The Forsaken King

I had no idea what the fuck this was, but I didn’t want it to stop.

I rolled off her and let my tired back hit the sheets. I should be starving right now, but food was absent from my mind. I let the sweat evaporate from my skin as my breathing returned to normal. The fire had died down in the meantime, just a couple flames left.

She was still on her stomach where I’d left her, like getting fucked was just as exhausting as doing the fucking.

I should get her out of my cabin and back to hers.

But my eyes were already closed, and I didn’t give a damn.

The mattress shifted, and her skin came into contact with mine. Her head moved to my shoulder. Her arm over my torso. Her leg tucked between mine. Her touch was cold, like a nice breeze from an open window. I felt like the sun, blistering hot, her own personal fire. Fire and ice.

I turned onto my side to face her, hiking her leg over my hip, bringing our bodies closer together. My arm squeezed the small of her back and kept her positioned against my chest, her hard nipples sharp as nails.

She tucked her head underneath my chin, her breaths right against my exposed throat.

It was then that I realized how vulnerable I was.

That she could kill me in the middle of the night and I wouldn’t even be awake long enough to know what was happening.

But I went to sleep anyway.

TWELVE

Ivory

When I woke up, I was in a comfortable bed, nice and warm, and the sunlight hit my closed eyelids.

For a second, I thought I was home.

I knew Huntley had moved away when the cold set in, when it pressed on me from all sides without his body there to keep it at bay. My eyes opened and saw him standing at the foot of the bed, tall, muscular, with narrow hips and humongous shoulders. He was at full mast, and it seemed like he was already ready to go.

He walked past the bed to the bathroom, and I got a view of his chiseled ass and strong back. His spine was surrounded by an array of muscles, cuts in the skin that separated each one. It was no surprise he could carry me across the tundra, could hold his swords, his ax, and his shield.

I sat up and pulled the furs closer to me, cold without the fire, cold without him.

He returned a moment later, still buck naked. “Get dressed.”

“I want to stay.” I didn’t want to go back to that cold cabin with that hay mattress and no windows. I wanted to stay here, on the softest bed I’d ever known, with blankets that trapped the heat against my skin.

“You can’t.”

“What does it matter if I’m here or there? I’m not going anywhere—”

Someone knocked on the door.

He didn’t panic. Just pulled on his breeches and answered the door, his body hiding me from view of the visitor. He must have issued a wordless greeting because I didn’t hear a word.

“The girl is missing. Before I sound the alarm, thought I’d ask you about it…” It was Ian. I could tell by the sound of his voice, which was similar to his brother’s.

There was a long stretch of silence.

Probably a long exchange of stares too.

I was in bed with the blankets to my waist, in case Ian caught a glimpse.

Huntley finally responded. “Yeah, she’s here.”

Ian didn’t say anything for a while, probably giving his brother a long, hard look. “Well, Queen Rolfe asked me to put her to work.”

Huntley sighed. “I’ll bring her in a minute.”

“Okay.”

Huntley shut the door then turned back to me, his look angry.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“You shouldn’t have stayed here.”

“It sure didn’t seem like you wanted me to leave…”

He stood there, heavy arms at his sides, wearing a brooding stare.

I kicked off the sheets and got out of bed, the cold air hitting me right away, making my tits tighten and my nipples harden.

His gaze immediately switched to my body, taking it in, that brooding stare disappearing and being replaced by the look he’d had last night. The one that wanted to throw me down on the bed and fuck me mercilessly.

“Doesn’t look like you want me to go now either…”

He made his move, walking around the edge of the bed and coming toward me.

“Nope, I don’t think so.” I searched for my clothes, but then I realized I didn’t have any because I’d walked here naked.

He grabbed me by the back of the neck and forced me down, face first into the furs. He had the kind of power I couldn’t fight. Totally helpless, I was at his mercy, completely and utterly.

He shoved my ass into the bed, where it stuck in the air, and he dropped his breeches.