Page 79 of Bred

Embarrassed by my outburst, my stomach tightened. “That is… No, Majesty. I am not… I am still unsure…”

“Never feel as though you do not belong here,” he breathed. “You were chosen above the others. Therefore, you belong.”

He strode toward me, and I forced myself to stay still. This was the longest conversation we had shared, but I didn’t know what I could ask, or what my position might be beyond the child that he wanted.

“May I pour you some wine, Majesty?” I stammered.

He inclined his head, and I rushed to the table to fill a goblet for him. He took it from my shaking hands and watched me over the rim of the silverblue cup as he drank.

“Your scar,” I blurted out. “How— How did it happen?”

His expression hardened for a moment, and then he set the goblet aside and stepped closer.

“In battle,” he said in a voice that was darker than the wine in the goblet he had just set down. “An orc blade that came far too close for comfort.”

“Oh,” I murmured.

“You know nothing of war, do you?. No brothers or uncles sent away to fight for your king’s armies—”

I shook my head and then lifted a hand to his face. He flinched as my fingertip traced the line of the scar, where it had split his bottom lip, and then traveled up his cheek.

“You must be fearsome in battle,” I murmured.

He was only inches away from me, and I choked on a gasp of surprise as he caught my wrist in his hand and wrenched it away from his face.

“I am fearsome in many ways,” he snarled.

I believed it.

“The servant said you were hunting,” I said quickly, eager to change the subject. “I did not expect to see you—”

His eyes burned into mine, and I felt my throat grow dry as I read the raw passion in them.

“I had every intention of going hunting, but I could not concentrate on our preparations, nor on the plans for the hunt... all I could think of was you.”

I swallowed hard, wondering if somehow he knew I had been thinking of him as well, if he could see on my face the lustful thoughts that I had, if he knew the heat that was between my thighs and how I yearned for his touch.

His eyes held me captive for a long moment before he released his grip on my wrist. His arms wound around me and he crushed me to his chest and covered my lips with his in a kiss full of hunger and shameless passion.

I moaned and opened my mouth under his, gasping as his tongue thrust inside, probing and hungry. My body melted against his, and I could feel the hardness of his cock pressed against my stomach.

I wanted him so badly; wanted him to fill me with every inch of his hot length.

When he finally broke the kiss, my breaths were raw and his touch was like fire as he dragged his fingers along my collarbone and down the edge of the shift’s neckline.

Beneath the transparent material, my breasts heaved, begging for his touch.

“When my brothers told me that I had to choose a surrogate, I didn’t want to have the responsibility of it. Why was I forced to be the first? I thought it would be a chore—an assignment that I did not want or wish for. But now that you are mine, I find that I want you all the time.”

With a quick motion, he tore the delicate fabric of my shift and dragged it down over my breasts. He bent his head to press his lips to the tender flesh, and my moan was ragged as he sucked at the pale skin that was exposed.

I could feel the heat between my thighs growing as he rubbed at my hardening nipples. My breath caught in my throat as the king ripped more of the shift away, and I shivered as it slithered down my body.

With a ragged sigh, the king’s mouth latched onto one of the pink peaks, and I gasped and wound my fingers through his hair, pulling him closer, urging him to suckle harder. He caught my nipple between his teeth, and my gasp turned into a small cry as the pain and pleasure swirled in my stomach.

One of his hands gripped my other breast, pinching and tugging at the other nipple, and I could barely register all the sensations as they coursed through my body.

His free hand pushed the shreds of the shift down to the floor, exposing my heated flesh to the cool air. He dragged his mouth to my other breast and as his fingers found the slick wetness between my thighs.