by Kiersten Fay
“It doesn’t?”
“Well, no, yeah, it does matter, and yes, I’m pissed and I can’t believe you—” She cut herself off and took a breath. “But it doesn’t matter now. It’s done. And it’s not what I need to talk to you about. I think someone hurt Thaddeus.”
Tristan shook his head, struggling to reconcile himself with the drastic shift in topic. “What?”
“I saw a bruise on his arm in the shape of a handprint.”
Tristan’s gut wrenched. “Are you certain? He was likely out in the forests on his own for a long while. Might it have been a fall that has caused this bruise?” He recalled coming home with a new bruise every day when he was a lad.
She shook her head. “It’s very distinctive.” She grabbed the spot above his wrist and demonstrated. “It’s made when someone grabs you and holds tight right here. So tight you think your arm will break.” The conviction in her eyes made him wonder if she had first-hand experience. “When it’s fresh, the whole area might be bruised, but after time, you will see three or four distinct marks across here where the fingers have dug in.”
Tristan wanted to scoop her up in his arms and promise no one would ever harm her like that again, but he didn’t think that would go over well just yet.
“Do you know anything about his parents?”
“No. Just that the father suggested he might have run away from home.”
She nodded, her eyes going distant. “Me and my brother used to run away when we could tell our father was nearing a rampage.”
He hated that she grew up with such fear. If this so-called father of hers were still living, he’d fly to Earth and change that fact directly.
“We would stay gone for hours and hours,” she continued. “It’s possible Thaddeus did the same but got lost and couldn’t find his way back.”
“Even if this is true, it is a big accusation to make.”
June crumbled a little. “I know. And I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but there are some red flags here that I can’t ignore. Such as his reaction to you and Leanora arguing. It frightened him. I just had to bring this to your attention because if anyone can do something about it, you can.”
Her expression settled into a businesslike mask. She turned as if to leave, but he caught her by the elbow. “Are we no’ to talk about us?”
He couldn’t stand it when sorrow clouded her eyes. “There is no us. We both knew this was temporary. You had fun. I had fun. Clearly your fiancée still wants you. So no harm no foul, I guess.” Again she made for the exit, and again he stopped her.
“I must have said it ten times this evening, but I will say it again.” With his finger hooked under her chin, he tilted her head so that she would look at him. The unshed tears in her eyes gutted him. “She is no’ my fiancée.”
“Officially, maybe not. But unofficially? From what I understand about politics, she is. Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“I should have. I know that. But when I’m with you, nothing else matters.”
She shook her head. “That’s such a line.”
“It’s true, though. You have bewitched me, June of Earth. I don’t want her. I want you.”
Her eyes went wide for a moment, but then she looked away as if pained by his words. “Please don’t,” she muttered.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t toy with me, Tristan. Please.” The agony in her voice tore at his chest. “I couldn’t stand it if you didn’t mean it.”
“But I do mean it.”
“You can’t. You couldn’t possibly.”
“What must I do to prove it?”
She laughed without humor. “Short of marrying me? There’s nothing you can do to prove it.”
Before he knew what he was doing, Tristan dropped to his knee and took her hand in his.
June’s eyes flared wide. “What are you…”
“June of Earth, would you do me the honor of—”
“Whoa!” She snatched her hand back and retreated. “Just…whoa there, buddy.”
“Do your people have a different custom for—”
“No, custom’s spot on, but…are you mad?”
“I don’t believe so, but then, my sanity has been questioned a lot tonight.” He smiled up at her. He could tell she was softening toward him, if only a little.
“This isn’t a joke, Tristan.”
He shimmied on his knees toward her, knowing he looked ridiculous. “Am I laughing?” When he reached out for her, she squeaked and dodged him. He circled around and continued his knee-walk. “What? I’m just trying to propose like you asked me to.”
“Tristan, this isn’t funny.” However, she was laughing now. His heart soared at the sound. When she tried to dodge him again, his arm snaked out and he caught her around the waist. In the same motion, he lumbered to his feet and heaved her over his shoulder. She squealed in protest until he deposited her on the bed and crawled over her luscious body. “Woman, would you hold still so I can propose to you properly?”
She gazed up at him, her breaths shallowing. Amusement was gone, replaced by delicious heat, even as she whispered, “I can’t.”
“And why ever no’?”
She didn’t speak. Just gazed at him with those bedroom-hooded eyes.
Undeterred, Tristan dipped his head as if to kiss her lips, but held back an inch to see what she would do. With her breath fanning along his face, she rose up to meet him. Her soft mouth molded over his.
Breaking the kiss, he pulled back. “Why will you no’ say yes?”
She let out a sorrowful sighed, but didn’t reply.
“If you will no’ tell me, I will just have to torment your body until you do.” Going to his knees, he shrugged out of his shirt and began ripping it into strips until he had two long swatches.
“What are you doing?”
When he tied the end of one cloth to her wrist and the other to the bedpost, her face lit with shocked realization.
20
“What the hell are you doing?” June flailed under Tristan’s weight, but he was too fast, grasping her other wrist and securing it to the bedpost, same as the first.
"We’re going to play a game, you and I.”
“You let me go this instant!” Why did that come out so breathy? Her body was growing aroused, her nipples budding as if in anticipation for his wicked game.
He rolled to place his body at her side and propped his head on his bent arm, his expression intense as he drank in the sight of her. Their struggle had caused her dress to ride up and the slit was parted wide, exposing her legs, and she was sure he was getting a peek of her lacy underwear. “I will let you go when you accept my proposal. Until then, you are mine to do with as I please.” He reached up and yanked down her bodice, exposing her breasts to the cool air.
Her nipples grew even tighter under his gaze. “You son of a bitch.”
He tsked. “That’s no’ very ladylike.”
She gritted her teeth. “I’m not a lady.” She struggled against her binds, but the action caused her tits to jiggle provocatively, and his gaze was drawn to her chest. To her embarrassment, her nipples budded under his rapt attention.
“Gorgeous,” he muttered as if he couldn’t help himself. Then he leaned down to draw one taut peak into his mouth, flicking the tip with his tongue.
Against her will, she let out a carnal moan. “Why are you doing this?
He moved to tongue her other breast, grazing the nipple with his teeth.
“Ahh! What do you hope to accomplish? Do you really think tormenting me like this will change my mind? Do really plan to try to force me to marry you?”
Drawing back, he idly ran his hand up her exposed thigh. She shivered at the thrilling sensation. He had her tied up and at his mercy. How far did he plan to take this? Why was she so turned on?
“You know, I never imagined I’d have to force anyone to marry me. I never imagined I would want to. But then, the only woman I have ever loved refuses me.”<
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June gasped at his words. Love? He couldn’t possibly mean that. “Typical. You want what you can’t have.”
“I want you.”
“You lied to me.”
He grimaced. “I dinna mean to.”
“My father had mistresses. I’ll never live like that.”
“It is only you for me. No one else.” His tone was earnest, and she could almost believe him. Already she was softening, wanting to forgive him, but…
She bit her lip, but then shook her head, averting her gaze. “I just…I just can’t, Tristan.”
Once more his lips assaulted her sensitive nipple, ruthlessly drawing another moan from her before he released her. “There is more, I can tell. This is no’ just about Leanora. Is it because you are from Earth and I am no’? Because we are too different?”
“That’s not it.”
“You said you loved this planet. I thought you could be persuaded to stay. So it must be me you object to. Tell me why you will no’ accept me. I just want to know why.”
She offered him a doleful look. “It would never work.”
“Give me one good reason.” His hand on her leg inched higher and she squeezed her thighs together, embarrassed by how wet she was growing. At the same time, she could feel the rigid line of his cock against her hip. It pulsed, as if begging for relief. How far was he willing to take this? They were not alone. Could the others tell what was going on in here?
“Tristan,” she pleaded. “They’ll hear.”
“Nay. This room is soundproof. You’d have to be listening right up against the door to hear anything. And anyone who does that right now deserves to hear every scream I wring from you.” When he met the apex of her thighs, he gave her a roguish grin. “Well, your body wants me, even if you claim no’ to.”
“It’s not that I don’t want you…unh…” She squirmed when his talented fingers began to tease, rubbing her through the gauzy fabric of her panties.
“You shocked me, you know, during our picnic. When you took me in your mouth and, how did you put it? Rocked my world. But you didn’t just rock my world, you fucking shattered it.”
“W-What?”
“Had we not been interrupted by the storm, I would have spent the next few hours here.” He stroked her core, drawing another whimper from her. “Loving you with my tongue, my body, until you were as shattered as me, as hopelessly in love.”
She gazed at him. Flabbergasted.
“Am I fooling myself, June? Is your heart untouchable?” As he spoke, two thick fingers played at her entrance. When he moved aside the fabric at her core and delved inside, she found it difficult to focus. What was he asking? Was her heart untouchable? She couldn’t admit that it was already his.
“I’m not the princess type,” she declared, working to tame her body’s betraying wriggles.
“Bollocks,” he countered, slowly teasing her with his fingers as his thumb circled the swollen bud of her clitoris. “I’m no’ the king type, yet a king I find myself to be. What else have you got?”
Pressure coiled low in her belly. Her head began to thrash. “I wouldn’t know the first thing about being a royal.”
“Irrelevant.” He leaned down to tongue her breast. Pleasure rolled over her body, forcing another moan from her. “I can teach you.”
Of their own accord, her hips rocked in rhythm to his touch, and together they found a pace that drove waves and waves of pleasure up her spine. “Ahh, God, Tristan! I’m coming!”
Mercilessly, he continued stroking her and sucking her, drawing out her orgasm. When her body went limp, he screwed a third finger into her, and the pressure began to build once more.
“Do you know what I thought when I first saw you on that ship?” he asked, watching her face as she fought to reject the pleasure. “I thought you were bewitching me by how intensely I was attracted you. I thought you were a creature conjured from my wickedest dreams and made flesh.”
“Oh, God! Oh, God.” The cresting pleasure became a flame, sizzling through her core and making her body quake.
Leaning down, he ran his tongue across her lips and then spoke against them. “You were the most beautiful thing I’d ever beheld.”
“Tristan, ah!” she cried out, his words and his actions forcing another orgasm from her. As the pleasure hummed through her, she opened her eyes to gaze up at him. He looked excited and enamored, and nowhere near done.
“Are you ready to accept me, love?”
“This is ridiculous. You can’t make me want to marry you.”
All confidence, he replied. “You already want to, but for some reason you think you can’t or shouldn’t. Why?” Going to his knees, he shimmied off her panties and positioned himself between her legs. She shuddered, the pleasure slowly dulling but still riding her nerves.
She shook her head. “I’m not a dragon.”
“I don’t care about that. What else have you got?” With a wicked gleam in his eyes, he lowered himself until he hovered just above her core. He glanced up with a fierce expression, his eyes flashing green, like emerald fire.
Her muscles clenched with anticipation. “Tristan, we just wouldn’t work.”
“This doesn’t work for you?” He buried his face between her thighs, lashing her with his tongue again and again. Once more, she tripped toward orgasm…pressure building…furrowing inside her, tightening…tightening…
Tormenting ecstasy tore through her, crashing against her nerves. Another lash of his tongue forced a scream from her lungs. Her head thrashed, her hair whipping. Too much, she thought. Too much! And yet she didn’t want him to stop. The devilish gleam in his eye said he didn’t plan on it. He was enjoying this far too much, which made her wonder what other dark desires he’d been holding back. And why, even after her three orgasms, was her body not even remotely sated.
Tristan was relentless, liking and sucking and snarling against her flesh, driving her to another release that sent her flying once more. Her body quaked and shuddered as pleasure exploded in her brain, and still he continued.
“Please! No more. No more.” Every touch of his tongue against her clitoris was like a white-hot whip of ecstasy, and soon she was coming for him again, shrieking as pleasure assaulted every nerve in her being.
Sweat coating her skin, she begged, “Please. I can’t take anymore.”
He briefly lifted his head. “Tell my why you will no’ marry me.” Then he continued his barrage. She twisted her hips to evade him, but his mighty arms hooked around her thighs and he held her still as he devoured her. The fire turned molten as yet another release snapped through her, this one more potent and dire than all the others combined. Her back bowed, her toes curled, she fought her restraints. And as she fell apart for him, he demanded, “Tell me!”
“Because I’m not worthy!”
He released her then and went to his knees. She melted into the mattress, lightheaded and dazed, gazing up at him. What would he think of her admission?
A hard crease cut between his brows. “Not worthy? How utterly ridiculous.”
Hurt, she glanced away. He crawled over her and waited until she looked at him. When she did, his voice was pure temptation. “Why do you think this?”
She sighed. Might as well tell him the truth. “I don’t come from a good family,” she confessed.
“Aye, your father was a snake, but this is no’ your fault.”
Lowering her gaze, she added. “It’s not just him. I’ve done things. Things that would make you think differently of me.”
“Your family, who you were in the past, it means nothing now.” He leaned down to place a soft kiss on her forehead.
His tenderness brought tears to her eyes. “You don’t know what I’ve done.”
He reached up and undid the knots at her wrists. “Would you like to tell me?”
“Not particularly.”
He froze only briefly on the second knot before loosening it and setting her free. She rubbed her wrists, though the fab
ric of his ruined shirt had been remarkably gentle on her skin, and then pulled up her bodice to cover herself.
“Then how can I ever assure you that whatever it is that ails you from your past will have no effect on how I feel about you.” He rolled to the side and wrapped his arm around her. She found his warmth exceedingly comfortable. Was she truly about open her closet and reveal her skeletons? To tell him the truth about something she had vowed never to speak of?
The butterflies in her stomach said yes.
“I was sixteen,” she started. “Jordan was thirteen. My father had just gotten paid, and so of course as soon as he got home, he poured himself a whiskey and went straight to the computer. Online gambling sites. Two hours later, he was half a bottle in and his paycheck was gone. I don’t really know what set my father off that night. Maybe Jordan laughed at the wrong time, or walked to close to him, but the next thing I knew, my mother was screaming, and my father was ramming his fist into Jordan over and over again.”
She realized her body had begun to shudder when Tristan squeezed her side. She took a breath and continued, “Jordan’s face was so bloody, and he wouldn’t stop hitting him. My mother and I screamed, begged for him to stop, but I knew he wouldn’t. I could see it in his face. He was going to kill Jordan and my mother couldn’t do anything to stop him. The moment I realized that, the image of my father’s gun flashed in my mind. I knew where it was because he would take it out every now and again, just to hold it or have it near, sometimes while he watched television, sometimes when we were eating dinner, so I knew it was in the closet, top shelf. I don’t even remember how I got up there so fast, but suddenly it was in my hand and I had it pointed at my father’s head and I think my mom shrieked at me, but I couldn’t hear. Not her. Not the squishy thuds of my father’s punches. I didn’t even hear the gun go off. But finally…finally, he stopped….”
She inhaled a breath. Blinked. A set of tears tumbled from her eyes. “Finally, he stopped.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” Tristan muttered.
“I realize now that my mother went into shock. She fell to her knees and just stared at my father’s body. She wouldn’t move. Didn’t check on Jordan. I had to call for the ambulance. I remember shaking her for what felt like forever before she looked at me with these hollow eyes. I remember despising her in that moment. I hated her for her inaction. For not doing something about my father before a sixteen-year-old girl had to take matters into her own hands; kicked him out or taken us kids away somewhere safe.
