BONUS CHAPTER

Robin Icethorn was the most beautiful man I had ever laid my eyes upon. That fact had not wavered since I'd first met him all those days ago. Strange how short the time had been since he entered my orbit, and yet I felt as though he had been a part of my life for years. If he was not the missing part, he filled the Robin-shaped hole within me with ease.

I should have been reading the books supplied by Queen Lyra's scholars, but I could not take my eyes off him. How he nibbled his lower lip when he focused, the way in which his finger brushed the page and the concentration etched into the lines across his brow. There was not a single detail I wished to miss.

Occasionally he would look up at me, almost catching me in my pure fascination. Although those moments were fleeting, I was desperate for him to look away again, just so I could continue studying him.

Truthfully, I wanted to do so much more. But since we had arrived in Farrador, Robin had been distracted, his mind elsewhere. I dared not speak it aloud for fear my insecurities would be confirmed, but I felt as though his distance had everything to do with Tarron Oakstorm.

Just thinking about him soured my insides, and made the beast that had been lurking all my life stir to the surface.

But I had to keep control. For myself, for Robin. He was my focus.

Robin yawned for the fifth time since starting the page he had turned to.

"If you are tired, little bird, might I suggest a break?"

I noticed that every time I used the nickname I gave him, Robin would bristle as though a cool breath had brushed the back of his neck. Knowing I had such a physical effect on him with just my words gave me a sense of satisfaction that I craved. That was exactly why I fit those two sweet words in, whenever I could.

"To be honest, the words are all blending into one at this point," Robin replied, narrowing his eyes on the page as if that would stop the script from rolling like waves of water. "But I worry that if I give up now, I'll miss the chance to find answers."

"A few moments to rest your eyes and stretch will do you good," I said, closing the book I held but had not started. "Perhaps a walk around the battlements?"

Robin winced, a shiver coursing across his skin. "I'd rather not. Just looking out the window makes me sick."

I did not need to question why. Even with the thick stone walls, the sound of the army beyond the tower was enough to unsettle anyone's stomach. Let alone the man who balanced on the knife-edge of either starting a war or stopping it.

"Then some food," I suggested.

"I ate so many sticky buns at breakfast, if I put one more thing in my body, I'll be sick."

My brows raised into my hairline. Robin noticed my reaction a second after realising how his reply could be misconstrued. I adored the way his midnight eyes glistened, windows to the most emotive soul I had ever met. The right side of his mouth would quirk upwards whenever Robin's thoughts turned to naughtier topics. What I would give to close the space between us and put those rose-red lips against my own. To taste him, to make him scream my name.

There was nothing more beautiful than my name occupying his mouth… as well as other, more tangible things.

"Don't say it," Robin warned, obsidian eyes alight with mischief.

I lifted my arms in surrender, catching the way Robin's attention flickered to the muscles: something he always seemed occupied with. "My lips are sealed, and the precarious thoughts dissipating as I speak."

Robin pouted.

"Oh, did I say something to displease you, little bird?"

There it was again, that shiver, making the faint hairs on his arms raise to standing. I strained on the edge of my seat, aware of the hardening happening beneath my undershorts.

"Well," Robin drawled whilst placing the tome on the floor by his feet. "There is one thing you could do for me."

Saliva prickled inside my cheeks, filling my mouth, proving just how physically I starved for Robin. "Anything you need, it is my duty to provide."

I saw the word form on his lips before he spoke it. "Distraction."

I leaned forwards, flexing every muscle in my taut body as I drew closer to him. "When are you going to stop referring to it as a distraction, and simply ask me to fuck you?"

Robin gasped, eyes going straight for the door as if someone would come barrelling in. It was not exactly a wasted concern, considering Althea Cedarfall had last walked in on us. Any earlier and she would have seen me with my mouth full of the Icethorn heir.

"Language, Erix. What has gotten into you?"

"Oh, I don't know," I replied, finally standing, not caring to hide the obvious bulge in my leather breeches. Robin noticed too, his lips parting on a muted exhale. His focus was stuck to my groin as I sauntered over to him, nudged his knees apart with my hand and stepped in between them. " You have gotten into me. You've burrowed so deep inside of me, that I fear nothing will ever get you out."

"Like a thorn?"

My lips turned upwards as I reached for Robin's jaw. He didn't stop me. Instead, he arched in his seat, nails digging into the armrest as I placed my thumb on his lower lip. I tugged it carefully, not wanting to hurt him, whilst so desperately needing to feel the softness of his tongue.

"Like an arrow. Something piercing. A thorn can be removed and the wound healed. The arrow, though, leaves damage after removal, even if the person struck survives. That is what you are to me. A lasting wound. A scar to be proud of."

Robin could not respond with my thumb in his mouth. I almost removed it so I could hear his sultry voice, but I didn't act quickly enough. With wide eyes looking up at me through dark lashes, Robin wrapped that pretty fucking tongue around my digit.

A groan escaped the deepest parts of me. It encouraged Robin, who deliberately scored his teeth against my skin.

"So, I shall reiterate your options." My mouth was parched, my body desperate for him. "A walk, some food or–"

Robin pulled back and answered before I could finish. "I'll go with option number three."

"For being royalty, you really have no manners."

He fluttered his lashes, almost destroying me. "Pretty please."

"That's better," I said, before turning for the door. "Much, much better."

I checked the door was locked two times, just to be sure. By the time I turned back around, Robin was already undressing.

"Wait a moment," I said, sauntering back over to him. "What's the rush?"

He narrowed his eyes on me, scrutinising as he unbuttoned his tunic. "Silly question, Erix. You know exactly what the rush is about."

I had a feeling Robin was not talking about continuing his research. From the way he looked up at me, there was only one desire on his mind.

Me.

And that made me feel powerful.

"It's rather refreshing when someone else gives the commands," Robin admitted, tongue lacing his lower lip, enticing me to snatch it between my teeth.

"Is that so?" I asked, arching to reach beneath the waistband of my trousers to grip my straining cock.

He tipped his head in agreement, fluttering those fucking eyes at me. Another second and I would break beneath his gaze, shattered into a million pieces, never with the desire to be fixed by hands other than his.

"Well," I breathed, feeling the strings of control snap one by one. "If that is the case, get on your knees."

"Look whose forgotten his manners now," Robin chirped before sinking his teeth into his lower lip.

"Knees, little bird."

He did not need to be told a third time. Robin dropped to the ground beneath me, hands reaching desperately for my belt. It was undone in a blink, pulled out of the loops around my waist and then dumped to the floor.

"Look at you," I sang, heart beating like the flock of a thousand birds. "You really were in need of a distraction, weren't you?"

Either Robin didn't hear me, or just didn't have the care to reply, because another handful of seconds and my cock was gripped in his hand and guided inside of his mouth. The second his lips brushed the curve of my tip, my world came apart at the seams.

My fingers tangled in the back of his hair as my roar of pleasure echoed around the room. Robin fought against the thickness of my thighs as one hand tugged my trousers down to my ankles. Perhaps I should have helped him, but alas, my body was no longer my own. It belonged to him entirely.

I moved when he wanted me to.

As much as I longed to be strong for him, I was reduced to a pathetic excuse for a man, with no control. Because it had not been but three minutes with my cock enjoying the pleasure of his mouth, and I'd nearly finished.

I tore him off me, and I swore the glistening spit across his parted mouth made controlling myself close to impossible.

"Normally I would complain if the man I laid with could barely last a few minutes, but then again, no man has ever tasted as sweet as you," Robin said, blinking up at me, eyes watering from taking me deep into the back of his throat.

"In your mouth, I'm far more than a man," I said, breathless and yet I had done nothing but stand there and let him rule me.

"Then what are you, Erix?"

Robin's questions settled over my skin like the first snowfall of winter. Chilling to the bone, yet as pleasant as a hundred kisses from soft lips. And my answer, enticed by his siren call, fell out of me with ease. "Yours. If you would have me."

Robin paused, and for a brief moment I almost regretted my answer. Then he blinked, returning from whatever thoughts he harboured, re-joining me in this reality. "I think you took that role the moment you stepped into my line of sight."

My heart leaped in my throat. Deep down, where the beast hid, I knew I didn't deserve him. Not until he understood my secrets, my past, and the way they would affect my future. But until then, I could pretend. Because he needed me just as badly as I needed him.

What came next was a shifting in tides, slow and steady. Robin allowed me to pick him up from the floor. I carried him over the four-poster bed, laying him gently on his back. Not once did he take his eyes off me. Not as I finished undressing him, leaving his naked body nestled amongst the rumpled gold silk sheets.

What I would give for the time to touch every inch of his skin. To leave my imprint on him, just as he had with my spirit.

Between kisses and touches, I raised Robin's back and slipped a pillow beneath the bottom of his spine. His legs found their way over my shoulders, whilst I kissed the inside of his calves, brushing my fingers up and over his thighs to his exposed arse.

I reminded myself to thank Althea for the vial of lubrication which had been left in the bedside drawer. Clearly it was some twisted inside joke after she'd walked in on us the last time. But either way, it would come in handy.

Whilst Robin watched, I emptied the vial onto my length, massaging it in, using some on the tip of two fingers to prepare him for me. His whispered gasp made the fire inside of me burn wilder – hotter. Blistering to the point that I was desperate to take him.

I positioned myself at his entrance and, careful not to hurt him, I leaned into him. This time, when Robin moaned through the feeling of us joining as one, I caught it with my mouth pressed over his.

My tongue explored his until I had sheathed myself inside of him all the way to the hilt. Robin arched his back off the sheets, enough for me to slip a hand beneath and add pressure to the bottom of his spine. His thighs tightened, his nails sinking into my back. And slowly, ever so slowly, I began to move.

The feeling was bliss. It was everything and more. I had craved the pressure of his arse since the first time I had experienced it, but this was different. All touches, silence, and eye contact. Robin existed in a place where he had no room for worries. I recognised it in the way his forehead smoothed, his eyes widening and the tension in his brow lessened.

I would offer him this peace, over and over, if given the chance.

And I felt no need to rush myself, but to enjoy the few minutes I would last.

"You are the most beautiful creature I have ever laid my eyes on," I said, drawing my hips back before thrusting forwards. A bead of sweat trickled down my temple, leaving a trail all the way down the curves of my hardened chest. "Looking down at you is a blessing. Seeing you look up at me is something I do not feel as though I deserve."

Robin reached for me, laying a cool hand on my cheek. A storm lingered beneath his skin, with the power to turn flesh to glass. And yet I never feared him, never believed he had it in him to hurt me.

If only that feeling was mutual.

"Erix," Robin exhaled.

There it was. The sound that I put above anything else in the world. My name coming from his lips.

"Say it again," I said, unable to keep the pleading from my tone. "I want to hear you scream my name. I want no other name to ever grace your tongue."

Robin swallowed hard, eyes rolling back into his head as I picked up in my pace. "Erix," he whined, nails sinking deeper into me, power rolling from him in undulant waves. "Erix. Erix. Er–ix!"

"Gods," I groaned, feeling the pressure build. It was becoming impossible to hold back. I wanted to give it to him and more – so much more.

When our eyes locked again, I knew I was done for. Robin drew me down to his mouth, stopping as our lips brushed. Then he whispered my name so quietly even I believed it was a trick of some kind.

"Cum for me, Erix."

My pace quickened, my thrusts shortening as the pleasure built to new heights. I was never one to disappoint, and surely not for Robin. All I needed was his confirmation, and I released the little control I had over myself.

I laid my forehead against his, enjoying the cold kiss of his skin against the damp heat of mine. The wave of pleasure captured me, sweeping me away into the devouring feeling that was Robin Icethorn.

We laid amongst crumpled sheets for what could've been hours. I gathered Robin up in my arms, tickling fingers down his back, all whilst my body still quivered with the aftereffects of orgasm. After a while, I gently pulled myself from beneath him and climbed off the bed.

"No," Robin called out. "I'm not ready for this to end. Come back to me."

"And I thought you said you were enjoying not being the one to give orders," I said, shooting him a look.

"That's right, but–"

"But as much as I could waste weeks lying beside you, we have a task at hand, and reality to face."

"Killjoy," Robin complained, spreading out on the bed and refusing to move.

"Perhaps, but there will be plenty of time for moments like this when we find what we are looking for. Until then, I'm going to request that a bath is drawn up for you," I said, buttoning up my shirt whilst Robin just lay there, skin flushed and chest heaving.

"But what about the books?" he asked, not that either of us truly cared about them now.

"I will read them to you," I said.

"You will?" Robin leaned up on his elbows.

I nodded. "It would be my pleasure."

Turning my back on him, Robin took the moment before I slipped out of the room to call something out. " You are my pleasure, Erix. A distraction, yes. But also someone I really enjoy being around. I hope you know that."

He could not see my face, or the smile that broke across it. But I felt weightless as I took the step forwards. "And you are mine, Robin Icethorn. My duty and my pleasure."