I fluffed her hair instead. “You’re ridiculous.”
“And you’re amazing.” Maeve wrapped her arm around my neck and pressed her lips to mine.
Amazing.
I drew back from her kiss, breathing hard.
Amazing was not the word to describe me.
I continued with the story. “So when I wore this crown, the princes had to do what I said, no questions, no exceptions. God it was fun. I was drunk on my power.”
“What did you do?”
“For the first ten years of my life, I did the revenge thing. I got the wankers back for all the things they’d done to me throughout the year. I made Airell burn his twin brother’s face. I forced Pwyll to eat processed human food and he threw up forsix days.” I grinned at the memory. “It was fun.”
“The Unseelie have a weird idea of fun.”
I grinned. “I didn’t have a Flynn for entertainment.”
“Is there more to this story, because so far I’m not really seeing this good side of Daigh.”
“There’s more. After a few years, the revenge thing got boring. So I decided I’d have an actual party instead – a party that included everything I liked about the fae realm. Daigh sent fae to the human realm specifically to bring me back some cake, and had his chefs prepare a fae version that they could stomach. I invited the Seelie fairies to our revel, and for hours we drank and danced and Liah and I laughed and talked and there was no violence or ill will. I declared that all grudges must be healed and all debts were wiped. Daigh thought it was such a great idea, he made the party an annual tradition – once a year all fae had to clean their slates. I always admired that decision.”
Maeve nodded. “Okay, yeah. That’s nice. It doesn’t make up for kidnapping you and torturing you and forcing you to live in the fae realm without human contact and killing my parents and conniving to annihilate the entire human race, but it’snice.”
I snorted. “You have very high expectations, Princess. Expecting your leaders to be kind and non-genocidal.”
She laughed, her breasts bouncing against my chest. “In a weird way, we’re almost like siblings, you know? In another life, in another multiverse, we might’ve grown up together, like Kelly and I. I might’ve called you my brother, instead of my boyfriend.”
My heart leapt into my throat. “I’m your boyfriend?”
“Sure. That’s what you call a boy who you’re committed to. What do you call them in the fae realm?”
I grinned. “Lunch.”
She punched my arm again. “Flynn has been a bad influence on you.”
“Our father would be so proud.”
“Don’t say that. It’s gross.” She laughed bitterly. “Now that I know about the binding, I’m even sure about it anymore.”
My heart hammered against my chest. “Not sure you love me?”
Maeve kissed me again. Spirit magic sparked from her lips, dancing over my tongue. “I’m more sure of that than anything. What I mean is, I don’t see how I can possibly be Daigh’s daughter. Notscientifically. Aline slept with Robert while Daigh was inhabiting his mind. So to her, Daigh’s my dad. But that’s not how genetics works.” She broke off into a long explanation of chromosomes and DNA sequencing, which I didn’t pay much attention to because I was distracted by her taste and her breasts swelling against me.
“You keep talking, Princess.” I nibbled along her neck. “Don’t mind me.”
“Blake, this is serious. Do you have any idea if compelling someone would mean they retain some of your chromosomes…”
Maeve’s words trailed away as I kissed a line across her collarbone. She leaned back against the sheets, pulling me on top of her. My lips crushed hers, my whole body lighting up as our spirit magic clashed against each other, rolling together inside of us and becoming one.
“I thought we were going to sleep,” Maeve whispered, her mouth curling up into an enchanting smile.
“When beautiful women rub their naked breasts against me, sleep is the last thing on my mind.”
More sparkling kissed landed on my lips. The room, the castle, the world faded away, unimportant against Maeve’s unrelenting need.
She slid back, tucking a curl of black hair behind my ear. “Did you know the last time we were alone together was in the bathroom at Jane’s cottage?”
