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Her gaze went from Valda’s face, down her rippling back, and finally to her cunt. “I want to taste you.” Maris shuddered, her voice intense and desperate. “Please, let me.” She shook, her movements slowing down, she searched the queen for a signal that Valda wanted her as much.

The queen answered with a dip of her chin.

Maris’s breath rasped as she pulled her hands away to push against Valda’s leg, bending it at the knee, spreading her wider. She lay down on her stomach, and before she could move forward, Valda was pushing against her face.

The sounds of encouragement escaping Valda drove Maris insane. She slipped her arms under Valda’s thighs, gripping her waist securely as she buried her face between Valda’s legs. “Fuck, you taste delicious,” Maris rasped, pulling back long enough to give open mouth kisses to Valda’s inner thighs before going back for harder, insisting laps of her tongue.

“Please, don’t stop. Not even for a second,” Valda cried, her hands fisting the bedsheets with a white-knuckle grip. “I am so fucking close,” she said, baring her teeth in a hiss.

It didn’t take long, just a couple of flicks to her clit and strong strokes of Maris’s tongue, and the queen’s breath exploded from her lungs. Maris’s grip on her tightened as she lapped up the new wetness that seeped from her.

“I can’t get enough of you.” Maris leaned closer, pressing her lips to the soft and delicate curve of Valda’s lower back. Her voice quivered as if hesitant to have said those words. Yet, she never ceased the tender caress of her lips as she continued moving up. She kissed Valda’s spine, the back of her neck. She moved Valda’s hair away from her forehead and kissed her there too. Eyes closed, controlling her emotions as much as she could. “Gods, I want everything you have.”

Valda pushed herself until she was lying on her back. Her chest heaved with every breath as her hand trailed Maris’s delicate arm until she cupped the younger woman’s face. Eyes closed, Valda pulled her in for a possessive and searing kiss—a seal of ownership.

Maris shuddered. She belonged to Valda, didn’t she? Her heart, her body, even her soul belonged to this powerful woman, and instead of being scared, she froze in realization. In those quiet heartbeats, in those seconds as they separated their lips, Maris knew and felt she was way too far gone, and she couldn’t live without her touch.

“You have me. You have all of me.” Valda panted heavily, her body still coming back down from the frenzy induced by Maris’s mouth. “I am here.” Valda kissed her again, her tongue trailing the seam of her lips until she granted her access to the warmth of her mouth, to her taste on Maris’s tongue.

Valda moaned into the kiss and pulled the younger woman to lay on top of her. “Fuck, you are perfect.”

Maris shook her head, cupped Valda’s cheeks, and pressed their foreheads together. “I am anything but.”

“You. Are. Perfect,” Valda repeated, emphasizing each word with a terse kiss. “You will not argue with me. I am your queen, what I say goes. What I say is law,” Valda said, frowning angrily, but Maris knew her.

She knew she was bluffing, and instead of being petrified at Valda’s intensity, she chuckled in amusement.

And then it hit her. Valda thought she was perfect. And even though they hadn’t said it, this was the closest thing to love as Maris has ever felt. She swallowed hard, her hands moving from the queen’s face to her shoulders, deep in thought.

Valda picked on her distress and slanted her head to the side. “What is it?”

Maris wetted her lips with her tongue and locked her gaze with Valda’s white, unsettling eyes. Should she tell her? Should she just tell her and get it over with? How would Valda react? What would she do? She trembled, petrified of voicing for the very first time that she wasn’t like any other Sealian, that she may bore the gift of the heir of the throne, and that she was irrevocably and completely in love with her.

She looked at her hands, her thumb stroking Valda’s soft skin, her heart hammering inside her chest.

“Valda?”

Valda, still in the height of her orgasms, still sleepy and tired from their ride yesterday, lifted her head to press it against Maris’s forehead. “What is it, Seashell?”

Valda sounded so sweet, so tender, so understanding, so fucking loving… Maris bit her lower lip, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. As she exhaled, a thunderous knock sounded on the door to the bedroom.

Both women froze.

21

“What is it?” Her question hung in the dense air. Her arms tightened around Maris’s waist, pulling her closer.

“Valda?”

Valda could feel Maris pulling away; she could feel her becoming detached. Valda clenched her jaw and pressed her forehead with her lover’s. “What is it, Seashell?”Maris’s fingers brushed her heated skin. The hesitation—the fear. Valda hated it. Maris should never be afraid of her, not in the slightest.

And then, a frantic knock on the door tore away the tension and the silence.

Valda’s eyes widened, yet her grip on Maris did not falter. It grew tighter as she turned towards the sound. “How dare they?” The growl vibrating in her chest was smoothed away by Maris’s soft hands upon her breast. “What time is it?” She asked her attention back to the woman in her arms.

“It’s early. Sun’s up.” Maris sighed and pulled away from Valda. “Who is it?”

“It’s Cai, ma’am.”