This knight had kept his promise. While all I’d done was lie to him.
The heat in his eyes faded into confusion, then alarm. “What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?”
I whispered around the rock in my throat. “You could never do that.”
“Then what—” But his expression seized in the dark. “You regret this.”
I didn’t. And I did.
Nor was I the only remorseful participant. Aire’s gaze fell, a conflicted noise scratching across his tongue. “Our agreement.”
“There’s that,” I gusted out.
The pact to keep our hands to ourselves. Our deal not to bring complications into this mission.
Among other things. With his hand between my open thighs and his fingers clutched inside me, I hated deceiving this man. But I also wouldn’t implicate him. Aire was free to despise me all he wanted if I told the truth. That didn’t scare me. The greater danger still loomed—that he’d become Rhys’s target. If Summer knew the depth of my feelings, I would condemn Aire.
In this way, he got it wrong. I did fear things. Seeing him hurt, putting him in jeopardy, cutting short his life. That terrified me.
Nonetheless, if I couldn’t tell him one truth, I would share another.
I whispered into the hollow, my breath coasting over his. “You’ve only ever been the kindest, safest man on earth. I wanted your touch. I’ve never come so deeply with anyone.”
“Aspen,” he ground out. “If you wish to dissuade me, you mustn’t say such things.”
I set my fingers against his lips. “I just did.”
Not the whole story, but an honest response. I wouldn’t take it back, even if we couldn’t push things farther.
And for Aire’s part, the premonition still loomed. Although he knew I could fend for myself, I understood. This warrior dreaded his involvement, that he might make things worse. Since it wasn’t in his nature to stand by either, the knight could at least preserve my safety and his fear by keeping a platonic distance.
Logic noted. Rules accepted.
When I voiced this conviction, Aire rested his forehead to mine, and his thumb stroked the wet ridge of my pussy. “I wish I had your fortitude.”
I smiled sadly into his mouth. “You do.”
His touch sent another tremble across my flesh. Gods, he needed to stop talking, uttering things I wanted to hear, and caressing me like a treasure. If he didn’t, I would crumble to pieces.
Holding my gaze in those burning orbs, Aire eased his fingers from my soaked cunt, brushed the swollen pleats once, then lifted those glistening digits to his mouth. The virtuous knight made one final act of defiance, slipping the appendages between his perfect lips and sucking on my cum.
My pulse skipped. Like the kiss, I would never forget this moment.
Groaning, Aire pulled his hand away. “You taste as brazen as you behave.”
“Allies, then,” I panted.
His hand fell. Rearranging my skirt and releasing his grip on me, the knight inclined his head. “Allies.”
Nothing more. We couldn’t have tomorrow. But at least we’d had tonight.
We remained in the same position, with me braced in the valley of his thighs. The horses’ body heat would keep Nicu comfortable. But although the trunk offered insulation, Aire peeled off his coat and draped the fabric over me.
Until dawn, I pretended to sleep. The knight’s chest contracted beneath my spine, his fist gripped one of the broadswords, and he bundled me close to ward off any sign of a chill.
By morning, we squirmed apart. Aire cleared his throat while I smoothed out my cloak. Morning-after awkwardness didn’t compare to the tension pulling between us, thick and bound like a noose.
But with escape taking precedence, this stalemate didn’t last long. I whipped out my axe, preparing to cleave through the roots, when a thought stayed my wrist.
