Chapter 22
Fawn couldn’t shake Cali’s taunting about Dean allowing her to stay in the palace. Why hadn’t he moved her out yet? Fawn couldn’t think of a single good reason he’d let her stay.
Violet had left after the Cali debacle to meet her friends Lydia and Veronica, hugging Fawn tight before disappearing down the street with Ares.
Dean had caught up with Fawn and the others, glamoured to look like a different man so as not to draw too much attention to their group.
To her annoyance, the king was incapable of being unattractive.
His current disguise had dark brown hair and a handsome face.
Not as striking as his real one, but still unfairly handsome.
To Fawn’s amazement, he stayed back with Braddock, allowing her room to breathe.
She prayed he hadn’t caught her inner turmoil before she shoved it down and tried to banish Cali’s words until they were alone.
By his inquiring expression aimed her way, she surmised he knew she hid something.
She needed time to prepare herself for the dreaded conversation.
In her peripheral, Dean whispered something to Braddock, who responded with a nod. The king waved his friend off, returned his eyes to Fawn, and winked when he caught her looking.
He’d seen her naked, yet he still had the ability to make her blush from head to toe like a schoolgirl. Her mate had too much charm for his own good.
“Can we grab dinner in town?” Naomi asked Dean and Braddock. “I’m starving.”
Monroe floated to Braddock’s side and gave his husband the best doe eyes Fawn had ever seen. “I’m craving pasta from the tavern by the pleasure house.”
He blinked his rounded eyes, and Braddock melted. “I’ll take you.”
“Pasta does sound good,” Fawn agreed, as did Naomi. Their group stepped on to the cobblestone walkway and followed Braddock and Monroe toward the south end of the street.
Dean grabbed Fawn’s hand and pulled her into a side alley. “I need to speak with you. We’ll catch up with them later.”
She distanced herself from him and flicked her hand toward him. “Speak.”
He tilted his lips into a half-cocked smile. “Plotting a second murder attempt already?” Dean grinned wide at her slitted eyes. “If this is how you like to play, I’ll need to wear a thin layer of armor to bed.”
He wiggled his eyebrows, and she pursed her lips to keep from laughing. “What is this about?”
He prowled forward and backed her against the stone wall. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
Fawn placed her hand on his chest to keep him at arm’s length. “We can speak about this when we’re back in our rooms.”
“No. Look at me, darling, and tell me what you’re feeling.” He tapped his chest. “You cut me off and it’s driving me mad.”
Fawn dreaded the conversation, but it had to happen. If he couldn’t wait until they were back, she’d settle for storming down a sidewalk instead of out of a room when things went sour. “Why is Cali still living at the palace, and when is she leaving?”
The muscle along his jaw fluttered and his grey eyes stared at her with an inner conflict she didn’t understand.
She concentrated on the faint tingle of emotions from her mate, horrified to discover guilt and remorse …
or sadness. It was hard to tell. Had he lied to her about being in love with Cali?
No. That couldn’t be right, but why else would her question make him feel guilty and sad?
Fawn thought she’d have felt his deception down the bond, but she was proof that emotions could be hidden.
Say something, she begged silently . Tell me she’s leaving soon instead of looking like I asked you to strangle a kitten.
Silence.
Backing away wasn’t an option, so she shoved him as hard as she could. His big body didn’t move at her attempts to push him away, and she felt like a cornered animal. With more force, she tried to push him again, but he snagged both of her wrists in one of his large hands.
“Stop. Whatever you’re thinking, you’re wrong,” he said and brought her hands to his mouth to kiss.
His silence infuriated her, and she jabbed her bound fists forward, clipping his mouth.
Instead of dropping her wrists like she’d intended, he held tighter.
“There’s my girl.” His affectionate smile tempted her to hit him again.
Shoving down her true feelings, she slumped her shoulders, hoping to sway him into pitying her. “Please. I want to leave.”
Wrong thing to say. Damn it.
Dean yanked her arms above her head and pinned them to the wall.
The tip of his nose ran from her temple to her jaw and back until his lips were hovering at her ear.
“What did I tell you about threatening to leave me?” She twisted against his hold, but his other hand bit into the soft flesh of her hip to hold her still. “You won’t escape me, darling.”
She’d meant leave the alley , not leave him. “That’s not what I meant. Let me go.”
How many times had she asked him to release her in some capacity since their initial meeting, and at what point would she be considered a hostage? When you truly want to leave , a pesky voice whispered in the back of her mind.
“Cali has to stay,” Dean said, his tone maddeningly cryptic.
Fawn waited for the remainder of the explanation that never came. She stared at him, trying to discern if he truly thought that answer was enough to pacify her. “ Why ?” she demanded.
“I need her,” he said after a beat.
Need her? Jealousy crawled over her skin like ivy, wrapping every nerve. The tight grip she had on her emotions shattered as she sneered, “If you want her around so much, then you have no need for me.”
Maybe she would leave after all.
Dean felt an ugly pulse twist their bond, and realization struck.
He grinned, unable to help the satisfaction coursing through his veins and straight to his cock.
Fawn was jealous. He’d never antagonize her to this extent on purpose, but seeing his mate lose her carefully guarded composure was a heady aphrodisiac.
“Are you jealous?” he purred into her ear and jerked back when she tried to knock his skull with her own.
“I’m not jealous,” she lied. “I’m fucking furious.
You hid your fiancé from me after going on and on about marrying me.
Every time she crosses my path, she does her best to humiliate me.
She lives in our fucking home , and you have the audacity to tell me the only reason she is around is because you need her? Fuck you.”
Her admission stunned him. He would have captured her lips in a bruising kiss if he didn’t think she’d try to rip a chunk out of his face with her teeth. His chest burned with his own emotion, the one he dared not voice, and he laughed, too happy to contain it. “ Our home,” he murmured.
Fawn stopped struggling, brows drawn. “What? Did you hear anything I said?”
“You called it our home.” He smiled like a fool and gave in to the urge to kiss her.
She indeed bit him— hard . He hissed and pulled back with a bloody smile. “You admitted your home is with me.”
Fawn’s weary confused eyes scanned his face. “Are you insane?”
“Yes.” He pecked her nose, and she tried to head butt him again, ripping another laugh from his chest. “Darling, I don’t want her around.
I can’t kick her out for political reasons—not because I want her.
” He treaded thin ice saying as much as he did, but fuck, he couldn’t let Fawn think he wanted anyone but her.
“I never wanted Cali. The way she treated you killed whatever flimsy friendship we had.”
Fawn huffed. “I’ll not endure her treatment in my own home. She might have to stay, but she doesn’t need a functioning nose to do so.”
My own home . He needed to have her completely. Now . Her fierceness and willingness to trust him with little to go on touched him in ways he’d never felt before. “Do you still want me to fuck you?”
Everything quieted except her rapid breathing. His mate’s eyes flicked to his lips, and she licked her own. She sniffed and lifted defiant eyes to his. “It’s the least you can do to apologize.”
“Oh, darling, I’ll apologize as many times as you want. But I need to glamour you as someone else, unless you’d prefer us both invisible.”
When he pictured their first time together, it hadn’t been in an alleyway, but he couldn’t wait, and by the looks of her, neither could she.
“Glamour me,” she whispered. “I don’t mind if people watch.” He nearly came undone then and there.
Others would see someone else, but luckily for him, he could see through his own glamour. He’d never be able to create another woman as beautiful as her.
Dean released her wrists and backed away. Fawn rubbed them with annoyance, and his lips twitched to hold back another smile. “Take off your dress,” he ordered and waited to see his mate’s lush secrets.
She removed her dress in a sensual rhythm like it was second nature, her fingers following the fabric as it slipped down, skimming over her skin. With every inch she revealed, he vowed to forsake the gods and worship her until the day they died. Even then he’d kneel at her altar in the beyond.
Fawn freed herself of the last cloth barrier, standing in only her new sandals she’d purchased today, and Dean closed the distance between them in two strides.
He dropped to his knees where he belonged in her presence and caressed her hips, one hand gliding around to cup her cheek, the other venturing to the warm paradise he’d dreamed about since tasting her for the first time.
The pad of his finger grazed across her clit and through her folds until it reached his personal heaven. Her soft gasp morphed into a moan as he slipped his digit inside. “Dean,” she whispered, tilting her hips to urge him deeper.
Releasing her ass, he ran his hand over her thigh and lifted it over his shoulder. The sight of her glistening pussy taking his finger snapped the last of his resolve. He removed his hand and buried his head in her soaked cunt, running the tip of his tongue along her sensitive skin.
Her swollen clit begged to be sucked, but he needed to taste her more. His tongue thrust inside of her body, sliding easily into her dripping heat.
She cursed and pressed her hips against his face. “More. Fuck, please, more.”
He grabbed her hips and tugged her against his face until breathing was a chore, fucking her relentlessly. His nose bumped against her clit with every stroke, and she moaned long and loud, grasping his hair with one hand.
“Gods, Dean.” Her cries grew louder. Good. Let them hear. Let them see his queen fall apart.
He couldn’t get enough of her, and his fingers pressed into her soft flesh hard enough to bruise. Silken walls quivered around his tongue, and he hummed against her. “Come for me, darling.”
Her orgasm ricocheted through him as if it were his own and he moaned against her.
He moved quickly to suck her clit, prolonging her pleasure until she shook her head and shuddered with a smaller orgasm.
Dean switched back to her entrance to savor every drop of her cum until she melted against the wall.
Lowering her leg, he stood, never letting his hands leave her body. His fingers brushed over her hardened nipples, and she jolted. “Are you ready?”
Her glassy eyes met his. “Gods, yes.”
Dean dipped his head to kiss her and reached between them to undo his pants. She broke the kiss and forced his hand away. “Let me.”
He wanted to kiss her again, but she bent her head to focus on his buttons, and he had half a mind to rip them off. Needing to touch her, he tucked her hair behind her ear and kissed the rounded shell. “I wish you wouldn’t hide these.”
Fawn’s fingers paused and he wanted to kick himself for bringing it up. “Okay,” she said in a soft, raspy voice and continued unbuttoning.
She freed his cock with a triumphant smile men went to war for and wrapped her smooth hand around the shaft. He lurched forward and hoisted her into his arms, unable to wait a second longer.
A movement out of the corner of his eye caught both their attention and they turned to see two men watching them with interest. “Are you ready to give them a show, darling?”
Fawn smirked. “Fuck me like you mean it, sweetheart .”
He quirked a brow. “That’s eleven. If you keep this up, you won’t sit for a week.”
Confusion crossed her face, but he slammed into her before she could reply. She gasped and dug her nails into his shoulders. “Too big. I—it hurts.”
“You were made to fit me, darling.” Her pussy choked his dick like a vise, and his eyes rolled back. “Fuck, baby, you take me so well.” He slid his cock out until only the tip remained inside her. “Look how perfect you are all swollen, and red, dripping for me.”
Her head lifted from the wall and bent to watch as he buried himself again. “Shit,” she breathed. Dean thrust harder, and she squeezed around him on a moan. “ Yes .”
“You’re going to look pretty leaking my cum down those beautiful thighs.
” His hips moved faster, and her heavy eyes locked in on his.
He reached up, hips still thrusting, and tangled his fingers in her hair, licking and kissing along her throat.
“I’m going to fill every bit of you until all you smell like is me. ”
Fawn moaned, moving her hips against his.
Her walls fluttered, and he released her hair to strum her clit.
“ Oh .” She screamed his name and clawed at his shirt, her cum coating his cock.
His balls tightened, cords straining in his neck, and he released, filling her cunt until it leaked down her thighs.
One of the men watching whistled and said something obscene. He worried she would regret their public display or hide from embarrassment, but his mate forever surprised him. She turned to the men and blew them a kiss.
If he hadn’t already loved her, that would have pushed him over the edge.