchase of all the new homes we provided?”

“Of course.” I moved my ministrations to the softness under me, running my hands up her rib cage to cup her breasts. “He showed me all the figures personally.”

Strangely enough, our castle soothsayer had an affinity for numbers, so Nicolette had put him in charge of overseeing the kingdom's monetary accounts and dealing with funding.

“That’s g—oh!” When I flicked my thumbs over both nipples, she sucked in air, gasping, “Good. That’s good. Very good.”

“Is it?” A frown puckered my brow. “Only good, huh? I must be losing my touch.” Determined to pull a greater reaction from her, I leaned down and sucked a hard bud into my mouth.

Nicolette arched under me, pulling at my hair and groaning out her pleasure. “Oh! Yes…”

Better, I thought. But not quite there yet.

I slipped a hand over her hip, then ran my fingers down from behind, squeezing her bottom lovingly before moving up between her legs and entering her wetness with a thick finger.

“Farrow!” she cried out, clutching me. “Oh God. Oh God…”

Now, that was more like it. Finally gaining her full attention, I growled out my victory and made love to my woman as I’d been aching to do since this morning, when I left her warm and sighing from my goodbye kiss at dawn.

Afterward, she curled up against my side and rested her cheek on my heartbeat, drawing idle designs on my chest with her fingertip.

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