Page 38 of Trick

As I recall, that historic moment hadn’t been my finest entrance. Thusly, I’d been hanging upside down, with my legs hooked over a tree branch like an infernal novice because I had lacked quicker options. The princess and I tarried in starlight. Each of us concealed weapons, but mine was fastened in its scabbard, and I hadn’t discovered hers yet. That would come shortly.

Wielding deadly tools had always come with the territory for me. Throwing daggers to entertain the masses, for instance. And I’d never left the castle without a blade. Isolated routes. Deceptive nights. Mercenary assholes, political assholes, and drunken assholes. You understand.

But come. I’m vicious toward mortal enemies and naïve targets, not headstrong heiresses. No matter that she’d raised my hackles more times than I could count back then.

Yet how my jaw had ticked. She’d followed me, had gotten too close before I detected her presence, and I was feeling brutal as hell about it.

I wanted to do many things to her that night. Some reasonable, some not.

Does it sound like I’d had malicious intent in mind? Pay attention and find out …

*

Briar’s eyes widened the instant she rounded on me. The woven bun in her hair had gone savage and begun to unravel, red wisps trembling around her shoulders. The vision tugged at a dormant spot in my chest. ’Twas best to ignore that and focus on being pissed off.

I’d had my share of uninvited visitors, usually to my chambers in the dead of night. My status had won me not only adoration but resentment. Thus, people had darkened the Court Jester’s door in many ways. Either they offered pleasure—from the perverse to the sensual—which I didn’t mind, or threats to slice me open, or petulant bribes, both of which I minded very fucking much.

But never had I been pursued whilst en route to secrecy.

A persistent light simmered in her pupils. A brave and headstrong female, indeed.

A rash one, too. Coming here had been daring of her, and whilst this enabler of a forest was the perfect place for that sort of behavior, it was also negligent. She could have gotten hurt, ambushed, or worse.

Or another mile, and the Royal saboteur could have seen what she shouldn’t.

Grabbing the branch, I flipped right side up and landed on my feet. I’d noticed the princess as we entered the woods, and far too late at that. For I should have heeded my interloper long before.

I consumed the inches of space between us and towered over Briar. “You’re good,” I admitted, then pointed to myself. “But you’re notthisgood.”

She bristled. “You snuck out.”

“Is that how you’d phrase it? I seem to recall being a grown man.”

“You snuck out, girded and armed.”

Vexing woman. She’d been sniffing my tracks for a while.

“You should have followed the latter of my example. ’Tis one thing, stalking me through the stronghold, but the lower town’s alleys?” I tsked. “No one promenades through there at night unless they want to get robbed, stabbed, or fucked.”

“Or unless they want to avoid being seen.”

I clapped. “Well done. Keeping tabs on me past your bedtime, or perhaps it’s a coincidence that you saw me. Either way, I’m here for no special reason. ’Tis a silvery night. A cause for delight—”

The tip of something sharp jabbed between my legs. Glancing down, I was treated to the sight of a hoof pick strategically aimed at my cock. Based on the angle, the head would go first.

I respected a female who could make an otherwise innocent object look deadly.

“Where are you going?” she demanded. “Who are you? And none of this’tis a secret, ’tis a riddlerubbish.”

“Whatever you assume, give it up. I’m no traitor. I’ve no time in my busy schedule for treason.”

“You are a wordsmith, therefore a liar. I know what your tongue is capable of.”

And I knew an opportunity when I heard it. I prowled forward, lowered my voice, and let the words drizzle down her skin. “Now, now,” I husked. “You haven’t begun to learn what my tongue can do.”

A thin strip of color slithered across her cheeks, a scarlet ribbon so faint it unspooled like a dirty little secret. Her posture buckled, a minor shift the lesser acute wouldn’t recognize. Myself, I detected it as if the motions were my own. It meant she felt my words between her hips, every slick syllable rooting itself deeply through the slender walls of her cunt.

I savored this precious reaction, so fetching to behold. Unfortunately, the sudden image of Briar’s parted thighs flanking my head and the taste of her climax on my tongue inserted itself into my brain.

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