Chapter Twenty-One
QUINN
A s we walked away, I tried to gauge Landon’s mood after what had just happened with Max.
I assumed I’d be left in the dark.
But for the first time, he didn’t leave me wondering what was going on inside his head.
“Max has hated me since we joined KRT and came to live at Camelot Court. We pledged together our freshman year, but Kingston was a year older than us and the favorite for King in his senior year. Kingston and I have been friends since we were kids. Max has never liked that he preferred me.”
“Wait, so the King changes every year?”
Landon nodded. “It’s always a senior. I guess Max has aspirations for the job and he sees me as competition because of my friendship with Kingston. He’s had it out for me ever since freshman year, at least. And now he has his sights set on you.”
“Why go after me?”
Landon’s jaw worked overtime as he thought about his response. He kept his eyes trained on our path through the house, going past the kitchens and to the stairs before he finally stopped and looked at me. “Because he thinks he can hurt us by eliminating you.”
“Oh.” I chewed on the inside of my lip, warring with myself over asking more, but I couldn’t help myself. “Can he?”
“No.”
He answered so quickly, I didn’t have time to prepare myself for the sting. But that one word pierced through my protective outer shell and sank into the softer flesh hidden beneath it.
I couldn’t deny it then.
Despite my best efforts not to, I’d started to care.
Landon, of course, noticed my reaction and wouldn’t let me hide it from him. He gripped my chin and forced me to meet his gaze. “Not in the way he wants to hurt us.”
Staring up at him, I warred with myself. I wanted to ask what that meant. But I wasn’t sure I wanted to do anything with the knowledge— if he even gave it to me—so instead, I just nodded.
He let go of my chin, and we continued on up the stairs to the hallway where the Knights’ rooms were. As we walked to the end of the hall, I thought through what he’d told me about The Quest and Max. It felt like he’d left out some serious bullet points in their shared history, but I also wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
I almost didn’t catch the sounds coming from behind their closed doors, but a girl crying out pulled my head up.
When she screamed, Landon’s arms came around my shoulder. I tried to get out of his grip, but he pulled me tighter against him, stopping in the middle of the hall and spinning me into his chest. His arms wrapped tighter, pinning mine to my sides.
“Landon,” I protested. “Let me go.”
“Just wait.” He growled as I battered his side with my fists, but he didn’t let me go. “Trust, Maiden. I’m asking for your trust.”
He didn’t say it, but he asked for what he’d given me downstairs.
I stopped fighting him.
But when the girl’s screams grew louder, my discomfort became more insistent. As if sensing that, Landon hitched my body up higher against his chest.
He leaned down and whispered in my ear. “She has her safe words, just like you do.”
The deep rumble of his voice and warm breath against my skin combined at just the mention of my safe words sent a wave of arousal through me. But it hit me what he was saying—he thought her cries were from pleasure. He assumed they were consensual.
“The girls think using their safe words makes them weak,” I argued. “At the Maiden’s Luncheon, some of them were scared of being punished or eliminated.”
His jaw clenched where it pressed against my cheek. “It’s not supposed to be like that. And I promise I’ll address it with Kingston, but I know Gavin and his history with his Maiden. This isn’t…It’s not the first time for them, or the rest of us within earshot. The Quest, I mean.”
“Oh.”
That information changed things, at least, for the moment. Suddenly, knowing the sounds coming from their room truly were consensual, it became impossible not to imagine what they were doing. I couldn’t help but think of the different ways a Knight might draw out that kind of response from his Maiden.
My nipples hardened.
Which was unfortunate, since they were pressed against Landon’s chest.
He pulled back, his attention snagging on my breasts. “Her Knight is also particularly skilled at reading his Maiden’s reactions. He knows when to ease up…” His gaze traveled up the column of my throat to my mouth. “And when to push and go harder.”
A tiny gasp escaped me, my lips parting as his eyes locked on mine.
“Just like I do.”
Breathing heavily, we stared at each other as her cries dissolved into drawn out moans. My face flooded with heat at the same time as arousal pooled between my thighs.
Landon studied my reactions, his eyes darkening.
“Does it turn you on?” His lips curved as he brought them to the shell of my ear. “Knowing what he’s doing to her? Hearing her pleasure?”
I bit my lip and nodded.
“Tell me.”
“Yes,” I breathed. “Yes, it turns me on.”
“Does it make you wonder what it might feel like? To have your own limits tested?”
I couldn’t admit exactly how much it intrigued me. But thankfully, Landon offered me an out—a way to deny the truth building to a crest inside me.
“Or maybe it just makes you more open to the thought of preparing? Training with me for what you’ll be up against next?”
“Yes. I want—” I swallowed deeply, wetting my lips as my ears filled with the sounds of pleasure that could be mine. “I want you to prepare me for the next challenge. I’m ready.”
His pupils dilated as my tongue darted out to wet my lips. Every muscle in his body coiled tighter around me. And desire pulsed between my thighs. Even as I denied the full truth to him, I couldn’t lie to myself anymore.
I wanted him, and I was ready.
“I’m ready to be your good girl now.”
He crushed me in his grip before he quickly released me, swallowing deeply as he stared into my eyes. “Well, then it’s time we do this properly.”
Guiding me to his bedroom door, he gestured for me to go inside. Once I did, he let the door shut heavily behind me. His voice rumbled in my ear and sent a shiver down my spine as he pressed his body against mine.
“Welcome to The Quest, Maiden.”
“Can I ask you something?”
From where Landon stood at the end of the bed, securing my ankle into a padded cuff, he turned toward me. His fingers paused in their task of fastening the restraint. But they brushed my skin idly as he waited for my question—something I had noticed he often did without thinking about it.
I gestured to my restrained ankle. “How does this help me win The Quest?”
He chuckled softly, returning to his task and binding the cuff with the Velcro closure. “Do you want me to tell you?” Tugging on the strap secured under his bed, he pulled my leg taut. “Or do you want me to show you?”
My breath caught in my throat.
Landon smirked before walking to the other end of the bed. His fingers wrapped around my free ankle. But when he grabbed the other cuff, he didn’t immediately strap me in.
He jerked my leg toward him. “I asked you a question, Maiden?”
I huffed. “Fine. Show me.”
He arched an eyebrow, his grip tightening slightly.
“Show me, please. Sir.”
I caved far too quickly under that tiny fraction of pressure, and if I hadn’t already suspected it, I would’ve known then I was in trouble. If he only had to tighten his grip to get me to answer him like a submissive, what the hell else could he get me to do?
If he increased the force of his command, would I comply even faster—whatever the ask?
My inner voice practically panting yes concerned me.
But I couldn’t dwell on it because, at my response, Landon had quickly fastened the second ankle cuff. When he pulled tight on the strap, my butt slid forward, and I fell back on the mattress.
Propping myself up on my elbows, I glared at him.
But he didn’t see it.
His eyes fixed on my bare legs as he circled the bedpost and came to stand between my very spread, bare legs. Hardly covered by the black satin negligee as it was, if the damn thing rode up any farther, my matching black thong would be fully on display.
Landon seemed to realize that as well.
As he traced a line from my ankle up to the apex of my thighs, my core tightened, and the air rushed from my lungs. But I didn’t squirm or try to shield myself—even though I still could. I wanted to tell myself it was because resisting seemed futile, but that would be a lie.
I didn’t hate the way it felt to have his eyes on me—even though I still shouldn’t want them there. It grew harder to remember why I had to hold myself back the longer he stared at me. And the darker his eyes became.
“Most of the other Knights think twenty-one days of sex is enough to keep their Maiden from giving into temptation at Pendragon.”
He came around the bedpost, one hand stroking the solid wood as his other reached into his pocket. Pulling out a red tie, he draped it over my bare thigh. As he dragged the silk up my body, it trailed between my legs and up my stomach.
And when it teased over my peaked nipple, my back arched reflexively.
He looped his end around my neck and let it fall between the valley of my breasts. I watched the crimson fabric rise and fall with the rapid pace of my breathing.
Landon’s hand cupped the back of my head, tilting it up so I had to look at him. “Twenty-one days of orgasms, however mind-blowing, don’t guarantee loyalty.”
“They don’t?”
At that moment, I had a strong feeling they wouldn’t hurt the guy’s chances. But Landon shook his head. His other hand came up to my chest, and he eased my body back onto the bed.
“When the offer for the same thing is on the table in front of you? Practically begging you to give in…On hands and knees promising you a world of pleasure…And fully prepared to give it to you?”
He swept my hair out from under my shoulders before laying my head down and letting me go. I ached at the loss of his touch almost instantly.
“You’d be strong enough to last a day. Maybe three or four. But six days with temptation staring you in the face?”
I swallowed, my mouth going dry as three very different and equally tempting images came to mind. It felt nearly impossible to imagine resisting.
My stubborn pride hated that.
“I told you, Landon. I came here to win. I want it more than anything. Or anyone.”
“So you’ve said.” He smiled at the set of my jaw. “Let’s test that theory, shall we?”
I lifted my chin. “Do your worst.”
He climbed onto the bed, throwing his leg over my body and straddling me without warning. “I’ll set the timer on my watch. Say you yield before it goes off and the test is over—I win. Outlast me and the timer—you win. Deal?”
“And you can’t cross the line? Whatever the hell that means, considering you’re on top of me?”
“It means no part of my body can touch anywhere on yours outside of your arms and legs up to mid-thigh. Nothing under a dress, nothing above the neck. Deal?”
“Can you order me to touch you? If so, where?”
His lips twitched. “Nothing under the shorts. No…Erogenous zones.”
He held himself steady over my body, arching a brow as if waiting for my next question. The tension in his thighs distracted me, but I thought through what he said and nodded.
“I say I yield and you win. Outlast you and I win. Deal.”
“Deal.”
He started the timer on his watch.
Resting his forearms on either side of my head, he slowly lowered down. “Oh, and if you give in and ask me to touch you before the timer goes off, I still win…” His face hovered an inch away from mine, his lips curling into a wicked grin. “But I’ll make you come so hard you’ll scream.”
My hips lifted on instinct, and I sucked in a quick breath. He held himself above me, his body rolling slowly as his mouth came inches away from my neck, collarbone, and breasts. Showing me how he’d move on top of me—what he’d do while he was inside me—if I said yes.
Pressing my back into the mattress, my mouth parted and eyes fixed on his lips. “That’s playing dirty.”
“That’s exactly what you’ll be up against.” He continued to tempt me, staring at all the places he wasn’t allowed to touch, with a hunger in his eyes that made no attempt to hide how much he wanted it.
Wanted me.
The confidence I’d felt about outlasting him a few minutes ago evaporated slowly. It vanished completely when his first command left his lips. His warm, quiet breaths fanned my cheek as he leaned in close to my ear.
“Undress me.”