Chapter 38 #2
My wrathful little wolf.
How fiercely she protected me.
“You will need to get in line.” I pressed a kiss to her throat, relishing how she trembled, that shiver that wracked her goading me into pressing another and then another, following the gentle curve of her neck up to her ear.
“Stop that,” she muttered half-heartedly. “We aren’t alone.”
“You do not mean that,” I purred into her ear, “and when has that ever stopped us?”
I could almost feel the blush that scalded her cheeks as her mind went down wicked avenues.
“If you’re trying to persuade me to come home, it’s not working.” She tilted her head to one side, granting me better access to her throat, not exactly the action of a female who was not enjoying the attention of her male. She whispered, “I’m staying.”
“I know, little wolf. I have already admitted defeat.” I trailed my lips along the sweet curve of her jaw. “Now I am simply enjoying the spoils of being so thoroughly defeated by you and forced to endure a terrible confinement in your court.”
She playfully slapped the back of my head. “It’s not my court.”
I made a low noise in my throat that was somewhere between disagreement and a wicked hunger to ravish her.
I had gone so very long without her after all.
“It’s not my court,” she said again, as if trying to convince herself.
Because she did not like that she was part seelie, bound to a court that had taken so much from me.
“No, I suppose it is not. It is only your court by blood, not by choosing. It is not your home.” I reluctantly drew back, needing to see her eyes and study them for any sign she did not believe me.
“Your home is the Shadow Court. That is your court. Your presence here is merely a mission, acting as my spy in the heart of it.”
She smiled a mischievous little smile. “I like the sound of that. Saphira Harper, master spy.”
“I thought you might.” I pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose, to her brow and then to a spot close to her mouth to taunt her and make her want to kiss me. I murmured against that spot, “Convince me to let you stay.”
“I thought I already conquered you?” She taunted me with a kiss to my cheek, so close to where I wanted her lips, turning my game against me, and then she pulled back, deadly serious again as she frowned at me.
“Are you sure you’re okay with this? You have to stay here.
You have to stay hidden. No running around the court and getting yourself captured. ”
“You have my vow.” I bowed my head. “I shall not move from this spot.”
She did not look as if she believed me.
“I can do it, you know. I was doing it just fine before you came along. I want that on the record.” That unyielding glint in her eyes commanded me to agree with her.
I did so willingly.
“I admit, I want to protect you and shield you from further harm, and perhaps even pull you away from the danger of this court and the other heirs. It is a war I will need to fight daily, and at times I might be in danger of surrendering to my somewhat wrathful urges, but…” I framed her face, tilting her head back to keep her eyes on me.
“But I believe in your strength and your courage, and your cunning. Strength that a very handsome fae king nurtured in you, courage said beautiful fae king provoked to the surface, and cunning the most wonderful fae king encouraged at every turn.”
She rolled her eyes, so dramatic, but that small smile that tugged at her lips gave her away, speaking to me of how she enjoyed my company.
“I trained you for this task, Saphi, and now you want to carry it out, and I find I cannot deny you.” I brushed my thumbs across her cheekbones. “But I require something from you if I am to remain here, patiently waiting for scraps of your company, no doubt bored out of my mind.”
“What?” She raked a heated look over me. “Because if it’s sex, I am totally onboard with that.”
I chuckled and shook my head. “We shall fuck soon, little wolf, no doubt about that… but I require something else. A vow that you will not stop me from coming to you if you are in danger, that I will be allowed to come to you and keep you safe. I cannot allow harm to come to you again. I cannot stand by and let someone hurt you.”
She raised her hands to frame my face, mirroring me. “I won’t stop you, I won’t hold you back, because I would hate it if you did the same to me when you were the one in danger.”
“Swear that if you find yourself in danger, you will not hesitate to run to me.” I did not realise how much hinged on that promise, how fiercely I needed to hear her say she would come to me so I could be her shield and her sword, until the words fell from my lips.
“I promise I will… because I’ve seen that you told me the truth, in part.
Some seelie are not cruel, but rather kind, and warm.
But others… they are as vicious and violent as some unseelie can be…
” She trailed off, something surfacing in her eyes that provoked my darker side, drawing it to the fore because I wanted to banish that hurt and that pain, and that fear.
I wanted to vanquish it. Her brow furrowed as she whispered, “I’m one of them.
Sylvan wasn’t lying about my father… and I don’t really know what that means for us. ”
I pulled her into my arms, cupping the back of her head to hold her to me, and whispered, “It is not the first time an unseelie has loved a seelie, and it most likely will not be the last.”
She drew back, gazing up at me as if she needed to see that truth in my eyes.
I did not hide it from her.
Instead, I held her close and teleported with her, away from the dragon, away from the castle, to an area of the forest that was quiet and beautiful, where we could be alone.
Where I could put voice to what was in my heart.
“There was another reason I needed to see you.” I pressed my finger to her lips to silence her when she looked as if she might mention my need of her again.
“It is something I should have told you sooner. Something you deserved to hear sooner. Something I feared I would never get the chance to tell you.”
Her blue eyes shimmered, bewitching me.
Stealing my heart all over again.
I brought my forehead to hers, holding her close to me, that heart expanding to fill my chest as I husked three words I had never said to anyone before her, three words that did not feel strong enough to convey the depth of the feeling that burned within me like an eternal flame, but I knew they would to her.
“I love you.”