To Love a Prince (Knights of Valor Book 1)

by Elizabeth Drake

  Jaelin shook her head. “As I said, her captors never demanded a ransom, so her family most likely isn’t wealthy or influential.”

  “When we return to Tamryn, I want you to find her family if you can. She deserves to know and to decide if she wants to reunite with them.”

  “The Knights will have records of abducted children, regardless of her parents’ station. Are you sure you want me to find them if they’re street sweepers or sharecroppers, Your Highness?”

  Eli understood the unuttered implications, but he nodded. “Find what you can.”

  Jaelin bowed and left Eli alone with his thoughts.

  Undressing, Eli climbed back into bed beside Auburn. She moved closer to him and slid an arm over his bare chest.

  He pulled her to him and held her, his tumultuous thoughts warding off sleep.

  Chapter 23

  Auburn awoke and snuggled closer to Eli as her fingers explored the contours of his hard chest.

  He caught her hand and brought it to his lips. “You slept well.”

  “I never knew...” Her cheeks heated as she met his pale gaze. “I didn’t know it was possible to feel so much.”

  “That’s why I showed you.”

  She stroked his cheek then his shoulders, thrilled at the way he responded to her.

  He captured her fingers. “I’ve warned you about teasing very bad men.”

  She only smiled as she trailed soft kisses along his jaw. The clean masculine scent of him filled her, and the heat of him bathed her and sunk into her bones.

  Prince Eli’s thick muscles tensed beneath her fingers, and her smile deepened when she heard his breathing quicken. She enjoyed the effect she had on him, enjoyed what she could help make him feel.

  Her hands slid lower, over his lean sides and across his narrow hips. Her lips followed, and Eli caught her by the shoulders.

  “Auburn, we shouldn’t.”

  She smiled as her hands drifted lower and stroked the inside of his thighs, taunting and teasing him as he had her. “I want you to feel as amazing as I do.”

  “You have no idea what I want to do with you or how hard it is to resist doing it.”

  She trailed a finger over the ridges of his flat stomach and traced along the sides of his shaft. “You don’t have to resist.”

  Easing her back up, Eli groaned as his manhood slide across her soft curves and cradled into her belly.

  A shiver stole through her at the feel of him, and she leaned forward, touching a gentle kiss to his lips.

  He responded, his mouth hard and demanding as he molded her against him. Stroking his hands down her back, he teased them over her spine, up her shoulders, and along the nape of her neck.

  Auburn tipped her head back, and her hair cascaded across her shoulders and tickled over her bare arms.

  Eli tangled his fingers in her copper-colored tresses as his lips claimed hers.

  Leaning down, she nuzzled his ear, nibbling and tasting him as she trailed kisses over his throat and across his collarbone.

  She teased her body over his as she moved lower, her kisses whispering over the heavy muscles of his chest. Auburn thrilled at the feel of him beneath her, all hard angles and planes against her soft curves. Controlled but not safe.

  She gazed up at him and grinned as she slid her body over his and moved lower, her lips teasing over his taunt abdomen as she tickled his navel with the tip of her tongue. The evidence of his desire, thick and rigid, pressed against her.

  She dipped lower, and he tried to catch her.

  “Auburn, you don’t have to...” but his words trailed to garbled incoherence as her hands wrapped around his erection.

  Eli struggled to catch his breath as she gripped him, stroked, then eased back only to start all over again.

  He reached for her, but before he could grab her, she guided him into the hot recesses of her mouth.

  Eli’s eyes widened as she took him and sucked.

  He growled her name, but she only smiled at him around his shaft and made a soft purring noise deep in her throat. Every muscle in his body tightened.

  Happiness filled her as she learned that she could bring him the same pleasure he’d brought her. She wanted to give him all that and more. He hadn’t ordered her to, nor had he demanded it. She did it because she wanted to share all she could with him.

  Her head bobbed up and down as she concentrated on him, listened to his breathing and felt the tension in his body. Learned what intensified his pleasure through his reactions.

  She felt him climbing, felt the tautness in his body as he raced toward the same golden peak he’d taken her to the previous night.

  Eli clenched his teeth and reached for her again, but she laced her fingers with his so he couldn’t stop her.

  “Auburn,” he warned, but it was too late. He lost himself, and she only smiled as she continued her ministrations.

  When he slumped back on the bed, she released him and pillowed her head on his shoulder.

  Wrapping a blanket around her, Eli held her close and kissed her forehead. Auburn thought she heard him say something about Daniella and Tamarian politics being damned before they both fell asleep.

  Dawn found her Auburn snuggled beside him, her body warm and soft with sleep. Eli stroked her bare skin, watching it flush as her eyes fluttered open.

  She smiled up at him and nuzzled closer. “I like waking up beside you. Is it customary to share a bed in Tamryn?”

  Eli thought about Lady Daniella. “It depends.”

  “On what?”

  “Why you’re in a bed together.”

  She traced a finger along his jaw. “How long before the negotiations resume?”

  Eli’s hands cruised over her hip and teased the indentation of her waist before stroking the swell of her breast. “Several more days.”

  She wriggled against him and arched her back, filling his hand with her softness.

  He kneaded her sensitive flesh and listened to her breath catch. By the gods, he wanted her, but the part of him that wanted to protect her knew he should bring her to Tamryn with her virginity intact. It would make it easier to find her a husband, and it would guarantee the rule of succession wouldn’t interfere with his plans.

  His conqueror bristled at the thought of Auburn with another man, and that same part of him wanted to use the rule of succession to his advantage. To the seven hells with politics. If he married her, he could have what he needed and give her what she wanted.

  After all he’d worked for, all he’d done to position himself to take the crown, Prince Eli couldn’t believe he was considering throwing it away and following a very different path.

  He was a fool.

  A fool touched by the Twins.

  Auburn stroked his chest. “Your thoughts trouble you.”

  “Thinking about the future.”

  She propped herself up on her elbow, and her copper-colored hair cascaded down her shoulders and over her full breasts. “You don’t like what you see, so change it.”

  “What if I can’t?”

  “You fight harder than that to win a game of chess.”

  Eli thumbed over her lush lips as he stared into her soft blue eyes. Change it. She had no idea what she was saying, and yet, he’d learned to get what he wanted. He’d wanted Daniella and the throne, but that was before he’d known what else he could have.

  That he could have something more.

  Would his mother understand?

  Eli had no answer, but he knew what he wanted. Rolling Auburn onto her back, he levered himself above her and grabbed a silk scarf from the nightstand. He trailed it over her body, listening to her soft sighs as the scarf slid over her flushed skin. He teased it around her nipples, watching them furl into little buds under his attention.

  Swirling the scarf around her milk-pale breasts, he wrapped them in the silk only to pull it away and slide the scarf down her belly.

  Auburn sucked in a breath as she opened her thighs to him.

&
nbsp; Eli smiled as he teased the silk along the back of her knees then up over the insides of her legs. He paused, taunting and teasing her before inching upward and feathering the scarf over the petals of her soft juncture.

  Auburn writhed beneath him, opening herself further to his caresses.

  He grinned and set a leisurely pace of tickling her with the scarf as his fingertips explored her. Stroking over the smooth globes of her rounded breasts, his lips followed his hands. He kept the kisses light, a taunting touch over her heated flesh.

  She whimpered beneath him, reaching for him as her body arched up to meet him. She stroked his back and sides, her nails grazing his flesh. Eli captured her questing hands and wrapped the scarf around her wrists. He then bound the scarf to the headboard.

  Her eyes widened, and he grinned down at her as he teased his fingers over the inside of her thigh, around her hips, and up her belly. “I will not be rushed.”

  She sucked in a breath and settled back against the bed as she waited for him.

  The scent of her, an exotic mixture of vanilla and jasmine, snared and intoxicated him. She was a feast for the senses, and Eli drank in her lush curves and soft sighs. He tasted her, teasing his tongue over her furled peaks and nibbling her creamy skin.

  Auburn tried to pull her hands down, but Eli had tied them. He wanted her to focus on her pleasure.

  The whisper of her skin under his lips, silken and heated, made him want another taste, another kiss. He ached to touch all of her, to feel her most intimate of embraces.

  Need made her fist her hands in the scarf as he fastened his lips around a nipple and sucked, rolling the hard bud through his mouth then releasing it into the cool air. A glazed expression of passion wreathed her, and he smiled as he tended to her other nipple.

  His mouth and tongue pleasured her rosy peaks, and his hand dipped lower, over the soft roundness of her belly and down the curve of her hip. He tickled the backs of her knees, then he brought his hand up higher, parting her, and stroking her smooth inner thigh.

  He reached further still, brushing his fingers over the copper curls at the apex of her thighs. Eli drank in her gasps and moans as her hips moved in time to his touches, and she parted wider for him.

  Stroking her womanly folds, he slipped a finger between to find the hidden pearl.

  She squealed as he rubbed, her head falling back and her hips bucking against his hand.

  The prince took his time, caressing her nubbin as he feasted his lips and tongue on the soft mounds of her breasts. Listening to her soft gasps, he suckled, taking his fill before dipping his lips lower and trailing hot hard kisses over her belly.

  She whimpered in unmet need as she stared down at him.

  Eli smiled at her from between her parted thighs. He lifted one of her legs and pressed kisses behind her knee, then teased his lips along the inside of her thigh.

  Her eyes widened as he reached her apex.

  He parted her and kissed the sensitive nub hidden there.

  Auburn cried out as sensation bolted through her. By the gods, he loved hearing his name on her lips, feeling the heat of her, and seeing her lost in pleasure.

  Starting slowly, he teased her bud with the tip of his tongue, taunting it, toying with it.

  Her hips bucked beneath him, but he held her firmly as he kissed her most intimate places.

  Her head rolled from side to side as he lavished sensation on her. When she fell back against the pillow, he knew she’d surrendered fully to him, had given herself over to the passion between them.

  Her hands tangled around the scarf binding her. “Please, Eli, please.”

  He understood her need, knew what he’d created in her, and he answered it. Swirling her little bud with his tongue, he suckled, a soft rhythmic motion that had her writhing in time to his kisses.

  He slipped a finger into her welcoming softness and stroked.

  “Eli!” she panted as she clutched the scarf binding her.

  He smiled as he took her, pushed her up and over the cliffs of desire. Watched her whole body tense as pleasure gripped her in wave after wave of bliss.

  Her body softened, then eased back against the mattress, spent and satiated. Eli untied her wrists and gathered her to him.

  She smiled, a soft happy smile as she lay against him.

  He tucked the blankets around her and cradled her close as contentment closed her eyes.

  Chapter 24

  Eli collected his chessboard and set it on the table. He needed something to occupy him other than lascivious thoughts, and he enjoyed teaching Auburn how to play chess. As they played, she gave Eli a glimpse into how she thought. Unlike Daniella’s cold and precise choices, which were much like his own, Auburn was bold and imaginative. She took risks, tried new strategies, and made Eli improve his own game because of it.

  When Auburn saw him with the board, she hurried over and helped him set up the pieces then sat down opposite him.

  Her brows furrowed in concentration as she made her moves. Auburn employed some of the strategies he’d taught her, while other choices were things she’d devised by playing against him.

  They were deep into the game when Auburn made an unexpected move, and five plays later, she took Eli’s queen.

  “Why did you do that?”

  “Because you don’t like losing your queen. It messes up your strategy.”

  “You’ll lose because of it.”

  “I’ll lose anyway. I made a couple of mistakes early on that you’ve been exploiting.”

  He nodded once in agreement.

  “I will still make you work for your victory. It’ll make the game more fun for both of us.”

  The prince gazed into her cornflower-blue eyes. It appeared she was learning as much about him as he was about her. He wondered if, knowing all she did, she would want to stay with him once they reached Tamryn.

  He was not a kind man, or a good one, but she made him want to be both to her.

  After they finished their game, Auburn produced a book written in Qumarefi. “I thought you might like to read a history of Qumaref according to Qumaref.”

  “I would,” Eli said. She had learned a lot about him.

  “I love the books in the sultan’s library. They’re one of the only things I’ll miss.”

  “We have an enormous library in Tamryn,” Eli said. “I spent a lot of time there in my youth. I’ll show it to you when we get to the palace.”

  She grinned and curled up on his lap. He opened the book, and she coached him through the strange swirls and flourishes of the Qumarefi words.

  A knock at the door without an accompanying password had Eli frowning and reaching for his sword as he stood to shield Auburn.

  Two men barged into the room, one tall and broad, his steel-colored hair and faded blue eyes adding to his air of authority. The other was lean with ruddy skin and dark eyes. He wore mage’s robes that made him appear bulkier than he was.

  “I couldn’t stop them, Your Highness,” Sligo said.

  “Shouldn’t’ve tried.” The man with the steel-colored hair glared at Eli.

  “Sir Leopold.” Eli raised a brow. “And your acquaintance.”

  “Prince Eli, Ndrek,” Leopold said in introduction.

  Ndrek bowed deeply.

  “I assume you’ve vetted him before bringing him into my chambers,” Eli said.

  “He’s not an assassin.” Leopold’s eyes fell on Auburn. “Bettin’ she’s not either if you have your back to her. Who is she?”

  “You’re Qumarefi?” Eli asked Ndrek.

  “Yes, Your Highness,” Ndrek said, his words lightly accented.

  Eli studied the man dressed like a wizard. “What are you doing with Sir Leopold?”

  “I am a businessman here to help him navigate the intricacies of Qumarefi society so he could meet with you,” Ndrek said.

  “Why are you helping Leopold?”

  “To return to his and the Dragon Church’s good graces.”

 
“Business in Qumaref may not follow the same rules as in Tamryn,” Auburn said, her voice soft and low as she moved closer to Eli.

  Ndrek grinned, showing his white teeth. “That is an understatement.”

  “Interesting company you keep, Sir Leopold.” Eli glanced from Ndrek up to the Knight of Valor. Not just any Knight, but one of the top-ranking men in the Dragon Church. One of the few men that out-ranked a prince, which meant only King Garrett could’ve sent him. Eli couldn’t fathom why. If the mage could teleport, his father would’ve sent Leopold days ago. But no Tamarian mages could do such a spell. At least, no mages Eli knew, and he made it a point to know them all.

  “You gonna tell me who the girl is?”

  “I want to know why you’re jeopardizing the negotiations my father asked me to oversee. I doubt you’re here because of the assassination attempt.”

  “What assassination attempt?” Leopold asked.

  “Two days ago.”

  “You appear unharmed, Your Highness,” Ndrek said.

  “Thanks to Sligo and some good information.”

  Leopold swore under his breath. “These negotiations were a bad idea. Much as I don’t like you, if someone assassinated you in Qumaref, King Garrett would retaliate. We’d be facing war.”

  “My father was concerned about sending me, but he believed the sultan wouldn’t take negotiations seriously with anyone less than a prince.”

  “The king was correct,” Ndrek said.

  Auburn’s gaze traveled over Leopold, pausing at the dragon-emblazoned shield he carried. “Is he a Knight?”

  “Yes,” Eli said. “Not what you were expecting?”

  Auburn shook her head.

  Leopold’s eyes narrowed, then he peered around the prince at Auburn. “You need rescuing from him?”

  Eli kept himself between Leopold and Auburn. “Been a while since you were in the business of rescuing maidens. If you ever were.”

  Leopold ignored Eli and offered Auburn his hand.

  Auburn slipped her arms around the prince. “I don’t need rescuing, but it’s kind of you to offer.”