Chapter 18

CHAPTER18

Iawoke to a soft knock on the door and the sound of muffled voices. I lifted the blanket higher against me, and the fabric felt blissful against my skin. My very bare skin.

I blinked my eyes open just as Evren was closing the door. He was wearing nothing but his trousers only halfway buttoned, and his hair was mussed from sleep. But he held a tray of food in his hands and my clothing in his arms.

“Morning,” he mumbled when he noticed me looking up at him.

“Morning,” I groaned as I pushed up in the bed until I was sitting. There was a slight ache between my thighs that reminded me of what we had done the night before, but I didn’t need the reminder.

Every part of my body still hummed with the memories of the way he had touched me.

“Gadira brought your clothes back.” He tossed them on the bed beside me before pushing the tray filled with pastries and meat in my direction. “And breakfast.”

I lifted a piece of fried meat to my mouth and moaned as the flavor hit my tongue. I was starving. “Do we continue our travel today?”

“Yes.” Evren nodded before sitting down on the edge of the bed and pulling on his boots. “It’ll take another two days’ time for us to arrive in Nabál. Jorah sent word back to the palace this morning.”

“Back to Gavril?”

Evren’s back stiffened as I spoke his name, and it took him a long moment before he was able to answer me. “Yes, princess. Back to Gavril.”

My chest ached, and my stomach turned at the thought. Of course he had sent word back to his brother. He was the captain of his guard, and I was his job. So, I didn’t know why it felt like a betrayal.

“And have you gotten word about the attack on the capital? Of the happenings there?”

“No.” He shook his head before running his fingers through his hair. “No one in the village has heard any talks of an attack. There is no news.”

“That’s good then, isn’t it?”

“Or it’s very bad.” He stood and buttoned his trousers without looking back in my direction. “Either way, I have no way of knowing unless word gets passed to us. Right now, we’re blind.”

“Do you want to go back?” I pulled the covers higher on my chest to shield myself from his answer.

“What?” He finally turned to look at me. “We left to protect you. I can’t take you back.”

“I didn’t mean for me to go back. You.” I nodded in his direction. “Jorah can take me the rest of the way. I can see that not being there bothers you.”

Evren stared at me for a long moment, and I squirmed under his scrutiny. “You think I’d rather be back there than be here with you.”

“I think that you are the captain of the royal guard.”

His jaw tightened, and he narrowed his eyes. “I am much more than that, princess.”

“I know that.”

“Do you?” He cocked his head before he leaned forward on the bed and pulled the breakfast tray away from me. “It would appear that you need a reminder.” He reached under the blanket, and his hand wrapped around my ankle before he jerked me toward him.

I squealed as I attempted to keep myself covered, but it was no use. Evren pulled the blanket from me, exposing my naked body to him, and his tongue ran over his lips as he stared down at me.

“Where exactly do you need the reminder, princess?” He dipped his fingers into a small pot of honey that was accompanying the pastries, and I gasped as he raised them above me and let the sticky substance drip onto my breasts. “Here?”

“What are you doing?” I tried to cover my breasts, but he caught my hand in his and pushed it down against the bed at my side.

“Reminding you of the things I told you last night. They seemed to have slipped your mind.” More honey dripped from his fingers down my sternum and into my belly button. “I want to make sure you have a clear fucking understanding before we leave this inn.”

“I do understand,” I grumbled, but Evren wasn’t listening to me.

“No, princess. You don’t.” He lowered his hand still, and honey dripped from them and over my sex. “Or you wouldn’t think for a moment that I could possibly leave you.”

More honey dripped down my thighs and slowly rolled across my skin and to my bottom. “And I’m more than fucking happy to make sure we’ve got things clear.” He dipped his honey-coated fingers into his mouth and sucked away the evidence of what he had just done as he stared down at me.

Then ever so slowly, he dropped to his knees before me and slid each of his arms beneath my thighs.

“Evren, we need to get ready.” My voice shook with the anticipation of what he was about to do.

“What I need.” He pressed a soft kiss against my inner thigh as he used his arms to lift my hips into the air. My shoulders pressed firmly into the mattress, and I couldn’t look away from him as he spoke. “Is to find out if this honey tastes even sweeter off your sex.”

He ran his tongue along my bottom, catching the honey that was still falling there, and I clamped my eyes closed as embarrassment flooded me. “Eyes on me, princess,” he growled, and I opened them immediately. “I need you to watch while I fuck every inch of you with my mouth. I don’t want there to be a trace of confusion left.”

He licked away every bit of honey from my skin, his mouth touching every part of me except where I needed him most. He ran his teeth along the top of my sex, careful not to touch my aching nub, and I groaned in frustration as his mouth moved up to my stomach.

“What’s wrong, princess?” He chuckled against my skin, but I refused to give him what he wanted. I wasn’t going to beg him for the pleasure he was denying me.

I pressed my head back into the mattress as his tongue dipped into my belly button. “Gods, you’re so sweet,” he rumbled against my skin, and my legs shook in his hands. He brought his head lower, just over my sex, and my stomach tightened in anticipation.

“Ask for what you want, princess. Tell me what it is you need.”

“You,” I moaned as I looked up at him. “I need you.”

He dove into my flesh hard and fast, feasting on me like a man starved, and I cried out as every bit of my frustration throbbed between my thighs. I rolled my hips against his mouth, far too desperate for him to sit still, and he groaned against me.

“That’s a good girl. Fuck my face like you were always meant to be mine.”

“Oh gods.” I gripped the bedding as his words and his mouth consumed me. Pleasure rushed through me, fast and all-consuming, and I knew that I was so damn close to falling over that edge. “Evren.”

“That’s right, princess.” His words vibrated against me before he sucked me into his mouth. “Let the whole fucking kingdom know who you belong to.”

I pressed my thighs against his head as my pleasure shot through me, but he didn’t stop. I covered my mouth with my hand, trying to bury the sounds of my cries as he continued to draw out my pleasure. He took, and he took, until my legs trembled and I could hardly catch my breath, and only then did he rise to his feet and run his thumb along his lips before he pushed my moisture that was coated there into his mouth.

“You’re a sticky fucking mess, princess.” He took that same thumb and rubbed it along the star mark on my thigh, causing me to quiver. “Let me run you a bath.”

He lifted his hand and black smoke shot from his fingers in a whirl and bounced around the room as water began pouring from the wall. Evren looked down at his hand almost as if he was confused by his magic before he reined it back in.

The tips of his fingers were still stained black, and I wasn’t sure why I loved the look of it so much. He had called it a mark of his dark magic, but it just felt like him.

“You rarely use your magic,” I noted out loud, and Evren looked to me.

“I use it when I need to.”

“Did you use it on those men? The ones hanging at the gate.”

“No.” He shook his head and reached his hand out for me. I placed my hand in his without hesitation, and he helped me from the bed. “What I did to those men was with my bare hands.”

A shiver ran down my spine, but he barely seemed to notice as he led me to the bath and held my hand as I stepped into the tub.

“Does the queen know what you did to those men?” I sank into the water as I stared up at him, and he leaned down until his face was so close to mine.

“I think the queen would be far more concerned with what I’ve done to you, princess.” He pressed his mouth to mine and kissed me softly before pulling away. “But I don’t give a fuck what the queen thinks.”