Nyssa punched his stomach again.
Bala grinned as she stepped to them. “Yeah, I bet, Princess,” she winked at her.
Nyssa glared between them. “I hate both of you.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
AYDRA ESCORTED DRAVEN and Hagen to the castle gates. Draven had intentions of meeting his friends for smokes and catching up, leaving Aydra to take her bath in peace and relax.
She wasn’t opposed to it. There had been so much excitement that morning, and knew there would be more that night, for which she wanted a little time to herself.
When they reached the gates, Draven paused to take her hand and kiss her knuckles—a quick goodbye and the promise he would see her later as she was sure he didn’t think she would kiss him.
Aydra grabbed him by the collar and pulled him down to her lips. Being beneath the archway of the gates, she didn’t figure any would see them. Though after seeing her youngers with the Nitesh and Lovi, she wasn’t entirely sure she cared who saw them anymore.
She wanted to be with him. Enemy races or not. He was hers and she was his. Wholly surrendered in mind and body.
She would give up the world to be with him in every life. Damn her crown. Damn this title. He was the home she’d never felt in those walls, and she would not let him go.
He hesitated at first, apparently bewildered that she was kissing him out in the open of her kingdom, but after a moment, he relaxed, his hand delicately threading around her neck and into her hair. Every whisper of his lips sent her heart fleeing. And when they finally pulled apart, she couldn’t wipe the smile off her face.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go swimming?” she tried once more. She glanced to Hagen, and added, “You can bring a friend.”
“You’ve had your fun with him, Sun Queen,” Hagen said gruffly. “He’s mine for a couple of hours.”
Aydra smirked as she looked to Hagen, and she gave him a deliberate once over, gaze lingering on his broad shoulders and beastly stature. She didn’t guard the rise of her brow or the dance in her eyes when her lashes lifted to his.
“You know, I do actually play nice if one deserves such things. I’m well versed with sharing and well,beingshared,” she suggested, causing Hagen’s dangerous smirk to widen and Draven to chuckle into her hair.
“Careful, my Queen,” he uttered in her ear. “Blackhands take such suggestions literally.”
She glanced up at him. “Who says I don’t mean it?”
Danger dancing in his eyes, Draven leaned to her neck, whispering, “Fuck, I love you,” in a voice so quiet, she may not have heard it had his breath not tickled her flesh.
But Hagen cleared his throat, leering eyes darting between them.
“Very well,HighElder,” Aydra cooed, drawing out the word ‘High’ and mocking him as Draven straightened. “Take my King. But save some of that herb I know you brought. From what I hear, the mountain herb is the best.”
Hagen’s brows flinched upward in agreement, and he pulled his already packed pipe from inside his shirt in response. He struck the match against the wall, and then he lit the pipe with a long inhale.
The lit match was squashed in his palm, and she saw it singe his flesh before crumbling to pieces. Hagen stepped forward, his wandering gaze moving over her, and he extended the pipe.
Draven’s hand tightened around her waist as she pulled the smoke between her lips, and as she held it in her lungs, a flutter moved from her chest to her fingers, deep down in her core, to between her legs. And she had to squeeze her thighs as she exhaled and opened her eyes.
The corner of Hagen’s lips had quirked, his chin raised, and she suddenly became very aware of how close she was between the two. Her entire body lit up with tingles—as though her skin had been asleep for days and this was what it meant to be alive. Her breath shortened, and before she knew it, her back was fully against Draven, and Hagen was standing just inches from her.
“What do you think, Sun Queen?”
Hagen’s voice registered deeper than he had spoken moments before. She was aware of Draven’s hands rising up and down her arms as he held her there, and then Hagen extended the pipe to his friend. Aydra looked up to watch him press the end between his lips, watching him watch her as that firelight hit his features in the shadows.
Fuck, she was drenched just from… from whatever was happening right then. From the herb and the two strong men along with the heat radiating from their flesh.
Draven’s hand tucked beneath her chin, and he pulled her head back as he bent. The exhale of his velvet smoke moved into her mouth. His beard brushed her chin and tickled her lips. A chill ran down her spine with the delicate lusted grazes, and she involuntarily moaned into him.
And then another hand touched her hip and trailed down to her thigh—
Hagen’s hand.
