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“What are you doing?” I hissed with absolutely no tooth. I didn’t care what he was doing. The dreams of the night and the warmth of his body, mixed with his intoxicating scent, created a concoction at the base of my skull that rewired every single care and concern into ephemeral little butterflies that fluttered off into the distance.

“I believe I’m caressing your thigh.” His voice grew rich and deep. Deeper than I had ever heard him speak. It rumbled through and around me. It seemed to go on for ages and whisper, just like his eyes had, of a timeless ancient wonder that I had barely scratched the surface of.

“Why?”

“Oh, dear one, do I really need to explain why? Or do you already know why and are just too stubborn to give in to it?”

“The soldiers—”

“Would look away and be interested in anything at all, even a rock, if necessary, if they were closer. And yet they are not. All they see is my back and the horse’s ass.”

The ghost of the tips of his fingers found the crease at the top of my thigh that dipped lower to the pulsing, hungry core of me and teased at the flesh there, never truly fondling but stoking the fires of yearning, nonetheless. “I told you what I wanted from you. And I will have it.”

“What happened to having talks of open license to each other’s bodies?” I tried not to moan as his palm flattened against my belly and pressed just slightly.

“Mmm, yes, we should have that conversation. Shouldn’t we?” He dipped his head and brushed his lips against the unguarded tender tip of my ear as he spoke. “My boundaries are very simple. Give me everything, and I will do the same. Take nothing you will not give. Ask of me nothing that you would not be willing to give as well. If I say stop, respect that.”

“I . . . I don’t want to give up hope that The Raven and I might . . . might one day find some way to be together.” My voice was paper-thin, a mere whisper of the strength I knew I had somewhere within me and felt no need to reach for while he played music across my skin.

“You love him?”

“I didn’t think I did. I didn’t think I ever could, but when Oaken Rose ripped out that bond, it felt like she ripped out my very soul. And when I saw him again . . . I thought it would be different. I thought I would see him again without the bond and there would be nothing there.” His fingers went still, allowing me to think, but his lips never strayed from my ear. “But I . . . I felt something for him even then. I don’t know if it’s love. I only know that when he touched me, it felt like bliss.”

“And when I touch you?”

“It feels nice—like a betrayal—but nice. I don’t feel a pull toward you like I did with the anam cara bond. I want to be near you. I want to fuck you. I want your laughter and your mind. But I don’t feel like I should be crawling out of my skin to get to you. I feel like if you pissed me off, I could stay mad at you.”

I felt the smile against my ear as if I amused him.

“Love without choice is no love I want, dear one. I will not ask you to put aside The Raven. If you fear I will force you to choose, that fear withers here. He is a handsome Fae. I’ve said it before. I would have eventually found my way into his bed. He did not have to trick me into my lust for him. It was already simmering.”

“I’ve . . . I’ve never had more than one lover before. I don’t know how to navigate this. I don’t know how to exist with both of you.”

“You have already begun the hardest part, Banfhlaith—open communication of your wants and needs. The rest will come in time. Never fear talking to me. Never fear being truthful with me, and we will work through the rest together.” His fingers grazed the inside of my thigh. “Do I have permission to have open license to your body when and how I wish it, unless you say stop?”

“Yes.” I didn’t hesitate in my answer. “I will only say stop. Even if I say other words, only believe the stop.”

He grinned against my ear and groaned. “I said I did not like games of pain, my dear one, but I do so enjoy the games of hunting and resistance.”

“Do you?” It was my turn to grin. “Will you wager then, Iron Thorn?”

“What do you have in mind, Banfhlaith?”

“I bet I can make you break first.”

A low rumbling of laughter cut through him and shook my spine. “Is that so? I have an uncountable number of decades of these games and experience on my side. Do you really think you could outmatch me? Do you not realize you are already at a disadvantage, Banfhlaith? I have you in front of me and at my mercy.”

“So, you accept the bet?”

His deep chuckle rumbled again. “Oh, absolutely.”

I leaned back into him, my hand covering his, guiding it, while my other danced along the delicate line of my bodice. His eyes were on me, they burned into my skin as he watched me move against him. I felt him fight the control of my hand on his, felt him try to snake it away from my grip and toward the drenched depths of me, but I didn’t let him. I let him watch as my fingers played over the tops of my breasts and let his hand drift closer and closer. I let him feel the heat rolling off me.

His breathing caught, stuttered, and became ragged against my spine as I tilted my head all the way back and our eyes connected. The cosmos exploded from the center of his dark brown irises until they ate every bit of the whites. “Kiss me?”

“Do you think you will win me over with a single kiss?”

I stretched up, my lips seeking his, even though with the height difference, there was no conceivable way I would ever reach them. But I had caught hold of my dress with one pinky, and as I stretched up, it slipped lower along my bust line. “You were denied my lips that night in your chambers. You didn’t avail yourself of them last night. Nor this morning. There’s only one way to find out, or are you too scared, Ard Tiarna Iron Thorn?”