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“I’m notunawareof a male’s needs. I’m not ignorant.” Her gaze dropped to the fur covering her lap.
“I see. But you’ve never experienced the fire of battle blood, have you?”
Her eyes rounded, finding my gaze again, giving me a near-painful look of innocence. I reached over my shoulder and pulled my black linen shirt over my head, trying not to snag it on my horns lest Havallah chastise me for ruining another shirt. I dropped it beside the bed with my armor. Her eyes widened further then I went on.
“Battle blood builds up, pumps a man into a fury of unspent energy and emotions following a vigorous fight. Oftentimes, they can cry out their victory, hack their enemy up a little more to release that energy. But on a night like tonight, when they recently won the battle on the plains outside Issos, only to capture the city and restrain their energy for hours upon hours while they awaited word of our final victory, that the peace treaty was signed...” I huffed out a breath as I shoved off my boots and began working the lacings of my trousers. “Let me tell you, princess. They needed to either spill blood or their cum.”
She flinched and I found some perverse thrill in her discomfort. The haughty princess needed to be reminded that she was in the hands of the barbarians she proclaimed us to be.
“I opted for brothels over blood,” I added casually.
“What are you doing?” Her wide-eyed gaze was on my trousers. My cock twitched beneath the fabric.
“It isn’t customary for me to sleep in my clothes,” I said softly.
“You should keep…some clothes on.” Her voice had ticked up, laced with nervousness.
I had one hand gripping the flap of my trousers, the other I dropped to my side. “Wraith fae males do not wear all the pretty underthings and excess clothes as Lumerians, Una. As you most certainly have noted, we are much less civilized.” With that, I shoved my trousers down, my half-hard cock bobbing between my legs.
She gasped and squeezed her eyes closed, then promptly fell to the bed, facing the other direction. I smiled at her modesty even while I couldn’t help but give myself a half-hearted stroke. I certainly appeared to be the vile monster she thought me to be now.
With a frustrated sigh, I jerked my hand away and scrubbed it down my face. I lifted the furs and fell onto my back, clasping my hands behind my head and closing my eyes to focus on leveling my breathing. This was going to be very difficult.
“I don’t care what you do with other women,” she snapped with bitterness, still facing the opposite wall, “but do not sleep with any while we are trying to create a child. Sexual promiscuity can spread diseases and…it’s—it’s humiliating to me.” She whispered the last part, seemingly embarrassed that she’d even confessed it aloud.
I turned my head toward her, noting the silky softness of her hair flowing over the pillow and fur. What I wouldn’t do to caress those beautiful tresses, press their silkiness to my face and lips, inhale her sweetness.
“You do not want me to fuck other women while you and I are?” I asked, using coarse language to try to remind myself there would be no soft thoughts or tender words between us. I couldn’t get lost in asinine thoughts about caressing her hair.
She stiffened. “Whatever you did with whomever tonight, let it be the last time until…until I’ve conceived and can leave your bed.”
Her back was a straight line, her shoulders stiff. She thought I’d fucked my own harlot tonight while I’d left her here alone on her first night away from Issos. And it…bothered her. It bothered me.
Still, I couldn’t get wrapped up in concern over her feelings. She was here to beget my heir and give me the alliance needed so I could ensure complete control over Lumeria. That was all.
I could’ve let her believe I’d been enjoying the pleasure of a woman all night. I could’ve even lied and told her I’d fucked several and would have as many fae whores ride my cock as I liked. But instead, I found myself mesmerized and worried by that hard line of her back to me.
So instead, I admitted something to which I hadn’t ever planned. “There will be no women in my bed while you are in it.” Her shoulders rounded forward ever so slightly. Then I added more quietly, “There was no other woman tonight.”
That straight line softened, curving with the sinuous slope of her beautiful womanly form. Her body relaxed, pressing sweetly into the bed. Her soft huff of relief loosened something inside me and agitated me.
Forcing my gaze away, I looked up at the slanted slope of the tent roof, then threw my arm over my eyes. Defiantly, I added with bite, “Get some rest, Una. You will need to perform that duty soon enough.”
I ignored the immediate tension I sensed from her, and I refused to look at her to see if that soft curve had stiffened again. I fought against any urge to soften for the woman who I’d saved and whose family launched a war against my people.
In all my recent dreams and fantasies of this woman, I never thought that I’d yearn for more than her body, the child she’d bear me, and her royal alliance. But now—against my will—there was a small coal of my own, smoldering in the dark recesses of my blackened heart, longing to be ignited. To burn hot and bright.
Chapter 15
UNA
A bellowing hornsounded from the palace parapet in the distance. It had been nearly two weeks since the night in the encampment, and since Goll had delivered me back to the palace before returning without a single word to me.
I suppose I understood why he thought it important to make the journey on horseback to Silvantis, the capital city of Northgall. It was a way to show his loyal soldiers and his people he was one of them.
But he wasn’t. He was not a common soldier or simply a wraith fae warrior. He was set apart as one of their royal line, touched by dragonblood.
From where I stood on the steps of the Temple of Vix, I saw Drakmir circle the palace spires. He’d been circling it ever since I’d been returned to it, no longer keeping his king company on the road. I wondered if Goll had ordered Drakmir to watch over me or if perhaps my own strange magick was calling to him. When I first touched him, I tried to reach out with the power that had replaced my healer’s magick, but he seemed to block mefrom entering his mind. No other winged beings had done that before. But a dragon was a highly intelligent creature.
