Page 68 of The Queen’s Bodyguard

Yes. Her body sighed. Yes, yes, yes…

But this time she wanted to know what it felt like to have him inside her, hard and massive and stretching her to the edge of—

Are you insane?

She shook away the fantasies, turning her face away from his touch, squeezing her legs together to ward off any further activity. “Y-you…you should fix…” She waved at his crotch, vaguely. “That.”

Argos turned away from her quickly, adjusting himself…giving Theora the time she needed to get herself together. She desperately needed a change of underwear, but there was nothing to be done about that now. She didn’t even have any perfume to spray, paranoia convincing her that the entire boat would be able to smell that she had just had sex.

But there wasn’t much to be done about that, either. Nothing but to distract herself.

“How did you learn how to do that?” she asked.

He glanced over his shoulder at her. “Do what?”

She rolled her eyes and managed to stand, but the cool sensation of the cavern air beneath her skirt just made her aware of just how drenched her panties were. They were barely serving their purpose at this point, but removing them with Argos standing right there was out of the question.

“You know what,” she said, crossing her arms.

Finally he turned to face her, his expression not giving away the answer. But Theora was less concerned with that, and more disappointed that his hard-on was gone. Sovereign, Theora. Stop objectifying your bodyguard.

“Usually,” said Argos, “people get good at things through practice.”

Theora made a sound in her throat she couldn’t quite process. “Gross.”

“What’s gross about it?” His voice was suddenly bitter enough to make Theora cringe at her own reaction. Gross had been a poor word choice. She should’ve been grateful for all that practice, and what it had done for her…Instead, she was jealous of all who’d come before her.

She reached out to offer him their salute, freezing when he lowered his head to look at the ground.

“Argos?” she asked, worried her words had truly hurt him. “Are you okay?”

He stared at his feet for a moment, as if making sense of his emotions. Theora stepped toward him, and he looked up with an expression that halted her. She wanted to kiss that uncertain brow of his. Reassure him. But of what?

So she waited, her breath locked in his silence. After a moment he released it, the look in his eyes making her knees threaten to buckle before he murmured, “You just…taste how I imagined, that’s all.”

Like butterscotch lollipops.

Theora felt her breath tremble at his words. He had…cleaned his fingers with his…fuck. Part of her wished she hadn’t been so overcome in the moment, that she could have watched him do it.

The other part of her, the queenly part, knew that that kind of thinking was far too dangerous.

“I’ve flustered you again,” said Argos, but there was no hint of teasing in his tone. Dread Sovereign, it was worse than that. She pressed on her lower stomach, as if that would stop her panties from getting wet.

“We shouldn’t touch each other anymore,” she murmured, turning away.

Argos took a breath, running his fingers through his hair. “I overdid it. I should’ve never asked that of you.”

“It doesn’t matter how much, how little. The problem is you’re too good at it, and I’m just not…used to that.”

“Be honest with yourself, Theora,” said Argos, his voice as stern as it was sweet. “Are you not used to it? Or do you just not allow yourself to be?”

There was a burning sensation behind her eyes that couldn’t be soothed. She turned away from him, tilting her head back slightly, in case the tears disobeyed her efforts and threatened the integrity of her eye makeup. She felt herself trembling as his massive presence approached, wanting his touch and yet unsure if she could ever bear it again.

His hand slipped around her waist, the other across her chest and both shoulders. She didn’t fight the embrace, just to prove she didn’t have to, to prove it didn’t affect her…to prove that this was only cuddling to get them used to each other, and nothing more.

Sovereign. Any excuse except that she wanted it.

There was no way Argos could have learned to do things like that, living in the barracks his whole life. She wasn’t naïve enough to think no Warrior had ever done so, but it was against his Honor…and the one thing Argos upheld higher than anything was Honor.