TAELYN

It’s freezing.

My entire body shivers and my teeth chatter.

I’d fallen asleep the moment I’d climbed into my tent, drained from the day’s journey and all the stress that had come before it, but have woken from the cold.

I don’t know how long I’ve slept, but my body is already stiff from all the riding, so I guess it must have been at least several hours.

I huddle into a ball and try to pull the blankets tighter around my body, but nothing seems to help. It’s still dark outside, and I’ve got no idea how long it is until morning. I don’t want to give up on sleep, but this feels impossible.

The front of the tent suddenly flaps open. I gasp and half sit, expecting some terrifying creature from the moorland to launch inside. But instead, it’s my stepbrother.

“By the gods, Ruarok,” I whisper. “You scared me half to death.”

“You’re cold,” he replies.

“How do you know that? ”

“I can hear your teeth chattering from out there.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Move up,” he tells me. “I’ll keep you warm.”

Maybe I should say no, but I’m so cold, and the promise of warmth is enough to ensure my lips stay firmly shut.

He enters the tent fully and pulls the flaps shut behind him.

Then he crosses over and lies down behind me.

He fits the front of his body into the back of mine and pulls the blankets up over us both.

It occurs to me that now there’s no one outside of the tent keeping watch, but I’m already feeling warmer from having him so close.

He wraps his arms around me, pulling my back against his chest, my wings crushed between us, and his top knee wedges between mine.

He buries his face into my neck, and it’s as though we’ve become one body.

“Thank you,” I whisper.

The shivering subsides as does the clatter of my teeth, but still I can’t sleep. It’s not because I’m cold now, but because I’m lying, alone, in such proximity to my stepbrother.

And I’m pretty sure the hardness pressing into the small of my back isn’t a dagger.

“Ruarok,” I hiss.

“Yes?”

“Your…erection…is digging into me.”

He makes no attempt to move. “Apologies, Princess, but I can’t help it when I’m this close to you.”

I attempt to wriggle away, to create a tiny amount of space between us, but instead of it having the desired effect, Ruarok lets out a throaty groan.

“Fuck, Taelyn, you can’t do that.”

It’s the first time he’s just used my name, and it sends a strange feeling of familiarity through me. The warmth I’m now experiencing has nothing to do with blankets or even body heat. I like that he felt comfortable enough to call me by my name alone.

Curious, I wriggle again, only this time I deliberately push my ass against his cock.

“Do what?” I tease, playing the innocent.

“You know exactly what.” His voice has become a low growl. “You’re playing with fire, Princess.”

That low, coiling, tingling pressure deep at my core has returned. “I did say I was cold. Maybe I could use a little heat.”

How does he always manage to bring out this side of me?

It’s as though I become someone else when I’m around him.

No one else in the kingdom would dare say some of the things he’s said to me, but he doesn’t seem to care what the repercussion might be.

Perhaps it’s because he’s realized he’s already lived through the worst time possible, and so now there’s nothing anyone can do to him that would be any worse.

He moves my braid away from my neck and places his lips to my skin. The touch sends shivers through me, except they’re shivers of pleasure now. I grind back against him as he kisses and licks and sucks my neck. A moan of pleasure escapes me. I hope no one in the tents surrounding us hears.

Where am I planning for this to go? Would I let him fuck me, here in this tent, while my guards surround me? They’re bound to hear us. People will talk.

He slips his hand down the back of my pants and cups my ass then pushes between my legs .

“Wet,” he whispers against my ear. “I always knew you’d be so wet for me.”

No man has ever touched me this way. He slides a finger inside me, and I gasp. “Oh, by the gods.”

The pleasure that condenses deep at my core is like nothing I’ve ever experienced.

He holds me close as he fingers me, and my hips rock back and forth.

His other hand travels down the front of my body, stopping to cup my breast over my clothing, his thumb brushing my nipple, and then heading down.

He slips inside the front of my pants, so he has both hands down there now.

The hand at the front finds my clit, and I turn my face to muffle my moan against his bicep.

How does he know how to do this to me? To touch me in exactly the right places to make me feel like I’m climbing to the stars? Then it occurs to me that this is what Ruarok does—what he is . It’s both experience and instinct that makes him good at this.

“So tight,” he mutters. “My cock will split you in two.”

His words shock me, and I jerk away. “No, stop.”

“Why? Doesn’t it feel good?”

He rubs me again, and I push my hips into him, but then remind myself that this can’t happen. He is my stepbrother.

“I told you to stop.”

His finger slips out of me, and he withdraws his hands, rolls to his back, and lets out a sigh of frustration.

“Why do you keep doing this, Princess? You’re going to leave us both wanting. All needy and unsatisfied, and for what? Because you’re worried about what people might say? ”

And because I’m frightened of sex, of what it will mean, of if it will hurt, and who I’ll be after.

I don’t say any of that to him, though. How would he ever understand? He’s been having sex ever since he was old enough to do so. It’s a part of who he is. I don’t even want to think about the number of people he might have been with—the thought alone makes me sick with jealousy.

But he hasn’t been with anyone at all for at least the last ten years, unless he found himself a chambermaid the other night to take his frustrations out on.

“I’ve told you my reasons already,” I say, shifting away to create space between us. I’m already missing the body heat, but what else can I do? “It’s not my fault if you keep using your Incubus magic on me.”

He snorts softly at that. “Is that what you think I’m doing? Using my magic to make you want me?”

Angrily, I roll over to face him. “Isn’t that what you’re doing?”

“No, it isn’t. You’re wanting me all on your own.”

“I don’t believe you.”

He shrugs nonchalantly, and I want to smack him.

“Makes no difference to me if you do or not. It’s the truth. You want me, Princess. You want to fuck your stepbrother, and you hate it so much that it’s safer for you to blame me.”