Chapter 35
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
The urgency in Weston’s voice is unmistakable.
His tone isn’t foreign to me, and it makes my spine stiffen.
I don’t question his command and instead keep my expression blank and do what he said.
Something tipped him off, making him concerned for my safety.
I don’t know what it was. Nothing I heard or saw gave me any pause, but he’s different.
This is his duty, his training, his responsibility, and I know he is being even more vigilant than normal after what happened days ago.
Weaving through the hallways, I never slow, and instead speed up just slightly.
Weston matches my pace, and I feel a flash of relief when my door comes into sight.
My composed facade falls the moment I step through the doorway, and I spin around, the fabric of the large skirt rustling just as the lock slams back into place.
“What’s wro—”
Weston’s lips crash into mine, cutting my words off and stealing my breath away. His hands wrap around my face, and his thumb presses into my chin, gently coaxing my mouth open. I sigh into his kiss, and it’s obvious how wrong I was.
His voice wasn’t filled with urgency out of protection.
It was out of desire.
His tongue dives into my mouth, insistently stroking against mine and a flicker of longing lights inside of me.
The last time he kissed me like this was when we stood on the deck of his ship, right before we came home.
Too much has happened since then, and I could tell he was being gentle with me after all the abuse my body endured.
Something changed his mind.
That flicker of desire blazes when he turns me around, never breaking the kiss even as he walks me backward until my back hits the wall next to the door.
His lips and tongue are demanding, his grip possessive as he presses his body into mine.
I fist the uniform at his sides, and tug him closer, encouraging him even more.
When he tears his mouth away from mine, I have to gasp for a breath.
My chest heaves, pushing against his torso as he presses fierce kisses into my jaw before trailing them down my neck.
“I don’t think I have ever wanted to fuck you more, my queen,” he growls into my skin.
“I doubt that,” I get out between pants. His tongue swirls over a sensitive spot on my neck before he sucks it between his teeth, and I let out a low moan.
The responding chuckle is low and sultry, and I don’t know what to focus on. Between his demanding tongue and lips, the desire in his voice, and the pressure of his hands on my body, pushing me into the wall as firmly as he is gripping me, I’m completely overwhelmed.
“What did I do?” My voice is breathy as my chest rises and falls rapidly, trying to catch up to what he stole with his mouth moments ago.
“Exist.” He lets out a hot sigh against my skin before trailing his lips across my exposed collarbone.
“And then showed me that fire the I fell in love with.” I huff out a laugh and my head falls back, exposing more of my neck to him as he continues licking and sucking the skin down my chest. My back arches slightly, the movement involuntary the closer he gets to my breast, and I feel my hardened nipples rubbing against the tight bodice.
A low rumble from deep in his chest meets my ears as soon as he notices the shift of my body. “I can’t decide if I like it better directed at someone else, or at me. Might have to test it a few more times so I can decide.”
Unrelenting hands slide across the bodice of my dress to the back, and I feel myself tugged away from the wall, just enough to give his hands space.
The bodice loosens barely a moment later, the top falling forward and exposing my peaked nipples over the edge.
My back presses into the wall once again, as one hand splays across the front of my hip, holding me in place as he nips at the skin on the top of my breast.
“Did you take your pain tonic this morning?” he asks as he straightens to his full height, his eyes scanning mine waiting for an answer.
“Yes.” I don’t look away. I’m being honest, I took it, the same as I have every morning and evening since the incident in the throne room, but I know it’s the exact answer he’s looking for. I know he’s tired of treating me like I’m going to break, but he still doesn’t want me to be in any pain.
His eyes darken as he slowly closes the space between us.
“Good girl.”
The free hand fists in the hair at the nape of my neck, tugging gently to angle my head to his before his lips find mine again. Our tongues dance together as he continues to devour me, as if he never stopped, as if he will cease to exist if he doesn’t consume me.
My skin buzzes with anticipation as the hand on my hip slides up my stomach before wrapping around the top of my dress, and yanking it down further loosening it.
Deft fingers find my hardened nipple, and I hum against his tongue, just before he rolls it firmly between his finger and thumb causing heat to pool between my thighs.
I moan into his mouth and he breaks away with a low chuckle.
“Shh,” he says against my lips. “Someone will hear you.”
My head feels hazy, and I can barely focus on his words instead of the touch of his hand. His fingers release my nipple, leaving my heavy breasts falling out of the top of my dress, as his hand slides down the front of my dress, his fingers fisting the fabric as he bunches up the skirt.
He seals his lips over mine again, but when his soft command finally registers in my mind, I shake my head and push him away.
“Doesn’t that feel wrong?”
My whole body shudders as his fingers find my skin beneath the hem of my bunched dress. The barest brush of his fingertips up my inner thigh turns my insides molten, making it almost impossible to focus on what I was saying.
“Nothing with you ever feels wrong, Lennox.” His teal eyes bore into mine, and I latch onto them and stare back.
“That’s not what I mean.”
There’s a flash of hurt in his eyes. “Then what do you mean?”
The hurt is replaced by darkened desire once again as his fingers slide beneath the lace edge of my undergarments above my thigh, and a shuddering breath escapes my chest.
“I don’t like hiding.”
The muscle in his cheek flickers as he clenches his jaw.
“You know that if anyone finds out that an unmarried queen is fucking her guard, it will diminish any future marriage prospects. I will not do anything that will jeopardize your opportunities as queen, especially if it is for the good of the kingdom. I’m not worth that. ”
My eyes widen in shock but also anger. “You’re not—” I sputter, but he presses a finger to my lips.
“In whatever way you’ll have me. That was my promise. I intend to keep it.”
Pushing his arm away from my face, glare at him. “I’m the queen. I can do what I want and change any tradition or rule that I want. My father didn’t marry for an alliance, so why would the queen be required to?”
He lets out a breath through his nose. “No, he didn’t. But you’re not your father. Do what you think is best for the kingdom.”
I fist the shirt at his chest again, holding him firmly and looking him square in the eye, pleading with him to understand all the emotion and love behind my words. “But you’re what’s best for me.”
He shakes his head, his eyes squeezing shut like it pains him to even think about the consequences of any decision. When his eyes fly open a moment later, every feeling his gaze held is gone, and the desire I get lost in is back in place.
“That’s enough talking,” he grumbles, and his mouth presses into mine, his tongue filling me so even if I tried, I couldn’t speak anymore.
Pleasure and anticipation throbs through my core as his hand finally slips beneath the lace and finds the wet heat at the apex of my thighs.
“You’re already soaked for me,” he grumbles as his fingers stroke me tenderly.
My body screams for him to fill me, to press inside and touch me where I want him most. Pleading for any bit of pressure, my back arches and my hips press into his hand, but he pulls back as far as the fabric will allow, refusing to give me what I want.
His tongue dives deep, silencing a whimper as a single finger circles just inside my entrance, making my whole body jolt.
My knees weaken, threatening to buckle beneath me.
Grabbing hold of the corded muscle in both of his arms, I squeeze tightly, holding myself upright as my mind spins, lost in all the sensation.
The moment two fingers press inside me, he breaks the kiss, his jaw clenching as he watches my head fall back in pleasure. When they curl inside me, stroking something that sends lightning shooting through my spine, I can’t stop the cry that rips from my throat.
“That wasn’t quiet, my queen.”
“I don’t care,” I gasp and squeeze his arms tighter. “Fuck.” The heel of his palm presses into me and rubs rhythmically with the slow slide of his fingers that continue to curl against me, pressing firmly before sliding out again.
Without stopping the delicious pleasure from his fingers, his other arm snakes down, looping under my knee and hiking my leg over his waist. Tilting my hips, he presses into me again, his fingers sinking impossibly deeper and his palm giving my throbbing clit even more pressure.
“Oh gods,” I moan, and force my eyelids to open, even just a little, so I can see if this is doing to him everything it’s doing to me.
And I do. I know he wants me. It’s clear in the darkness of his eyes, his widened pupils, and the firm set of his brow, but I also know he’s trying to distract me from whatever possibilities of the future that keep playing through his mind.
They plagued him back on Dawnlin, and it took me too long to get him to forget them all and accept me as just Lennox.
Not the queen of his kingdom, not the daughter of his friend.