“Hmm.” I drift a finger down her spine until I cup her ass. “I’m sure you’re planning something devious.”
She pushes her bottom into my touch. My hand slips through the panels of fabric and caresses her bare skin.
“Fuck,” I groan, and then I can’t stop myself. I pull her on top of me, her thighs spread on either side of my hips, her bare heat pressing against me. “Do you feel that, Rose? Do you feel how weak I am for you?”
A sound of deep desire ripples through her, and she rocks along my cock. “You know what I want, Kel.” She presses her lips to my jaw. “But I’ll start with a kiss.”
I angle my face toward hers, lips a hair from mine. “Tell me what you were doing with Ez. His scent is all over you.”
Her eyes widen, and she flushes. “We were—”
“I hope he was good to you, Rose.” The thought of my best friend satisfying her in a way I’ll never be able to fills an ache in my burning chest.
“He kissed me,” she says huskily. “He kissed me here.”
Then she grabs my hand and pulls it between her skirts. My fingertips graze her hot core. So soft and wet. I need to be inside her. “Rose—”
“Well, isn’t this the most delicious sight in all the Below,” a smooth voice says.
I sit up, cradling Rosalina in my arms as I take in Caspian leaning by the entrance of the alcove. “Careful, Kel, or you might just break your twenty-five year streak.”
He’s all mocking smile and sharp angles. Twenty-five years. Has it really been that long? But it hadn’t been hard, not at all. Not with knowing the harm it would cause.
That is until Rosalina entered Castletree. The answer to my curse. And the doom of my realm.
“Room for one more?” Caspian sits down beside us.
Rosalina fixes him with a glare. “What are you doing here?”
“Why, I do believe you mentioned you had a present for me.”
“You don’t deserve it for being a pig.”
He pouts his full lips. “But it’s my birthday.”
She wavers, whether it’s from her unyielding kindness or she’s just as weak to his charm as everyone else. “You can have it if you promise to stop sending fae you fucked to Castletree.”
“How can I promise that? I may be a prince, but I’m also a man with certain needs.”
“Find a new kink other than offering up naked people.” Rosalina slides off my lap, and I instantly miss her touch.
“Something new,” he muses. “Want to help me discover it?”
Thorns wriggle out from the ground. Almost affectionately, they encircle her wrists, connecting them together, and lifting them above her head. Two more vines snake out and bind each ankle.
Caspian gives her the slightest poke in the sternum, and she falls among the cushions with a peep.
“Let her go,” I warn.
“That’s the thing, my dear Kel,” Caspian purrs. “She is able to tame these briars, the same as I. You can break free, can’t you?”
Rosalina seems to test them, chest heaving. The only emotion pulsing through the bond between us is… lust.Damn him.
“Sometimes it feels good to surrender, doesn’t it, little princess?” Caspian licks his lips. “Because deep down you know I’m not going to hurt you. That I’ll only bring you pleasure. Thought about my proposal? I can offer you the answer you so desperately seek.”
“You think this is how you’ll get your present?” she bites out, but her voice is raspy, low.
“I be nice to you. You be nice to me.” The briars holding her ankles move, opening her legs slightly. Her skirt shifts to the side, and through the panels, I glimpse her bare pussy, the light line of hair before her dripping center. The smell of her arousal is intoxicating.
