She opened her mouth to tell him, no, but the look on Draven’s face made her pause. Draven’s brow arched at his friend, almost balking, and Hagen clapped his shoulder.
“Don’t worry,” Hagen said. “She’ll be as innocent as she is now when she gets back to her castle.”
Dorian snorted.
But Nadir shifted near Nyssa, his arms crossing over his chest. She glanced over her shoulder as Draven said something else, only to see a glare on Nadir’s face as he studied Hagen. And Nyssa wasn’t sure what to make of it.
Hagen smirked smugly back to Nadir, and Nyssa wondered what kind of rivalry the pair shared.
“—fine, I’ll go back with her,” Dorian was arguing.
“I can contain myself during a walk, mate—“
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Nyssa nearly spat, to which the three men shut up. “I’m more than capable of walking back to the castle on my own, and I don’t need a sitter in my own kingdom.” She looked at Dorian, whose smirk had filled his entire face. “I’ll meet you upstairs to get ready,” she said before pushing past them.
Low whistles sounded as she strode away, followed by a few chuckles, but Nyssa’s heart was jumping in her chest from her outburst, and all she wanted was to run from them before someone saw how beet red her face was.
“—all children,” she heard Bala snap at them. “Hey Nys—“
Bala caught up with her on a run, and Nyssa pushed her hair off her face.
“Well, that was entertaining,” Bala teased her. “Haven’t felt that much sexual tension in years.”
“Fuck off,” Nyssa managed in a quiet laugh.
Draven held in his chuckle as Nyssa and Bala left the group, Nyssa’s outburst still replaying in his head, pride akin to what he felt for Bala rising in his chest.
Hagen whistled low. “The mouse has a mouth,” he teased.
Dorian crossed his arms over his chest, smiling after them. “You should hear her once she gets comfortable,” he said.
A noise sounded from Nadir, and Draven watched as his friend doubled over, hands pressing to his knees, and Nadir let his head hang as he groaned at the ground as though he were suddenly sick.
“You all right, Naddi?” Draven asked.
But Nadir just crouched lower and stared at the sand as he pushed his hands behind his neck. “I am so fucking dead,” he muttered.
Draven almost lost it, and Hagen burst into laughter, clapping Draven’s shoulder to hold himself up.
Dorian just grinned. “I can have the timbers start making a wooden box to send you back in to the Umber if you want,” he bantered.
Nadir looked up at the Prince, fingers steepled beneath his chin. “Seven by four,” he said, naming the dimensions he wanted his coffin to be. “Preferably dark wood.”
An amused huff choked from Draven. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he drawled as he stepped forward to help Nadir back to his feet. “You know Lovi would prefer to burn you in birchwood.”
Bala and Nyssa parted ways at the castle to bathe. Bala said she would go back to Nyssa’s room to finish getting ready, and Nyssa was glad for the hour she got to herself.
Not only because she needed a bath to wash off the sand, but because she was throbbing for touch after their encounter—even though she’d already been taken care of that morning. But that didn’t matter. This was different. This was a fantasy she was sure she would never get to fulfill. She wondered if perhaps she ended up with Falke again that night if he would take notice of her pretending it was Nadir between her legs… Perhaps she could instruct Falke to go slowly and devour her like his favorite dessert as she was sure Nadir would have.
Nyssa leaned her head back against the lip of the tub, closing her eyes and envisioning it—pretending it was the Commander’s fingers slipping between her folds and not her own. How his long fingers would touch her with eager delicacy until she pleaded for him to pick up his pace. She imagined him hovering over her, his body encompassing hers as he asked her what she liked. As his mouth kissed her and sucked on her breast. She would have rocked into his hand as he took her as his. Slowly at first, then faster, harder,deeper…
She’d never brought herself to her end as quickly as she did from just imagining him with her.
“I’ve not seen you this nervous for a ball in months, sis,” Dorian teased later as he joined her to finish getting ready. “Wouldn’t have anything to do with a certain—ow!”
She’d thrown the pillow at his face, and he hadn’t been paying attention enough to catch it. She wished she’d thrown a knife at his annoying face instead when she saw his grin.
“Shut up,” she grunted. “It has nothing to do with him. It’s just… it’s a lot of people. A lot ofnewpeople. It’s not onlyourpeople, but it’s also….”
