Pretty Bride (Rags to Riches 3)

“Watch none of what happens next,” he commanded harshly, as brusque orders from her father joined the frantic shouts of the guards.

Jalisa buried her face in his shoulder and closed her eyes. The powerful surge of his body shoved his cock deeper. She moaned against his neck, then gasped when a sudden pivot swung her around with him and her clit rubbed against him where they were pressed so tightly together. Screams she heard, yet none of it louder than the pounding of her blood, her heaving breaths. Only once she looked up, to see a soldier’s face wiped from the front of his skull by the whip of the heavy chain as Aruk fought for their freedom.

A sharp lunge was a deep, hard stroke inside her. Jalisa began to shake, frantically tasting his skin, showering his neck with hot openmouthed kisses. Suddenly all became still and quiet, except for a nearby wheezing.

“Where did the weasel go?” Aruk demanded. “The one who thought he might rub my wife’s cunt.”

“Don’t…know…”

That wheezing answer was her father’s. Jalisa lifted her head to see that Aruk had the bloodied chain wrapped around his throat.

To her, Aruk said, “Are you certain?”

She buried her face against his neck again. “Yes,” she whispered.

“Then come for me, wife.” His forearm tightened, holding her in place for a strong upward thrust. “Come for me as I fulfill this vow I made to you.”

Sinking into her, again and again. The drenched slide of his cock driving her higher and higher, tighter and tighter. Barely did she hear the thud of a body to the floor, then Aruk’s hand was buried in her hair and he was kissing her, fucking her, and it was more sweet pleasure than she could bear. Hard she came, her sheath clasping him so tight, his name a scream from her lips. Then he slowed, and held her close, breath mingling.

With his seed not within her, but splashed hotly over her belly. Because Aruk would not spend inside her unless he could stay.

Heart aching, she searched his dark eyes. “You have wife and kingdom now, Aruk.” Two things her warrior had said that he could not have. “But will it only be for one night?”

No answer he gave, except to kiss her and to carry her to bed.

9

Aruk the Unbound

Savadon

As dawn crept across the sky, Aruk knew that he would not leave his wife.

But he had known it before—on bloodied sands and in chains. Perhaps he had known longer than that, from the long days when she’d still recovering from the wound in her side, and she’d told him of Savadon’s war-torn history.

Now his fingers lightly skimmed over the scar that wound had left as Jalisa lay sleepily atop his chest. Their hands were still bound, but although dawn had come, he was in no hurry to unwind their marriage ribbon.

After the second time he’d had her, she’d called for the bodies and his chains to be taken away. In the ceremonial chamber they’d remained, with its balcony that seemed to open up to the sky…and look down into the bay that was the heart of Savadon.

“Might I set up a watch up along the docks?” he asked softly.

“You are king,” she murmured against his throat. “You can do anything you like. Who would you be looking for?”

“Tournament contestants returning to Aremond.” For they would have to pass through Savadon to reach that kingdom. As all trade to the realms south of the Illwind Sea did. “Little sense it makes now to go chasing after them. Our paths might too easily cross—especially if they sail south as I sail north. But I know the names and faces of all the warriors who entered the tournament. Their descriptions I could give to the watch. So if my brother has failed…then it would be I who makes certain the gauntlet never reaches Solegius’s hands.”

“And so you would still fulfill your duty.” Her voice sounded thick. “But also you would stay?”

“Yes.” Though he must tell her, “If I ever hear again that the gauntlet might fall into unworthy hands, I would have to go. Though it does not happen often. This is the first time in six generations that warriors of the Fang Clan were called to our sacred duty.”

“If you go, then I would, too. We would leave Savadon in a good advisor’s hands, and an adventure I would have. And so you are staying?”

Her voice broke. And that was the second time she had asked—as if she had not believed the first. Rolling her onto her back, he saw the tears on her lashes.

“Did you think I might not? You are my heart, Jalisa.”

“I knew not if you would have a choice. And you did not spend inside me.”

He brushed away her tears. “Because you said not to.”