Chapter 11 #3
For a moment, I let myself be swayed by this unfamiliar feeling of adoration. I want to fall into this, into him. I want to be in love and blind to all consequences.
But I’m not that person anymore. And I’m not willing to sacrifice the woman I’ve become to live in a fantasy. I don’t trust my father’s intentions for arranging this marriage, and I can’t allow myself to get distracted. I need to uncover the Fox King’s secrets. If I don’t, no one else will.
Hunter opens his deep brown eyes and stares into mine.
He pulls me closer, so close I can feel his heart beating next to mine.
My body is aware of every inch of his skin beneath his clothes, from the firm muscles pressed against my softer flesh, to the ragged breath that causes his chest to rise and fall.
He leans his face down toward mine. “Sienna.” His voice is deep with longing.
Despite everything, I give in to the wave of desire that surges inside of me.
Hunter kisses me deeply, and the world falls away.
I melt into him instinctively, my arms winding around his neck as if I’ve done this a thousand times before.
His lips are soft and warm, and the way they move against mine makes my heart ache with a bittersweet, homesick kind of longing.
Something deep inside me stirs, hungry and impatient.
I’m no stranger to intimacy. I’ve been taking herbs to prevent pregnancy since I was old enough to learn what they are.
I’ve had my fun in the hay bales with clumsy boys who didn’t know where to put their hands.
I’ve let battle-shocked soldiers in the borderlands fumble against me in the dark, desperate to feel alive.
They never really saw me, and I never let them.
It was touch for the sake of touching, shallow and fleeting in the shadows.
It was a way to forget the horrors of war.
But this … this is altogether different.
My fingers grasp the front of Hunter’s shirt, clutching him closer, as if his body is the only thing keeping me from coming undone.
Our kisses grow more desperate, the air between us charged.
This is scandalous and, if truth be told, a long time coming—and there’s no one here to see us.
Warmth grows inside me, pooling in a low, delicious ache. I want this. I want him.
He leans down to kiss along the curve of my neck, and I shiver.
I grab his hair in my fist, urging him to kiss harder.
Something in me longs to feel the bite of teeth on my skin, the sting of need.
I tilt my chin up to expose the length of my neck.
He brushes his lips along my racing pulse, and I moan.
My breath comes out in ragged bursts as I shift my hips against his, feeling a delicious thrill at his hard length. He moans against my lips, and the power I have over him makes my entire body flush hotter.
Hunter guides me several steps backward until my spine presses against the stone mausoleum wall.
I gasp at the shock of cold, but it only makes the fire inside of me burn hotter.
There’s a delicious, aching need that’s tightening inside me.
I wrap one leg around Hunter’s waist, my skirts falling to expose my skin to the cool air.
He grips my thigh and digs his fingers into my flesh.
The pain makes my lust ignite, growing into an uncontrollable blaze inside of me.
I tighten my fist in his golden hair, desperate for more pressure. More heat and friction.
Every thought disappears, and I am left breathless. I am lost in this flurry of passion that feels too strong for me to stop ... until I open my eyes. Through the mausoleum window, my mother’s marble statue stares down at us, haloed in moonlight.
What am I doing? I’m forgetting who I am, what I stand for. And what must be done.
I release him and turn my head away from his desperate kisses.
His eyes are unfocused, his lips swollen, his cheeks flushed.
But Hunter is every bit the gallant knight—he doesn’t press me, doesn’t try to reason or coax.
He leans one hand on the wall behind my head and for a few moments we both pant, collecting ourselves.
We listen to the night around us as we wait for our beating hearts to settle.
“Too fast,” he says, misinterpreting my reluctance to continue.
“Yes,” I whisper.
He leans his forehead against mine again. “I’ll wait for you. As long as it takes.”
And what if it takes forever? I think, but don’t say.
When I look into his chestnut eyes, there’s a sincerity there that’s startling.
He deserves a nice girl. One who will be content being his wife and having his babies, not one who sneaks into dungeons and brings the wrath of the king wherever she goes.
This man will follow me to the edge of the world before he would find another, better girl to love.
But I can’t let that happen. I can’t drag him down with me.
Someday, I will have to hurt Hunter. Badly.
I just hope I’m strong enough to do it.