“Smart,” I say, and it is. If their enemies are terrified of them, they’re harder to fight.
He casts me another glance, then frowns.
“What?”
He slides out from under my feet and sets them down gently, then he goes and grabs another blanket, coming up behind me. “Your hair is soaking your nightgown. You’re going to be cold all night.” Then, before I know what he’s doing, he begins to slowly dry my hair with the blanket, his every move gentle.
The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and my eyes close. “I’ve never had someone dry my hair before.”
“No?”
“It feels nice.”
“Oh?”
He continues to dry my hair, rubbing my scalp, and a sigh slips from my lips. He keeps going as my head falls back, and I realize my head is in his lap. I turn a little and, eyes no longer closed, find myself face-to-cock with his impressive package, which is currently standing at attention.
I sit up in a hurry, heart pounding.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” The thing is, my body might be ready to try out this hunky Hollowborn, but sleeping with a man I barely know, an enemy, would be absolutely insane right now.
“I think I’m ready for bed now,” I say, shifting to stand.
He’s there in an instant, scooping me into his arms. I protest, but he carries me to the bed, shifts me to one arm to peel back the blanket, then lays me softly under the covers, before pulling the blankets over me. He tucks my hair back behind my ears and stares down at me for a long moment.
I don’t know what to say, so I just open my mouth. “I wouldn’t have ever associated the word ‘gentle’ with a Hollowborn.”
He looks amused as he walks around the bed, although my gaze is sliding between his hard chest and obvious erection. “Hollowborns are never more gentle than they are with their mates.”
I’m still digesting that when he crawls into bed and places an arm around my waist, pulling me against him, so the evidence of his arousal is pressed firmly against my ass. A low rumble comes from his chest, and he takes a deep breath, as if breathing me in. My nipples harden, and I find myself aching for his touch, and terrified of it all at the same time.
“We barely know each other…” I begin.
“So let's get to know each other,” he murmurs into my ear before rubbing his lips against my earlobe.
Fuck. Shit.
I try to change the topic. “We’re going back to Stormwrath Academy soon. How do you feel about that?”
He rubs himself softly against my ass. “I have mixed feelings. It’s wrong, I know it is, but the biggest thing on my mind is how I don’t want to share you with the Dravari princes. The Hollowborn rarely share women, and everything inside of me doesn’t want to share you. My mind is full of the various waysI want to take you, and not a single way involves three Dravaris with their dicks out, even though I’m sure I could teach them many things.”
I shiver.
“What do you think of that?”
It’s hard to think with his scent, something rich and manly, and his hard body pressed all over me. “I don’t know. The princes and I have a connection too, but they haven’t been the nicest to me. I’m not sure how I feel about them entirely, but I understand that marrying them is part of the deal.”
“It is, which is why I’ll learn to share. My people deserve a better life. They deserve peace. I’ll need to come to terms with the cost of that peace for us.”
“Agreed.”
“And I’m worried about the peace agreement. I trust you, but I do not trust the Dravari people. They have ruined every peace agreement our people have ever made. I’m prepared for them to ruin this one too. I simply don’t want to get myself, or any of my people, killed in one of their little games.”
I’m surprised. “I’ve always heard the Hollowborn have been the reason every peace agreement hasn’t worked out.”
His laugh is a low rumble in his chest. “I’m afraid not, My Heart.”
