Like she’d come to her senses, she straightened her back and looked at him with the full force of her strength. “I need to apologize.”
The drastic change knocked him off kilter. “Why?”
“As I am Fae you may have certain expectations, but I must tell you that sex”—she stumbled over the word for only a moment—“is not something I have much experience with, or even what seems to be the usual desires, if others are to be believed.”
Vali took a moment to process what she was trying to say. Then it clicked. He tried to keep the smile off his face until the words really settled. Someone, or someones, had made her feel inferior?
Not his queen.
He took a step towards her, their bodies nearly flush. The heat of her burned his hands, even through her clothing, as he rested them on her waist. “Are you worried I will be let down in some way?”
The determination to keep her dignity was still there. “Yes, I’d like you to have realistic expectations for our marital bed.”
Damn this formality.
“First, we don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to,” he assured, moving his hands, sliding them up her back before removing his touch, not wanting to override her wishes.
His cock abhorred the gesture.
“We don’t?” she asked, arching a skeptical brow.
“Not at all,” he said, taking a step back. “The goddesses will be offended and will probably smite us, but that’s no matter.” He shrugged and tried to keep the serious look on his face.
His teasing seemed to ease some of the stiffness in her back, and her shoulders shook with silent laughter. “Oh, just the anger of the gods, nothing to worry about then,” she replied.
He shrugged again. “They’re dead, what can they do?”
“More than you think,” she said, raising both brows this time.
Intriguing.
“Then perhaps we shouldn’t anger them, in case they still have the power to smite.” This, he could do—the light flirting, easy charm. If that’s what put her at ease.
“Does that work with all your partners? Threatening the smiting of the gods?” she asked, taking a step towards him. He stood perfectly still, not wanting to alarm her.
“I’ve never been married before, so I can’t say for certain. If it works with you then I’ll have to see if it works with my next wife as well.”
She punched him. Hard.
His jaw snapped to the side and her hands flew to her mouth, he assumed in horror until he saw the teasing in her eyes.
“I am so sorry!” she exclaimed. “I don’t know where that came from.”
Vali rubbed his jaw, his tongue flicking out to catch a bead of blood before it trailed down his chin.
“I’d say it came from the part of you that doesn’t want to share.” He prowled towards her, her possessiveness fuelling his lust. There was hope for them yet. It took everything in him not to close more distance between them.
“What was the second thing?” she asked.
He jolted at the swift change. “What?”
“You said ‘first’ before. Is there a second?” If he wasn’t mistaken, her breathing had quickened.
“Second,” Vali said, “I cannot, for a moment, believe that you will not be pleased, nor that you cannot please me.” Trying to keep the anger out of his voice was futile. “You know how I know that?”
“How?” she whispered.
“Because passion”—her eyes flared at the word—“comes in many forms.” He rubbed his jaw again with a smile. “And that display came from the Elven part deep inside your blood that screams at anything threatening to take what’s yours. And I am yours, my Queen.”
