The King’s Maiden (Camelot Court #1)

Landon

O n the list of ways I wanted to spend a Friday, the line at the local pharmacy didn’t make the cut.

Yet, here I was.

Most of my wait I’d spent rocking back and forth on my heels, my hands clenching inside my pockets as another question came out of the customer in front of me. I’d clocked her the second I walked up.

Female, close to my age, attractive.

Not that the last part was obvious.

Her oversized hoodie and worn-out sweatpants hardly showcased her figure, but she had curves. An ass round enough to bite. Thighs strong enough to lock me in a chokehold as she came on my tongue. Hips to grab onto while she rode my?—

No.

My fingers twitched at my side, and I shook my head to clear it.

When I’d walked up behind her, I had the strangest urge to step closer. I wanted to rest my chin on the top of her head. Just to see if she’d fit.

The messy bun she’d wrangled her dark brown hair into stopped me, and you know…manners or whatever.

But I’d thought about it.

Flyaway strands escaped her elastic, brushing the golden-tan skin that peeked out beneath her sweatshirt. I wondered what those dark curls would look like coated with sweat. Clinging to her neck as it arched back. Leading me to ecstasy between her thighs.

Idle thoughts like this plagued me.

Thoughts I wouldn’t have normally had about a stranger, if not for staring at her ass for the last twenty minutes.

Yet, again, here I was.

Adjusting the increasingly tight fit of my pants, I cursed myself for leaving my phone in the car. I’d wanted a break from the onslaught of texts I’d been getting about The Quest.

Now, I needed a distraction, so I didn’t sport an erection at the local drugstore.

More so, I needed to get the fuck out of there and take care of the situation before I did something stupid. If this favor were for anyone else, I would’ve split by now.

But no one shirked an order from the King.

Not even his best friend.

My position as such usually afforded me immunity from mindless errands, but this had been… sensitive.

The virgin daughter of his grandfather’s business partner conveniently forgetting to mention she wasn’t on the pill—at least not until after she dangled her untouched pussy in a younger Knight’s face—qualified as urgent, apparently.

And I’d been given the honor of securing Plan B.

Although, if any of our younger pledges had listened to me one of the countless other times they’d fallen into this sort of honey trap, they could’ve saved me the trouble.

I wouldn’t be here trying to get a morning-after pill, rocking a semi over a girl without seeing her face. Picturing my face buried between her thighs. Or my hands threading in her thick, dark hair, while staring transfixed as she ran her fingers along her scalp.

Again and again.

She tugged more strands free from her bun before snapping her hand away.

It was like she kept forgetting that she’d secured it up there, only to remember all of a sudden. And then, less than a minute later, she’d forget all over again.

A repetitive, anxious tic she couldn’t seem to control…

I found it fascinating.

That, or standing behind her as she cross-examined the pharmacist had bored me to the point of insanity.

My money being on the latter, I checked my watch for the hundredth time. Twenty minutes to pick up one medication? To go back and forth over copays and coupon cards? Couldn’t she charge it and let us all move on?

I checked my privilege there, hearing my sister’s voice reverberate in my mind.

But a triumphant sound burst past my lips, as a lightbulb flickered on above my head. I pulled out my wallet and slapped my card down. The loud crack of my hand against the counter captured the pharmacist’s gaze and his pint-sized inquisitor’s attention.

“Whatever the medication costs, I’ll cover it.”

The pharmacist’s eyebrows rose. And while my eyes stayed on his face, staring expectantly until he took my credit card and got to work swiping it, my focus wasn’t on him. It remained solely on the space beside me.

And the sharp intake of breath that came from her.

Not the clearly audible gasp I expected for that pay-it-forward moment, however self-motivated it might’ve been. The inhale that followed caught me off guard as it echoed in my ears. It sounded wrong. It was too high-pitched.

Too tight.

Pained.

I recognized it. And my mind jolted back to the last time I heard it. My heart raced and palms grew slick instantly.

As if almost ten years hadn’t passed since the worst moment of my life.

Stumbling forward, I gripped the edge of the counter.

It took everything I had not to pass out.

The pharmacist finished charging my card. He turned from the register to hand it back. His eyes widened when he saw my face. Voice muffling in my ears, his words came out garbled and asked if I was alright.

And he called himself a medical professional…

But then, a soft hand grazed my forearm, clearing the haze. Illuminating that single point of contact.

Like the sun peeking through the clouds on an overcast day.

I withdrew from the sudden intensity of it, taking the card and shoving it into my pocket.

“I’m fine,” I croaked.

Without a second glance, I tore out of the store like a ghost chased me. Chomping at my heels like the memory pressing in on my thoughts. Squeezing my throat like?—

I climbed into the back of the blacked-out SUV and slammed the door. Panting heavily, I forced the thoughts from my mind.

The freshman pledge tasked with driving me caught my eyes in the rearview mirror before hastily looking away.

But I saw the concern in his expression, and I couldn’t stand it.

“Let’s go,” I barked, turning to face the window.

I caught a glimpse of messy brown hair corralled into a bun, hands clutching a bag of medicine, and a heart-shaped face with dark eyes shining in the sun right as we pulled away.

Eyes filled with relief because of what I’d done.

I couldn’t stand that, either.