A Throne of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales 2)

His eyes cut my way. He didn’t speak.

“You pick a book for me, and I pick a book for you, right?”

He studied me for a second. “With notes?”

I blew out a breath. “I might need more than notes on yours. I tried to snap that demon’s neck, and she just yelped. I should have enough strength, but…”

“How’s this?” He took my sword before finding a leafy plant and wiping off the blade. He’d been too pissy to do it earlier. “You write me notes in the books—”

“Or how about on paper so we don’t ruin the books?”

“On parchment, then. You write me notes”—he slid my sword into my sheath—“and I’ll teach you how to fight.”

My belly fluttered. “Deal. What about pleasuring me?” His eyes darkened. I put up my hands. “Your dragon said that I wasn’t allowed to pleasure myself, and that I should go to him for all my pleasuring needs.”

“Fat fucking chance,” he murmured, stepping around me. “You have fingers. You can take care of that.”

“At least I’ll have my own space. Since you’ve claimed my panties, I guess I can admit that I was wet reading your letters. And I had to find places to hide and masturbate outside when writing those notes in that book to you.”

“I know. I smelled your sex on the pages,” he growled. His power thrummed within me, and desire flooded the bond. “I smelled your arousal near the birch, too. I knew I was the one who’d caused it, and it drove me wild.”

“And we can’t just have sex without all the claiming because…why?”

He glared at me but didn’t answer.

“I mean, look,” I continued, walking with him toward the everlass field, still holding the package. “I’m not going to bang any demons or staff. Let’s get that straight. I’m good with being a one-man show, and I get that this isn’t going anywhere. So why can’t we enjoy ourselves? A little good-morning bang-bang never hurt anyone.”

He bent to the plants, running his fingers along them, giving them love, while stripping away the shriveling or wilting leaves. I set the package down at the edge of the field and chose the row beside his to help.

“Oh, hey!” I grinned at him. His scowl was in full effect. “I broke your dry spell. My body did, at least. How’d that feel after sixteen years?”

He stepped into a different row, putting more distance between us.

“I’ll tell you how I feel,” I said, working my way through the plants. “I’m starting to feel awfully sore, and that was weird as fuck, but wow, those orgasms were amazing. And the kisses. And the feel of you inside—”

“Stop talking,” he barked, power riding the command.

“Just tell me how it was after sixteen years, and I’ll stop. That’s all I ask.”

“First, those sixteen years feel like one long month of misery. Nothing changes from month to month, and the only thing that changes within the month is the size of the moon and the number of battles. I look back over that time, and it is all a blank. A blur. It’s like it never happened. It’s like that amount of time is just a wasted black hole in my life.”

“Except you stopped aging, right? So after the curse, you should resume life as a twenty-five-year-old.”

“I wasn’t nearly this tired and jaded when the curse began. And if you’d told me at the time that I could be any more tired and jaded, I wouldn’t have believed you.”

“So then breaking your dry spell was nothing special.”

A pang hit my heart. I hadn’t expected to feel sentimental about sex with him. I hadn’t thought being his first since the curse would mean anything. But now, hearing that it wasn’t exceptional in any way made me feel lesser. Naïve and inexperienced. Because it had blown my mind. As weird as it had been, letting the beasts take charge, it ended up being sensational. I only wished it could’ve been Nyfain and me, maybe doing the nice and easy approach like he’d suggested. Going slow and sensual, allowing feeling to cradle us as we made love.

I ran my fingers through my hair and straightened. I needed to snap out of it. All of this buildup with him—the foreplay and the letters and the sex—had turned my head. But no good could come of this. I liked the guy, yes, I couldn’t deny it, but it wasn’t meant to be. There’d be no forever, no babies, no future. These feelings would need to die on the vine.

“Hey…”

I jumped and spun, fumbling with a sword that was way harder to get out of its sheath than a dagger. The thing got stuck halfway through. I needed a wider arm span or something.

Nyfain glanced down at my efforts, his brow furrowing. He’d snuck up on me. “You really are bad with that.”