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A sly smile appeared on her face, and before Herrick could register what was happening, Maude placed one hand on his chest and lowered her lips to his ear.

“You enjoy my anger, don’t you, beast?”

She shifted her hips right over his cock. The friction caused all his blood to rush from his head, making him dizzy and emptying all thoughts from his mind. He only wanted her to move like that again. He would give her anything. He just neededher.

“Yes,” he breathed, giving in entirely to this siren of the desert.

She shifted again, her fingers delicately tracing runes down his chest toward where their two bodies met. Herrick tipped his head back and letout a deep groan while Maude huffed a halfhearted chuckle. His hatchet was still against his throat, the motion causing another slice to cut into his skin, but he didn’t care.

As he settled back against the floor, Maude shifted over him once more, her lips still brushing over the shell of his ear. Bonfire and jasmine flooded his senses, the intoxicating scent becoming the answer to a question he didn't know he was searching for.

“I don’t think either of us will underestimate the other again, General.”

She bit his ear lobe the same way he had done to her. Herrick reached for her, damning the consequences.

The pressure from his hatchet on his throat disappeared as Maude stood faster than should be possible, his hatchet in hand, and fixed her dress so that the rip didn’t reveal any more of her body. She gave him one more unreadable look before she turned and walked toward her room.

Herrick could only watch as she walked away from him and closed her door without another glance back. He glanced around the hall and saw what destruction had been wrought in their fight.

They had shown each other only the tiniest shred of their power during their fight, but he knew she was capable of much more. Herrick was in awe over her control of hergalder;the struggles with managing her emotions were nowhere to be seen despite her stressful evening. Tonight, in the most passionate display of her feelings that he had seen yet, her control was excellent. It should have been impossible. Heightened emotion burned throughgalderfaster than controlled emotion.

In Maude’s case, it seemed to spur her on.

Unable to think further about what transpired between them due to the lust-addled fog that Maude had so easily launched him into, he pulled himself off the floor and hastily returned to his room before any of the palace staff found him.

An hour later, Herrick still couldn’t shake the image of Maude drenched in that god's damned gown. He could only relive in his mind how it had felt to have her sitting on top of him, rolling her hips in that way that drove him to insanity.

When he took himself into his hand that night, he realized that she had utterly captivated him, and Herrick wasn’t sure there could ever be anyone else for him.

The next morning, Herrick made his way to his mother’s day room for the breakfast she had requested he attend. The fight with Maude that had led to her sitting on top of him had churned through his mind all night, making it difficult to get any sleep. He’d tossed all night, thinking of her, craving her. Even after he had found pleasure in his hand, he’d still had to take an ice bath to stop the tracks of fire that ran over his skin at the thought of her.

Herrick had finally fallen asleep for what felt like minutes before he had to rise and dress for this meeting. Dark circles cursed his eyes as he yawned and poured himself a cup of coffee, the nutty aroma teasing his senses and aiding him in becoming fully alert. His mother had been speaking for some time about some issues in Amsbrook, a town south of where the two rivers flanking Veter met. Their crops had begun to fail despite their intervention, and they didn’t know why.

“Herrick, are you listening to me?” his mother asked sharply.

“Of course, Mother. I didn’t get much sleep; please excuse my weariness,” Herrick responded, a yawn creeping up on him as he finished speaking.

“Did you and Maude stay up much later after our supper?” She asked, not entirely hiding the disapproving tone in her voice.

“I can’t possibly know what you mean. I walked her back to her room and said goodnight, like a gentleman,” he said, sipping his coffee again to avoid his mother’s knowing gaze.

She made no response, so when Herrick looked up at her, he didn’t see his mother but rather the Queen of Rivers staring back at him.

“I asked you to have breakfast with me for more than just catching up, Herrick. I wanted to speak with you about what I’ve noticed between you and the Heir of Flame,” she said, tone even.

“I thought you liked Maude, Mother,” Herrick said, putting his cup down before he leaned back, crossing his ankle over his knee and folding his hands over his stomach.

“I do like her. She’s very much like her mother, and Sylvi was my closest friend for the majority of my life,” his mother said.

Before Herrick could relax, she continued, “This is not a matter of whether I like her or not. She’s an interesting woman: strong, independent, and undeniably beautiful. If her father weren’t such a wretch, she would’ve risen to be an exceptional queen.”

“She could still be an exceptional queen.”

“And there, my love is the problem. You have grown too close to her. I fear that your heart will be crushed when you discover you can't be together,” his mother said, sadness creeping into her features.

“What are you talking about?”

“The treaty forbids our bloodlines from merging.”