AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“So are you,” I reply.
He chuckles as he presses his lips to mine. “No, my love, I am not.”
Pleasure consumes me as time stills around us. It might as well just be me and him.
Him and me.
There is no war. No fight for our survival.
No looming betrothal.
I am no queen, and he is no guard.
Fort rests his forehead against mine, and together, we breathe in the moment.
He draws out and slowly thrusts back into me. Slow, languid movements that draw out yet another wave of pleasure building inside of my body. If I usually see stars when we’re together, right now I can all but hear the colors around us.
I have him, and he has me.
His lips trace the line of my jaw, the stubble on his face scraping deliciously against my skin.
Fort is the beat of my heart. The blood in my veins. I will kill for him. And if it ever comes down to it, I know I’ll die for him, too.
Another release snaps, and I cry out, but he swallows it with his lips pressed to mine. Our breathing increases, our hearts racing while he increases the pace, driving into me faster. Faster. And then he withdraws and stands off of the cot, pumping himself with his hand until his own release coats his chest.
I sit up, watching as he cleans himself with a towel left beside my washbasin in the dim light of my barely lit tent while a storm rages just outside. It matches the one in my soul. In days, I will be forced to travel alongside the man I’ll be expected to marry the moment we reach Soreno.
Never again to share a quiet moment with the man I truly love.
Pulling the blanket up to my chest, I let the tears that have been brimming since I was given Bowman’s news fall down my cheeks. Closing my eyes, I bury my face, and after a few moments, Fort climbs onto the small cot beside me, wrapping me in his arms and holding me as reality sets in that none of my plans came through.
Lacrae is still gone.
Navalis is still lost.
And Fort and I are out of time.
Chapter 6
Carleah
Lying here with Fort, in the dim light of the flickering fire, makes me long for the ability to pause time. Just outside, wind whips at our tent, but I do not feel the chill with his large body cradling me.
Rain hammers the mud, but I don’t care if it seeps all the way in and drenches our clothes still abandoned on the floor because my mind is focused only on stretching this moment out as long as I possibly can.
We could leave. Abandon everything and everyone here. And to be honest, that idea is looking better and better with each passing moment. Bowman calls me a naïve girl. Says I’m always acting like a child who didn’t get her way.
And maybe I am.
But this isn’t fair. How could Fort and I have gone through everything we have just to end up exactly in the same place we were?
“Your thoughts are racing,” he whispers as he presses a kiss to the side of my throat.
“I cannot help it.” I roll over in his arms and stare up at him. Shadows dance on his face, and I lean in to press my lips to his.
“Then share them.”
“There’s nothing to share. Soreno will arrive the day after tomorrow, and I will be essentially sold to Patrick in exchange for my kingdom. Crude way of thinking about it, I know, but—”
