“Yell at her again, Desert King, and you won’t have a voice box to yell with,” Rennick warned.
Amos threw his hands up. “You don’t think I know what I’ve done?” The pain in his voice took Amelia by surprise and stopped her from grabbing her other shoe. “I didn’t seek her out to send her away. She was training when I found her, and she was more skilled than I was at the time. So, I had a stupid idea to send her to you.”
“Why?” Amelia demanded. “I’d been fine up until that point.”
He stepped forward, as did Rennick. “Because when your mate came looking for you, I knew you’d have a bigger target on your back if anyone found out who you were to not only the Desert throne but to him.” He ran a hand through his messy hair. “Clover was talented and young; no one would suspect her.” He looked crushed beneath his guilt. “I was a kid, and I made a foolish decision.”
She stared at him, waiting for him to continue, but he didn’t. “And when you wised up? Why didn’t you tell her she could go home?”
“He did,” Clover spoke up. “When we were sixteen, he asked me to come back, but I told him no.”
Amelia rubbed her forehead, not comprehending why the girl would stay when she had a family who loved her. “And you were okay with that? You didn’t stay because you thought you owed something to the future king?”
Clover pressed her lips together and shook her head. “I had no desire to be in the Desert Kingdom, and I owe him nothing.”
Amelia glanced at her brother. “I know you were only a child,” she told him, “but that was a cruel thing to ask of her as her future king, and while I appreciate the sentiment, I’m forced to carry the guilt too.”
“No one regrets my decision more so than me.” The deep sadness in his voice made Amelia’s heart break a little.
A bell next to the door rang in a merry pattern, and Rennick removed the steel beam to open it. Callum popped his head in. “Is everything all right?” He took stock of the room, pausing on Amos’s red cheek.
“You three go ahead,” Amelia told Clover, Rennick, and Callum. “Amos and I will be there shortly.”
The others shuffled out, Rennick begrudgingly so.
Amos looked tired, the shadows under his eyes prominent, and Amelia wondered how long they’d been there. “I don’t need another—”
She wrapped her arms around him, cutting him off mid-sentence, and he froze with his arms pinned beneath hers.
“I know you meant well.” She released him and backed away. “All I wanted growing up was a family. I used to dream someone would show up to claim me. Knowing Clover was made to leave her own because of me is a hard bite to swallow.”
Amos seemed haunted by demons Amelia couldn’t begin to understand. “I regret it every day.”
“We’ll make sure she and her family are set for life,” Amelia promised, with an awkward pat on his shoulder.
“I tried,” he replied with a long sigh. “She refuses every time, but she and I will work it out later. We need to discuss our situation.” He motioned between them. “You’re the only family I have left, and I’d like to get to know you better.”
Amelia hugged him again, and he stiffened under her affection. “You’re not a hugger, are you?”
He tried to move, but she held tight. “I despise them,” he said uncomfortably.
She laughed and let him go. “I’d like to get to know you, too.” He smiled then, and she returned it tenfold. “Let’s go eat before my mate hauls me over his shoulder in front of everyone.”
35
Amelia straddled Rennick’s lap on their bed as he caressed the bare skin of her back. They’d wanted time alone before their nuptials later that day.
Their mouths moved together, perfectly in sync, and he made an animalistic sound that shot straight to her core. She extracted herself from his hold and climbed off the bed. Rennick tried to follow, but she placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him from standing.
“What are you doing, little mate?”
Pre-cum leaked from the head of his cock, and she sank to her knees in front of him. His dick twitched when she wrapped her hand around the base, and he sucked air between his teeth. “If you start this, I won’t be able to stop.”
Leaning forward, she ran her tongue up the length of his shaft. “I don’t want you to.”
His head fell back with a tortured groan, and she licked again and took the tip into her mouth. There was a small knot near the head of his dick, and when she lightly scraped her teeth over it, he jumped and fisted her hair.
Smiling, she lowered her head as much as she could withoutgagging, using her hand to make up the difference of his length. He whispered her name and wrapped her hair around his fist as he pulsed his hips.
