The King’s Innocent Bride

Soon I’ll have a ring on her finger and an heir in her belly. Then she really will be marked by me. No one will miss that she belongs to me then. “I have some clothes in the bag I was carrying.” Yes, I’d seen the rags of nothing she had. They weren’t fit to touch her skin. I wouldn’t allow it.

“We’ll be getting you new ones. Ones that are more fitting for someone of your stature.” Her eyes search my face. I see so many questions lingering there. “If you don’t like them, we will get you something else. We will just make do with whatever my mom gets for now. So you at least have something to cover you.”

“Okay.” She agrees so sweetly. Even that’s a fucking turn on. I wonder if I’ll live the rest of my life with a constant hard-on now that I have her.

“How are you feeling?” I ask, focusing on the mark on her face. I didn’t find much satisfaction in the punishment I issued to the guard who struck her. My anger is still bubbling.

“It’s fine. I forget about it until I touch it.” She tilts her head and raises her hand to her cheek, but I catch it, kissing her palm. “Is the guy I punched okay? I really didn’t mean to. It was just a reaction when he grabbed me.”

Jesus. She’s so fucking sweet. I can’t believe she’s worried about him. “You didn’t hurt him,” I tell her and nothing more. She doesn’t need to know what I did. I’m guessing that wouldn’t sit so well with her if she’s worried about the punch she gave him. I release her hand, and she brings it to my face. I lean into her touch.

“Thank you for everything you’re doing for me. You’ll never know what you saved me from.” My gut clenches at the idea of what her uncle might have done with her. He’s a drunk who was always looking for easy month from what I gathered. I’m still not sure what I’m going to do with him yet. Not until I learn more about how he treated her.

“I’d do anything for you,” I vow to her, because she has no idea how she saved me, too.

Chapter Seven

Kate

I stare into James’s dark eyes, a lump growing inside my throat that I’ve been holding in since he pulled me into his lap and started to feed me. This man is really a gentle giant. I’m not sure how I feared him for even a second. He treats me like spun glass.

I want to believe everything he’s saying, but I think there’s something he’s keeping from me. I have a feeling he doesn’t want to let me go. I know I must hold some appeal. My grandma always told me that I was beautiful, and the way my uncle and his friends always stared at me made me even more aware of it. I didn’t like when they did it. But with James, it feels like something different. For the first time I don’t want to hide my body. I want to explore this.

I can tell he’s holding himself back. I want his mouth back on mine. I’ve never felt so much as when he kissed me, brushed his mouth against my neck in the softest caress right before he gave a small nip that shot right between my thighs, dampening them. I tilt a little, letting the robe fall even more, parting my thighs and knowing that is where I need the relief the most.

I hear him suck in a deep breath. His dark eyes grow even darker as his attention fixes down my body to between my legs, where the robe has parted to reveal my thighs. My cheeks warm, but I fight my shyness and don’t close them. I want his touch more.

“Princess.” His voice is deeper now. Warning rings in his tone, but I’m not scared. No, I’m excited and filled with something I can’t find a name for. I love when he calls me that. It feels right. I’m his princess. Though he said I’d be more than that. I wanted to question it but was scared of what he might say. That maybe I’d misunderstood him.

He places his hand on my leg, slowly running it up my thigh. I have to fight grabbing it and moving it faster. The rough texture of it leads me to moan. “Fuck. I should stop,” he says, but I don’t think he’s talking to me.

“Please don’t,” I plead, the words tumbling out of my mouth with no shame. I think I would die if he did. I wiggle a little, trying to get his hand closer between my thighs. Need like nothing else weighs heavy on my body.

“I could never deny you,” he tells me as he grips my thighs, pulling them even further apart. My robe falls off my shoulder, completely baring almost all of me to him. His breathing grows even heavier. Seeing how much I affect him makes my shyness slip away completely.