Page 45 of Through Battle and Blades (The Wolf Queen 2)

He snatched the key from the lock, then paused, his smile fading for a moment. His fingers dangled the key, an offering of one thing and another. I plucked it from his grip just to see that grin reappear and then when he pulled me inside, we locked the door behind us.

“Shit, it’s bloody cold in here,” he said, as if seeing the room for the first time. “Maybe I should find Fenster and…”

His voice trailed away as I pressed a hand to his stomach. I watched his eyes, glowing in the dark gloom, and caught the moment when his pupils blew wide.

“We don’t need anything,” I told him. “Just each other.”

“Gods, if you knew how long I’ve waited to hear you say that,” he groaned, right before he wrapped his arms around me, picking me up and slotting my body against his, my legs wrapping around his waist as he pressed me against the cold stone wall.

The rough texture of it bit into my back as his teeth sunk into my lip, testing their softness before sucking the bottom one into his mouth. Mine parted wider, forcing him to pull away, his tongue sliding into that gap, seeking the taste of me, just as I did him. But right as the kisses bled into each other, our breath coming in noisy pants, he pulled away.

“Tell me you want this,” he asked. “Can you do that? We shouldn’t have been drinking, not before this. I—”

“Weyland.” At the sound of his name, he stilled, staring down at me. “Nordred said you were my future. He was right, wasn’t he?”

“Wherever you go, whatever you do, I’ll be there right by your side. I know my brother has plans, big plans, but if you wanted to turn your back on the lot, to ride to some Granian port and jump on a ship, I’d be there with you.” His big hand dwarfed my face as it stroked the way down my cheek. “I’ll always be with you.”

The other side of my soul, she chuffed at this, a sound of eminent satisfaction.

“So be with me,” I said, not able to put everything else I was thinking or feeling into words, but of course, I didn’t need to. Whatever welded me to them, it seemed to carry with a knowledge of what I was experiencing that I was yet to understand.

“Yes?” I watched Weyland’s grin widen, but his brow creased and that wariness hurt. I could see then what impact holding out had taken upon him. “Tell me yes, Darcy, if you’re serious, because by all the gods—”

“Yes.” I heard the suck of in of his breath. “Yes, Weyland. I’m yours and you’re mine and I need you to show me just how much.”

With that prompt I was wrenched away from the wall, carried over to the bed, and then laid across it like a Granian bride might be on her wedding day. But this was no loveless marriage where I was instructed to honour and obey. This was something much deeper, wilder, and more long lived. Because if we did this, nothing, not time nor experience or even other people would tear us apart. So I went up on my elbows as I lay there and watched my lover, my mate pull his shirt up and off over his head, revealing all that golden perfection.

He smiled, seeming to slow down his movements in response to my fascination. Because my eyes followed his hands as they slid down his body, taking their time to go to his belt, his biceps flexing as they did.

“Lass, I think you’d find there’s not a lot I wouldn’t do to keep you looking at me like that,” he rumbled.

But his words broke the spell I was under. I shook my head and then went to unlace my jerkin when he reached out. He pressed me back against the bed and then knocked my hands away.

“Let me. Just… let me.”

I got the feeling that meant a whole lot more than getting undressed, but I nodded, flopping back down on the bed. But any relaxation I might have felt was driven away as he pulled off his boots, then undid his belt.

Each man was a picture of muscular perfection. There was no softness on them, none but that which resided inside each one but I found my mouth falling open as the perfectly taut hips appeared, a severe V of muscles leading my eyes down. He stripped his trews off, then straightened up, just standing there for me to inspect. But while my eyes hungrily scoured his body, his hand slid down, wrapping around his hardness and then giving the length of him a few tugs.

“Gods, love, now you see what you do to me. Every day and every night, I’m hard, wanting, for you.” And right now, I could see exactly how much. His knot was swollen and hard at the base and when his hand slid upwards, a small bead of liquid formed on the taut crown. My tongue slid across my bone dry lips, remembering that taste. “No, don’t do that,” he groaned. “Not this time. I kicked myself for not taking my time and tasting you after last time and I won’t make that mistake again.”

And so he subjected me to the singular torture of removing every bit of my clothing as I watched his golden body move over mine. I shivered as the cold air bit into my skin but he just smiled.

“I’ll warm you up, don’t you worry.”

And he did just that. My hands tangled into the silken strands of his hair, as his mouth created a burning trail across my body. My neck arched as he kissed down its column, leaving little nips on the sensitive skin there before fitting his teeth on the mark Gael had left.

“Weyland!” I gasped.

“Want to leave my own mark on you, Darcy. I need you to walk around this bloody city with everyone knowing you’re mine.” As a promise or a threat, he found an unmarked patch of skin and sucked it into his mouth, raking his fangs across it until my nails dug into his back. “I want you to claim me too. I need your bite, the sting of your fangs burying themselves into me, right when I do the same for you. You can do that, right, can’t you, lass? You can take what’s yours, once and forever.”

I tried to wrestle him down, flip him over so we could do just that, but he grinned down at me as his muscles locked tight, his hands slapping down on my wrists, pinning them.

“Don’t think I don’t want that too. My queen on the only real throne she needs, riding me, using me for her pleasure. But right now, you’ll have to excuse your poor subject.” He kept me exactly where he wanted me as he placed kisses along my collarbones, then wended his way lower. “I’ve been staring at these beauties, thrust up by those bloody corsets or bound up by your jerkins. I’ve thought about them every time I took my cock in hand, stroking it as I imagined kissing you.”

Any response to his words was choked back as he brushed his plush lips across my tight nipple, ripples of the sweetest pleasure blossoming inside me at his touch.

But it wasn’t enough.

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