Bait and Switch
I sat quietly in front of the fireplace playing with the flames. I would turn my hands to make them dance, and then with a whistle of the wind cause them to grow larger or all but disappear. The stone floor was cold and felt amazing on my bare legs. They were covered in bruises and scrapes from my most recent practice with Hue. He may have a limp, but it hadn’t done much to slow him on the battlefield. Even now, while I sat playing in our bedchamber, he was reading up on tactics and local history. I finally waved my hand and extinguished the flames before laying back on the floor and sighing.
If you’re so bored you could come help me with research, he offered.
I smiled. Our mental link hadn’t diminished in the least during our time apart. I’ve read all the books in this room, I told him with a grin.
Really? I could feel his shock.
I rolled over on my stomach and propped my chin up on my hands. This time I spoke. “Yes, I discovered I was the Princess of the land and I refused to look anymore unaware then I already did. So I ordered all these books brought to my chambers from the library and I started reading, and when I finished reading these I went to the next subject and brought the Tempest journals from the vault and read those.”
He turned to look at me. His face softened when he saw me stretched out on the floor, chin on my hands, hair a mess of curls, and wearing nothing but one of his button-down shirts from Tarell. His grin grew almost wolfish as his eyes skimmed over my backside and down my bare legs. “Oh, the sight of the “great Princess” now,” he teased.
“Everything I own is too hot, too tight, or too expensive for me to comfortably lounge around in this summer heat,” I complained.
He held up his hands in defeat. “Forget I said anything. Do you want to go to Drakemoore for a few days now that your brother is home?”
“I’m exiled, remember?” I said with a sad smile.
“Only from the Nest. Geren has a family home on the coast that we could use. Maybe a few days of the cooler ocean air and being able to run around scantily clad would do you some good. I could send word to your parents, they could come out and join us if you like?” His offer was tempting.
“The troops still need training, I still need training, and someone needs to stop the Dragon running around my countryside. There is too much work to do.” I closed my eyes and began contemplating a nap.
“Your brother has led an entire army and ruled for three decades without you. I’m sure he can manage for a few days.” Hue began moving across the room with a speed and lissomeness I wouldn’t have expected. He sucked in a breath as he lowered himself to the floor beside me. I rolled over and looked at him to make sure he was all right. Before I could say a word he ran a hand along the length of my leg and stopped just under the edge of the shirt to cup my buttocks.
“And what do you think you are doing?” I asked.
“Seducing my mate,” he answered with a chuckle.
I started to argue but stopped when both of his hands began kneading my sore lower back. I had become quite the rider since meeting Aiden, but my thighs and lower back still hated me on days with horseback combat practice. I moaned at how wonderful it felt to have those knots beat back into submission. “Oh, this feels so … good,” I said in a pained voice.
Hue stopped. “Come to bed. Let me make you forget all about the world outside this room for a few hours.”
Not needing any extra encouragement, I pushed myself up and padded in the direction of the oversized bed. I crawled to its center and watched with fascination as Hue, still moving like a hunter set on his prey, shed clothing as he stalked towards me. By the time he reached the bed his pale skin gleamed and begged to be touched. He joined me on the bed, pushing away my hands so that he could undo the buttons on the shirt. I wanted to whip it off over my hands but he went deliberately slow. When the last button was undone it fell open and he pushed it off my shoulders and tossed it on the end of the bed. “It will get wrinkled there,” I teased.
“Let it,” he all but growled before knocking me back into the pillows and smothering my body with his. He buried his face into the curve of my neck and shoulder while running his hands along my body. Every touch made me tingle all over. Every nibble made me gasp for air. I could feel his own mounting need pressed tightly against my abdomen and at the moment all I wanted was to connect with him again and feel like we were one. “You smell like heaven and taste even better,” he murmured. He grabbed my hip and urged me to roll onto my stomach. “Turn over.”
A butterfly bounced in my stomach as I turned over, excited for the sexual encounter about to take place, but he pushed me flat on the matterss and straddled my hips, sitting on my butt. “What are you doing?” I asked, thoroughly confused.
“I am going to torture you with massage until you submit to my demands to go away for a few days.” To prove his point he took hold of my shoulders and began working enthusiastically on the knots there.
“What about making love or even a good hard sex-fest?”
He laughed like an evil supervillain. “Not until we are tucked away from the world on the coast of Drakemoore.”
“You knave!” I shouted at him, trying to turn my head and glare at him. He responded by digging a thumb deep into a knot that I had carried for months.
“Sweet talk won’t get you anywhere,” he told me. “You need a break.”
Kicking the bed multiple times and screaming into a pillow, I begged and pleaded with him to stop, then threatened to run him through if he actually did stop.
