Page 54 of Renegade Kingdom
He took my shirt off. Slower than I would have liked, his fingers grazing my skin with every inch of fabric he removed, leaving trails of heat that the Spring magic amplified until my whole body was humming. My trousers followed. Then everything else, piece by piece, until there was nothing between us but air and the growing certainty that if he didn’t touch me properly in the next thirty seconds I was going to lose my mind.
He must have felt it through the bond because his mouth curved, just slightly, and then his hand was between my thighs and his fingers were sliding through the wetness there with an agonising slowness that made me want to scream.
“Tank.”
“I’m here.”
“I know you’re here, I need you to be here faster.”
The laugh that came out of him was low and warm and it vibrated through every point of contact between our bodies. He shifted down, pressing his mouth to my stomach, my hip, the inside of my thigh. His breath was hot against my skin and I could feel the bear’s hunger in every controlled movement, theeffort it took to maintain the deliberate pace when every instinct was telling him to take.
When his mouth found my core I stopped breathing.
He was thorough. God, he was thorough. His tongue worked with the same steady, focused attention he brought to everything, finding the rhythm that made my back arch and my hands fist in the sheets and then staying there, relentless, refusing to rush even when my hips were rocking against him and the sounds coming out of my mouth were not words in any language.
The Spring magic responded. Warmth spread through the mattress beneath me, golden and alive, the court’s magic recognising what was happening between its king and its queen and pouring itself into the space between us. It amplified everything. Every touch. Every sensation. The pleasure building in my core became a wave, gathering force with every stroke of his tongue, and when it broke I came apart with his name on my lips and his hands gripping my thighs as the Spring magic blazed through both of us in a wave of golden light.
He gave me approximately four seconds to recover before he was above me again, his body a wall of heat and muscle and barely contained need. I reached down between us, wrapped my hand around him, and watched the patience shatter completely.
Tank’s forehead dropped to mine. His breath coming in short, ragged bursts. When I guided him to me and he pushed inside, the sound he made was somewhere between a groan and a growl, the bear’s voice bleeding through the man’s, and the stretch and the fullness of him sent sparks cascading through every nerve I possessed.
But then he started to move. Slow at first. Deeper than I knew possible. Each thrust measured and intentional. Then faster as his control slowly started to slip away. The bond between us blazed open. I could feel everything he was feeling andthe feedback loop of shared pleasure built into something that neither of us could contain.
I wrapped my legs around his waist, pulling him deeper as he buried his face in my neck and said my name like it was the only word he knew. The Spring magic surged again, golden warmth flooding through us both, and when I came for the second time he followed me over the edge with a sound that shook the bed and probably carried through at least two walls.
I didn’t care. How could I when all that mattered was the man who held me in his arms?
Tomorrow morning we’d be leaving at first light, but right now I didn’t want to think of that. I just needed one night to pretend I was just a girl surrounded by men who loved me and didn’t have the fate of a realm resting on her shoulders.
Chapter Sixteen
Dean
Iwalked at the back of the group with Damon at my side and my attention split between my brother and the figures moving ahead of us.
Ezra and five of his men had insisted on accompanying us to the edge of the Wildling Forest. It was supposed to be a gesture of goodwill. A way to help carry supplies and provide additional security for the journey. But every time one of them moved too quickly or veered too close to Alyssa, my wolf raised its hackles and growled.
I didn’t like it. I didn’t trust them.
“You’re going to give yourself a headache if you keep glaring at them like that.”
Damon’s voice was dry, amused, and so achingly familiar that it made my chest hurt. He sounded like himself. Like the brother I remembered from before all of this started. Before the possession and the chains and the nightmare wearing his face.
“I’m not glaring.”
“You’reabsolutelyglaring. You’ve been glaring since we left the palace. That vein in your forehead is doing the thing.”
“What thing?”
“The throbbing thing it does when you’re annoyed. It used to do it all the time when we were kids. Usually when Ryder was being particularly Ryder about something.”
I forced myself to stop glaring and looked at my brother instead. He was walking easily enough, though his hands were shackled in front of him, the chain between the irons clinking softly with each step. Alyssa had wanted to leave him untied for the journey, but Damon had insisted. Just in case, he’d said. And I hadn’t been able to argue, because I knew what just in case meant.
Just in case the nightmare surfaced.
Just in case he lost control.
Just in case the brother I loved tried to hurt the woman I loved even more.
