Page 84 of Golden Queen (Idrigard #1)

"Were you staring at my ass, Sera?" he asked when he reached me in the water again.

"Oh yes," I said with a wicked grin. "It’s marvelous."

He laughed again, but then he began lathering the soap in his hands, motioning for me to wet my hair.

I did, dipping my hair back in the water.

He hissed in a breath, looking at me. "Back to your old plots again, I see."

"What?" I asked, confused. But then I followed his gaze to my chest where my breasts were thrust above the water and laughed. "Trying to kill you, you mean?"

"I would die happy and smiling between the most glorious pair of tits the gods ever created."

"Shut up," I said, pushing him playfully.

He caught my wrists and turned me to begin lathering my long hair.

I groaned in satisfaction as his fingers massaged through the strands and across my scalp.

He painstakingly washed my hair, taking turns handing me the bar to hold and taking it back for more lather as he worked his way down the length.

When he was done, he guided me backwards in the water and held a hand under my back to support me as he rinsed the soap from my hair.

"Thank you," I said when he was finished.

"My pleasure," he replied silkily, taking the bar from me and running it through his own hair.

"No!" I said, reaching up for the soap, feigning offense. "That's my job."

He smiled, handing me the soap and sinking down into the water.

He wrapped his arms around my hips as I returned the favor, washing his beautiful, silky black hair.

He studied me intently as I ran my hands across his scalp, feeling coarse, wild joy rush through me to have him kneeling before me again.

His mouth curved into a smile. "Wicked, cruel queen, taking so much pleasure from the sight of me on my knees again."

I felt heat rush into my cheeks upon being found out, but I couldn't stop the smile that spread across my features. "I like it very much, My Lord," I said, desire rushing through me as he looked up at me with those dark eyes.

"Then, allow me to abase myself even further," he said with a grin as he sank into the water.

I felt his hands push my legs apart, and then his mouth—somehow even hotter than the water around me.

I moaned, nearly losing my footing as he licked me beneath the water. He steadied me with a hand on my ass, his fingers sliding down between the cleft, tantalizing me.

When he finally came up for air, he lifted me with him, wrapping my legs around his waist as he carried us up out of the water and laid me down on the moss.

He was thrusting into me before my back even contacted the soft bed of green beneath me, and I gasped with the pleasure of him buried inside me again. I locked my eyes on his as he took me, fast and hard.

A slow, wicked smile curled his lips as he drove into me.

Each time he seated himself, he looked more and more satisfied.

"I don't think I'll ever tire of knowing just how good I make you feel," he growled, reminding me again that he had a window into my mind.

"It's so fucking gratifying—to know how much you need me—how much you like it when I’m inside of you. "

He slid into me again, sending deep pulsing, nearly agonizing pleasure through me.

And it was true. I could never get enough of the feeling of him—the way it stoked a fire in me that burned so hot it seemed one spark would ignite everything.

Harsh, unyielding climax rolled through me, surprising me. I had been wholly focused on the look of him, the way his body tightened as he held himself up on his arms and thrust his hips against me.

It surprised him too. He lowered himself as he came, grazing his teeth against my shoulder in response to my pleasure as well as his.

He laughed darkly as the waves of my release continued to shudder through me while I clutched him to myself.

I leaned up and bit him hard in retaliation, but he only laughed harder. "Wicked girl," he said, reaching back to run his hand along my backside and down my leg.

"Cruel man," I said, kissing the skin I had bitten.

"Speaking of wicked," he said, sliding himself free and moving to my side. He propped himself up on an elbow. "Did I tell you the first time I sensed what you were feeling? I didn't understand it then, of course."

I shook my head, curious.

He laid his hand on my chest as though feeling my heartbeat. "It was when I had my mouth on you—in those moments before you told me what the necromancer had done."

I furrowed my brow, trying to remember the moments before.

His words were deep and rumbled out in a near purr. "I slid my finger down your ass, and I could tell what you wanted me to do with it."

I gasped as realization dawned. "Shut up!" I told him, turning my head into his chest to hide the embarrassment even as my body shook with laughter.

"Don't feel bad," he said, cupping my backside and drawing me closer. "I think about that far more often than you do."

I dared to look up at him and he was gloating, his face supremely set in male satisfaction.

But then he reached down and kissed me, lightly on the lips. "Let's get some sleep. We'll be home by tomorrow, and you can show me exactly what you had in mind."

The words had a visceral reaction as dread rolled through me at the idea of home. It surprised me with how badly I wanted it. To go home—to belong there with him.

Every moment since we had left Aben and Britaxia, I had forcefully shoved away all thoughts of how or when I would manage to get him to understand. How I would manage to make myself understand that this was not the future laid out before me.

I couldn't go home with him—couldn't let him take me into Dragon's Reach for everyone to see—and know! There would be no way to salvage the alliance if everyone saw me there—the way he had claimed me. The king would never take me if he knew what we had done—what we were to each other.

"Sera, what's wrong?" He rose over me, eyes darting over my face, looking for some sign of sickness or injury.

I knew what he sensed in me was different, like a physical torment, ripping me apart, stealing the air from my lungs. Terror and heartache coupled with wild agonizing regret and anger coursed through me. He wouldn't know what to do with the mess of emotions building in me.

"I'm fine," I choked out. "Let's go to sleep." I turned my face away, praying that I could manage some control if given a few moments.

"Bullshit. You're terrified," he said, shock lacing his tone. "I've never seen you like this. Fucking talk to me, Sera," he demanded.

My breathing was becoming ragged as I tried to calm myself. "You can't take me to Dragon's Reach. It's not my home. It can't be my home!" A sob, the kind of visceral sob that comes from a small child wrenched from my chest.

I sat up, turning my back and covering my mouth, trying to stop it, horrified by the sound that was coming from me. I was embarrassed for him to see me so weak, so out of control. I bit down hard on my fist.

He reached for me, and I nearly shook him off, but in the end, I could no more do that than I could walk away from him—and thus was the fuel for my terror.

The realization of what I was ready to do, the fact that I was going to Darkwatch—the fact of who and what I would sacrifice for him—that was what had that sob bursting from me.

"Talk to me, Sera," he coaxed, his face next to mine and his arms around me.

"I—I can't do it, Io. I can't." I didn't know what I was saying. I can't leave you? I can't stay? I can't talk about it?

"It will be okay, Sera," he said, soothingly. "You have to trust me on this."

"How can I do that?" I said, turning to face him.

"How can I not only tear your family apart, but your kingdom?

How can I abandon my people—or else send you into a war you won't survive without even half the men you would need to win?

And how can I walk away from you when I know I will die if I do it?

" I was nearly yelling then, so strong were the emotions surging through me.

I began shaking, feeling some charge striking through my limbs. I felt my teeth grind together as my muscles all grew taut.

And then fire—scorching, blinding—burst through my skin, surging out in all directions, shaking the ground under us.

Io grabbed my head, shoving me down beneath him as rocks rained down from overhead, splashing into the pool. They narrowly missed us where we crouched on the moss.

The quick burst of power seemed to drain all the wild tension from me. When the last of the rocks tumbled to the ground, I deflated. I felt like I was falling through the floor beneath me as I sank down into oblivion.

But then I felt him lifting me, gathering me to him, and I stopped falling. I sagged against his chest. "I'm sorry," I whispered.

"Don't be sorry, Sera, just...give me a chance to find another way. Just trust me to do that, and if we cannot, I will take you there myself. I will walk away."

"Liar," I said. And we both knew it was true.

He huffed a dark laugh full of the same resignation I felt. "I will find a way. And I won’t do anything that you will need to atone for, Sera. I swear that to you as your blood-sworn man."

"And the gods will hold you to that?" I asked, even as I doubted the gods cared anything for the troubles of us mortals.

"The blood will hold me to that."

I nodded. "And your brother...your mother...what will they do when they learn you have taken me to Darkwatch?"

"They love me. They will understand. I will make them understand."

I nodded again, wanting it so badly I could taste it. Hope warred with reality in my chest, filling me simultaneously with dread and joy. Could the fate of our kingdoms really hinge on the lack of willpower of two flawed and damaged people?

It seemed unlikely, but as he held me, it felt like there was no other path to tread—as if I had always been heading to Darkwatch.