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And suddenly she moved, tilting her hips further to test the friction. “Oh,” she said and moved some more.

“Fuck. I’m not going to last, Tarley,” he groaned, his heart beating frantically inside his chest. He grunted as she moved against him again, knowing she was feeling him inside of her as much as seeking pleasure against her clit. “Tarley, I can’t–”

“Let go, Lachlan,” she panted. “I’m here. Please.”

Her words—his words given back to him—unmoored him. He ground his hips against hers and she cried out, “Yes! Lachlan. Please,” her nails biting into his back.

Suddenly he couldn’t hold back. He withdrew, and she grabbed to pull him back, as he thrust all the way into her.

She cried out. “Yes. Lach, yes,” over and over, until Lachlan lost himself, the rhythm erratic because he all he had become was need.

Her volume increased with his movement. The bed squealing, the frame hitting the wall with rhythmic thumps.

“Please Lach. Please,” she begged.

He couldn’t think, but he wanted to feel her come around his cock. “Tarley. Tarley. Touch yourself.” He pushed into her, as she reached between them, touching herself as he drove into her again and again. Her cunt tightened around him, and she gasped then, whimpering as she found release once more.

Lachlan let go. His body tensed, everything exploding into her tight, wet, warmth. He grunted, sucked in a breath, and held it until the spasm of his orgasm abated. Then he eased himself down against Tarley, who wrapped her arms around him tightly.

Lachlan caught his breath against her shoulder, waiting for his vision to clear, enjoying being in her arms. Her hands in his hair, her fingers threading his locks, offered him something he’d never known he wanted. He’d been with women before, but he didn’t stay, didn’t let them to stay. Tarley’s hands in his hair, moving over his back, down to the curve of his ass, back up to his neck, over his arms, back to his hair, made him feel as if he’d never been more known. More seen. As himself.

He nestled deeper into the crook of her neck. “Are you okay?”

She hummed. “Are you?”

Lachlan looked up so he could see her face illuminated by the moonlight. “I’ve never felt more like myself.”

She was smiling as she opened her eyes and looked at him. “I feel… perfect.” She stretched under him, the silk of her skin tantalizing.

The realization that he was going to marry this woman hit him in the center of his chest. Weeks ago, his father had insisted he marry a stranger. He’d balked and done everything in his power to undermine any possible betrothal negotiations. In retrospect, if he hadn’t been an ass, he wouldn’t have met this woman.

When Keyanna had suggested Tarley, he’d known it wouldn’t be a hardship. Tarley was smart, determined, and pleasing to his eyes and body. He had decided they could forge a partnership amenable to both for the sake of Jast.

Now, though, looking at this woman lying under him, stretched out, content, offering him the smile he’d longed for and providing a touch he hadn’t known he wanted, Lachlan recognized what he had with Tarley wasn’t about Jast anymore.

This wasn’t a matter of whether he would fall in love with her—he already was. But if Tarley Fareview couldn’t learn to love him back, he wasn’t sure how he’d ever recover.

28

Tarley raced up the back stairwell, taking the steps two at a time to the queen’s room to tell her the news. She anticipated the queen would be put out because she and Lachlan had disappeared but would ultimately be relieved at the outcome.

Watching her steps, Tarley navigated the dark corridor a bit more treacherous than the main stairwell with the ease of familiarity, her steps light with happiness, then slowed, knowing her smile might give her away. This morning she felt buoyant but didn’t want to consider it too long or look too closely, because she knew Lachlan would be at the center of it.

He’d snuck out just before dawn, to be in his pallet when Trevis woke. One more reason he warmed her heart. Adding it to everything else. They’d lain in one another’s arms talking about their lives. Lachlan told her about growing up in Jast, the pressures that had been put on him by his father. She’d shared about her mother’s over-protectiveness, of growing up in Sevens. And just as the sky hinted the sun was nearing the horizon, she’d kissed him at the door and watched him slip down the stairs and back into the stables. She hadn’t realized she’d missed what they’d created in the woods, until then.

Her attraction to him was a raging fire in a dry and brittle forest. She knew it wasn’t just because she was lonely in Sevens, that when along came a handsome stranger, and she was just easy and desperate enough to fall into the trap of wanting him. Tarley had accused Auri of the same and insisted how could Auri know. Then she’d gone and done the same thing. She knew without a doubt, she was falling for this man, and it was more than their physical connection—it was the emotional bond they’d been forging for some time.

“Good morning, Tarley.”

Tarley’s gaze snapped up from her feet, and she tripped up the last step into the dark corridor, nearly falling into Dr. Allean Rufus.

Her smile cracked, breaking apart the joy in her chest. “What are you doing here? In the servants’ hall?”

“Miss Crendell asked me.”

“To what?”

“Check on a guest, I’d suspect.”