Chapter 17 #2
Agnar glances up at me, a small smile touching his lips. “How did you know? With him?” He dips his chin toward Sterling.
I ponder those first few encounters, the tension and the anger and the unexpected pull I felt toward him even then. “I didn’t, not right away. It was…complicated.”
Sterling’s laugh is low and warm. “That about sums it up. Let’s just say we had a love-hate relationship for a while there.” He squeezes my hand, and I squeeze back. “But I always respected you and admired the way you kept fighting for what you wanted. No matter the consequences.”
A comfortable silence falls between us, and I realize with a start how far we’ve all come. From enemies and strangers to this. A queen, her prince, and their most trusted friend sitting together in the fading light, discussing love and future possibilities.
Agnar clears his throat. “Kind of thinking you two have missed your calling because I’ll be honest, I feel a thousand times better than when I walked into this room. And right now, I’m ready for this adventure I’m about to go on. With one of you. Which one will it be?”
Sterling and I exchange a glance. In that brief look, I see everything I need to know. His determination, his silent plea to let him protect me and our kingdom, his unwillingness to risk losing me again.
I dig my nails into my palms and release them. “Sterling goes.” I remain steady despite the flutter of anxiety in my chest. “Tomorrow. First light.”
Agnar nods, accepting the command of his queen and friend without question, though his eyes harbor a thousand questions about how we came to this choice.
Sterling leans over and presses a soft kiss to my temple. Tomorrow, at first light, he’ll leave me behind. But tonight, we still have each other. And somehow, that will have to be enough.
The door closes behind Agnar with a soft click that seems to echo in the sudden silence of our chambers.
Sterling’s eyes find mine from across the room. Their dark and questioning in the fading light. I’ve made my decision. He will leave tomorrow at dawn. I feel the distance between us—just a few steps but somehow vast—and I long to close it.
“Are you sure?” Sterling’s voice is a low rumble. “About me going instead of you?”
I cross over to him, breaching that small yet infinite gap.
My hands find their way to his face, tracing the strong line of his jaw, feeling the slight stubble that scratches pleasantly against my palms. “Yes. You’re the right choice.
The kingdom needs me here.” I swallow around the lump in my throat.
“But I will miss you. Every hour. Every minute. In every room you’re not in with me. ”
Something shifts in Sterling’s eyes, darkening them more. His hands tighten on my waist. A smile spreads across his face, not the polite one he shows to the court, but a different one altogether.
Hungry. Like he wants to devour me.
My breath arrests as my pulse speeds up.
“Well then. Sounds like I need to give you something to remember me by.” He takes my hand and tugs me toward our bed.
I follow willingly, heat burning in my core and spreading outward to my fingertips and toes. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly my body responds to him, like a flower angling toward the sun. “And what exactly did you have in mind, Your Highness?”
Sterling’s smile becomes predatory as he stops at the edge of the bed. He pulls me against him until we’re pressed together, his hardness evident against my stomach. “I think you know exactly what I have in mind, Your Majesty.”
Nimble fingers work the fastenings of my dress. I step back just enough to grant him better access and watch his face as he unwraps me like a precious gift. The yearning in his eyes feeds my own desire, stoking the fire that’s always smoldering between us.
When the bodice of my dress loosens, I ease the fabric down over my shoulders in a deliberately slow fashion. Sterling’s breath hitches as he tracks the fabric’s descent.
The gown pools at my feet, leaving me in my winter chemise.
“A memorable goodbye. Something to keep you warm during those long, lonely nights you’re gone.
” When I pull at the ties, the garment slides free, baring my breasts to Sterling’s heated gaze.
“A reminder of why you should return home. Quickly.”
His throat bobs before his eyes turn molten with his desire. His hands find my waist and slide up to cup my breasts, thumbs brushing over my nipples and hardening them into stiff peaks.
“You,” he growls, “are the most beautiful temptation I’ve ever faced. The only one I’ve never been able to resist.”
A soft laugh slips through my lips as my hands drift to his shirt. “Good thing, since you seem to resist so poorly.”
Sterling offers me that wild, open grin he only reveals in our most private moments. “I’d be a fool to resist at all. And yes, I was a fool back when I was still trying to.”
He steps back, yanking his shirt over his head in one fluid motion. The firelight plays across the planes of his chest, highlighting scars both old and new. A map of battles he fought and survived.
I reach out to trace a particularly jagged one that runs along his ribs, a reminder of how close I’ve come to losing him. “Promise you’ll come back to me.”
Sterling catches my hand, bringing it to his lips to press a kiss to my palm. “Always. Not even the gods themselves could keep me from you.”
I believe him. I must.
Though a small part of me hopes the gods don’t take his words as a challenge.
His hands fly to the front of his breeches, unfastening them quickly. “I’m more than happy to go a night without sleep, no matter how early we need to leave.”
As he straightens, fully naked now, I drink in the sight of him. All hard angles and powerful muscles that he’s earned through years of training.
My soldier. My prince. My very heart.
A delicious heat spreads through my entire body at the sight of his erect cock.
Our bodies collide with a familiar urgency. His ravenous, demanding mouth finds mine as his hands roam over my bare skin, igniting trails of fire wherever they touch.
I curl into him, greedy for more contact, more of him, more of everything he has to give.
Sterling walks me backward until my legs hit the edge of the bed, and he follows me down as I fall onto the mattress.
He grips his erection and lines himself up. “Brace yourself, love.”
The next instant, he drives into me, blasting all coherent thoughts from my head. I cry out at the sheer pleasure of him filling me, of his warm, solid body on top of mine. I clench around him, eliciting his low growl.
My nails rake down his back, my fingers glorying in the muscles shifting and bunching beneath his skin as he plunges inside me. With each thrust, the pleasure builds, tightening the coil in my low belly.
Our bodies settle into a perfect rhythm. We understand this dance well, knowing where to touch, how to move, what drives the other wild with need. Yet somehow, each time always feels new and thrilling.
His lips trace a path down my neck, lingering at the sensitive spot just below my ear in a way that has me gasping.
I thread my fingers through his silky dark hair, holding him close as his mouth continues its journey southward to my breasts.
When his tongue circles my nipple before drawing it into the heat of his mouth, I arch off the bed with a moan that would scandalize the court.
His answering growl is positively feral, vibrating against my skin while his hand slides down between my legs. He finds where we’re joined and gently bites my nipple. His fingers stroke and circle, increasing the tension inside me until I writhe beneath him, desperate for release.
I squeeze my eyes shut. “Sterling, yes. Fuck me. Just like that.”
“Such a filthy mouth.” His lips press a lingering kiss to mine. “Look at me. I want to watch those beautiful eyes when you come on my cock.”
I force my eyes open, meeting his gaze as his fingers continue to move. They find that bundle of nerves that shoots electric shocks of pleasure through my entire body. He tracks every pulse, every jerk.
The pressure compounds until finally it breaks, crashing over me in waves that leave me gasping his name into the charged air between us.
Moments later, Sterling follows me over the edge, his rhythm faltering as he buries his face in my neck.
A groan rips from deep in his chest. I hold him tight as he comes inside me, our bodies trembling together in the aftermath of our passion.
We lie tangled together, sweat cooling on our skin, hearts gradually slowing their frantic pace.
His breath tickles my neck as he presses more soft, lingering kisses to my skin. “I will come back to you. Nothing will keep me away for long.”
I tighten my arms around him as if I could physically prevent tomorrow’s dawn from separating us. “I know.” I do my best to ignore the fear still lurking in the corners of my heart. “I know you will.”
Sterling rolls to his side, bringing me with him so we’re facing each other, our legs still intertwined. He traces lazy patterns on my hip as we stare at each other in the dimming light, memorizing features we already know by heart. “We should sleep. Dawn will come too soon.”
I shake my head and scoot closer. “Not just yet. Sleep can wait a little longer.”
His smile is downright sinful as his cock hardens against my belly. “As you wish, Your Majesty.”