Page 35 of Far From Sherwood Forest

I stopped John from killing him on that hill, but I hadn’t stopped to consider the consequences of leaving him by himself to navigate this world.

Maybe killing him would’ve been kinder.

“It happened to all of us, Robin. We were in it together. We could’ve figured things outtogether.”

I shake my head because that’s really hard to believe, to imagine. But, to be fair, we never even gave him the chance, and, right now, he seems so sincere. So…broken. I think maybe he’s telling the truth.

“Please, Henry,” I say, my voice trembling with all the shame I feel. “Tell me what I can do.”

“For once in your pathetic life, you canshut the fuck up. I don’t want to hear any of it.”

But, of course, I don’t listen. Because I can’t shut up. Because I have to apologize. I have to make things right.

“I’m so fucking sorry, Henry. I wasn’t thinking. I wasn’t in my right mind. Our world had just been turned upside down. If I had stopped to think about the fate we were leaving you to, Inever would’ve left you.”

The more I speak, the redder his face grows, and the harder his gaze gets. I really should stop talking before he decides to shoot me again, but the guilt has my self-preservation going out the window.

“We don’t have to be like this,” I plead with him. “You don’t have to be alone anymo—”

His hand shoots out, and just as my back hits the trunk of a tree, his palm covers my mouth, pressing hard as the length of his body presses into me. His cold eyes remain locked on mine.

“You’re just incapable of keeping your mouth shut, aren’t you?”

I’d probably come back with some kind of retort if I could, so…yeah, he’s not entirely wrong.

But because I can’t speak, a silence settles between us, leaving only our heavy breathing and intense staring. The longer it goes on, something begins to shift. Henry’s eyes darken. Not with his usual fury, but with something else I’ve seen in them exactly once before—the thing that was quickly chased away when he had me pinned to the ground. The thing we’ve both clearly been avoiding speaking about.

The grip he has on my face turns harder, his breathing harsher. Then the pressure eases, and his hand moves, sliding across my mouth. His fingertips roughly sweep across my bottom lip, his eyes now zeroed in on it.

“Henry—”

The whispered almost-question is interrupted when he pushes two fingers past my lips, drawing a surprised grunt out of me. They glide over my tongue as the next sound comes from Henry—a deep, rumbling growl from deep in his chest. I’m too shocked to fight him off or push him away.

“Is that what you need to finally shut up, Robin? Something stuffed in your mouth?”

I think I…fuck. I think Iwhimper.

I’m mortified until Henry growls again and grinds his hips against mine. Judging by his erection pressing into my thigh, I’m guessing he liked it, so my embarrassment is short-lived.

In fact, it feelsgoodto do something he doesn’t hate, to give him something that actually might even make him feel good too.

Henry pushes his fingers a little deeper as his gaze meets mine again. He holds me hostage with those chestnut brown eyes and his fingers in my mouth. I gag around them when he goes further, and my eyes water.

“Goddammit,” he snarls as he slowly pulls his fingers out. His eyes track the movement as he brushes them against my lips, painting them with my own saliva. “What the fuck are you doing to me?”

His brow furrows so deep as though he’s genuinely trying to figure it out. I don’t understand it either, but…I don’t think I want to stop.

My dick definitely doesn’t.

I never thought I’d get hard from a man shoving his fingers inside my mouth—the former Sheriff of Nottingham at that—but here we are.

I know exactly what it was I saw in his eyes now—lust and hunger—because, once again, it flickers out like a light as he snaps out of whatever trance we were both just trapped in. He takes a staggering step back and turns around.

He’snotfucking running away this time.

“Henry, stop.” It’s not until I take a single, shaky step forward that I realize just how weak my legs are. “We can’t keep doing this. We should talk about—”

He spins back toward me, and I don’t have a chance to react before his heavy hand falls on my shoulder, squeezing hard as he pushes down until I’m forced to lower my body. I go easily, wincing as my knees hit the hard ground.