Page 157 of The Mercy of Dawn

“Is that what you think about? Me on my knees?”

The sharp breath Mikael took and the throb of his cock beneath her hand answered that.

“You have no idea,” he said as he notched his fingers under her chin and ghosted his lips against hers. “But when I fuck this perfect mouth of yours for the first time, wrath, I want time and privacy, and we have neither of those here. Okay?”

Cyril swallowed thickly as the budding confidence driving her hand and her thoughts banked, yielding to some deep-seated submissive pull. It should have been alarming that a few haughty words could steer her like that, but she fucking loved it.

“Okay.” She nodded, easing away from him, and Mikael smiled.

He leaned in to kiss her once more before he stood and helped haul Cyril to her feet with him.

As she tucked her shirt back and righted the laces on her pants, Cyril sighed the entire time. She made a mental note to never get off in a place where she couldn’t immediately take a nap again. Her limbs still felt like they were half-filled with lead, and getting saddled up on Attie while she was still drifting in her post-orgasm haze was a task that took an egregious amount of effort.

The self-satisfied smile Mikael kept tossing her way made it worth it though.

Cyril was flustered and still giddy as all fucking hell by the time she and Mikael made it back to the stables, because the arrogant prince suggested they race back.

So, of course, instead of just sprawling across Attie’s back and letting the horse meander back, Cyril rode like her life depended on it.

Her pride did, at least.

She was tempted to ask Mikael if he made a habit of pleasuring a woman within an inch of their damn life and then challenging them to a fucking competition when their guard was down. Cyril would have, after they passed off their reins to one of the stable hands, if Mikael hadn’t swept her down the aisle and kissed her again.

“We have to be careful,” she murmured, right against his lips.

Discretion had gone out the fucking window, and the prince was becoming brazen. Even now, as he backed her against one of the stone pillars, the stables were full of late afternoon noise and commotion. It was only a matter of time before someone—

“I know.”

Mikael drew back enough to notch his fingers under her chin, dragging his thumb across her bottom lip. She must have made a noise because he smirked at her.

“I was thinking.” He leaned down and kissed her again. Cyril’s bones felt like they were giving way. “Tonight, after the barracks, you should come spend the night with me.”

The haughty gleam in Mikael’s eyes told her she did not misinterpret what he was suggesting at all.

Her entire damn chest tightened, but she nodded and managed to get out, “I’d like that.”

“Good.”

Mikael kissed her again, and Cyril wasn’t confident she would be able to walk out of there on her own if he kept it up. It was a mercy that the stable master’s voice began echoing through the stables far more prominently than Cyril ever heard it before.

Boone wasn’t a quiet man by any means, but he was speaking with some purpose.

She flattened her hand against Mikael’s chest, forcing some room in between them, and gods that was a scowl if she’d ever seen one. The prince opened his mouth, but she clamped her hand over it and shushed him.

“Oh, Lady Cyril? Is that… Black hair, right? With the lovely gold eyes?”

Cyril’s lovely gold eyes widened, and she watched as Mikael reeled himself as fast as a bolt of fucking lightning. She barely blinked, and he had tied his hair back into something decidedly less handled and smoothed down his shirt.

The stable master was doing them one hells of a favor.

“She just came back from a ride. Should be ‘round somewhere if you’ll follow me.”

Cyril couldn’t hear who he was talking to, but his voice was far too close for comfort and closing in every second. Gods, if Dion was back…

“Go,” she hissed at Mikael, shooing him with waves of her hands, and the twit had the audacity to look amused. He bowed at the waist as he walked backward, turning around just in time to sidestep Bron and Tyr as they came through the doorway.

Cyril loosed a tiny breath of relief.