All around them, Ithicanians bowed low, Aren and Lara inclining their heads, and it felt impossible to breathe. The weight of kingdoms, the weight of countless lives, all rested upon his shoulders. The torchlight spun.
“James.” Ahnna’s voice cut through the rushing roar of blood in his ears, and his gaze focused on her beautiful face. A face to go to war over, if he’d ever seen one, but it was the fire that burned within her that would see them win this.
Slipping his arm around her waist and cupping his bloody palm against her cheek, he bent and kissed his wife.
His queen.
All around them, Ithicanians shouted and lifted their weapons into the air, but they’d celebrate a chance at a future alone tonight.Moving his hand to Ahnna’s back, he lifted her into his arms and started down the path.
“Where are we going?” she said with a laugh. “The feast is up there.”
“Enough with Ithicana’s customs,” he replied. “It’s time to show you one of Cardiff’s.”
69
Ahnna
“You can put me downif I’m getting heavy,” Ahnna said, despite very much enjoying the feel of James’s hand on her bare thigh as he carried her down the path to the Midwatch house.
“You aren’t heavy.” He turned his head to look at her. “Even if you were, it’s bad luck not to carry your bride to your wedding bed. I need to prove my worth to you.”
“It’s averylong walk.” She tightened her arm around his neck to take some of the burden off his arms.
James frowned at her. “If you’re going to question my capacity to carry my own woman, at least soften the blow by putting those legs around me, Princess.”
Not a princess, if this plan works. A queen.
The thought made her heart clench with a sudden twist of trepidation, but it disappeared from her head as James turned her in his arms so that her legs were around his waist. He ran his hands up her thighs, then gripped her ass, a soft groan escaping his lips. “Stars, woman, you’re not wearing anything beneath this, are you?”
She tightened her grip on his neck with one hand and then hooked her heels together behind his back. With her free hand, she slowly unbuttoned his white shirt, then pulled it loose from his trousers so that the apex of her thighs pressed against the bare skin of his stomach.
James’s boot slid in the mud and as he cursed, she gave him a dark smile, rubbing herself against him. “Are you sure you’re going to make it to the house?”
“I have to.” His grip on her ass tightened. “The stars would judge me weak if I broke and fucked you in the mud, although you’re making me question whether I care what they think.”
“Do you care?” She was curious, but she also felt the hardness of his cock pressing against her as her heels pushed his trousers lower on his hips and it made it so hard to focus on words.
“The only thing I care about is you, Ahnna.” He said the words between panted breaths, his eyes dark as he bent his head to nip at her throat. “You’re my wife, and that means you must be treated with respect.”
“What if I don’t want to be treated with respect right now? What if I want you to lose control and put me on my knees so you can make me yours?”
The response she got was a growl that made her heart skip, and then her back was against a tree trunk. He caught hold of her wrists with one hand and pinned them above her head as she tightened her thighs above his hips.
“I never have any control around you.” His mouth claimed hers, tongue delving deep, the demand in it making her body respond in kind. “Just looking at you from across the room undoes the man in me and leaves behind a feral beast driven by impulse and instinct. When you say things like that, what do you think it does to me?”
His free hand caught hold of the bodice of her dress and tore. Beads scattered all around them, scraps of silk dangling from her shoulders as he kissed a line of fire down her throat. Her nipples peaked as wind blew across them, and Ahnna whimpered as he caught hold of her right breast, thumb and forefinger working her sensitive flesh to the point that pleasure bordered on pain.
But she needed that. Needed an intensity that matched the life she lived, needed sensation that pushed her to the limit and beyond.
“I need you in me.” It was hard to get the words out, hard to remember what words were as his teeth scraped over her collarbone. “I need you. I need everything.”
With her heel, she shoved his trousers down over his ass and released his cock from the confines of the fabric. She forced her hips down, and the feel of the thick tip of him pressing into her made her whole body shudder. “Please.”
His body trembled, and she ground her hips against him, trying to overwhelm his willpower so that he’d give her what she so desperately needed. Instead, his hand moved from her breast to her ass, lifting her off him. Amber eyes met hers, and it was like looking into the eyes of a wolf. “Not yet.”
The tone demanded she obey, but that was not her nature. So Ahnna dug in her heels, the muscles of her legs flexing as she fought against him, trying to force her body down upon him.
James only stepped back from the tree and lifted her, flipping her over his shoulder. Her skirt was tangled around her waist, and his hand came down firmly on her backside. The sting turned her body liquid with need, and she parted her thighs to feel the kiss of the wind against her sex as he continued down the path.
