Chapter 6

I stared at him, wondering whether Arik knew only beautiful men. This stranger was as the dark night to Arik's sunny day. His hair was a long tumble of black waves and his green-eyed gaze was just as sharp as his smile. He slid into the other side of the booth, resting his elbows on the tabletop as he regarded me, before reaching his hands out toward my tankard. My hands wrapped around it, knowing deep down that I still wanted it, though I couldn't have said why. The stranger just grinned and covered my hands with his.

"Leave her alone, Silas," Arik rumbled, waving the other man's hands away, then prising the drink from my hands. Before I could protest, he gave me something much better. Picking me up, he dragged me onto his lap, moulding my languid body to fit his and pressing my head against his shoulder. "She's flushed."

"I can see that. She's like a ripe cherry. I didn't think you liked girls when they were riding the red dragon."

Although it was Arik whom Silas addressed, his sharp eyes were focused entirely on me, following each shift of my body, each squirm of my hips.

"I don't…" Arik ground out, his panted breaths fanning against my skin, and he dropped his hands to my hips, trying to keep me still. "I prefer a response that's a lot more honest than this, but…"

Somehow, through my furtive movements, I found what I needed. With one long sigh, all the air expelled from my lungs as I felt something hard settling right… there. Not his thigh; this was something perfectly made to fit where I ached with emptiness, I could sense it. My hips fought his hold and eventually he relented, letting me find that glorious rhythm I ached for. It was like scratching at skin that had been itching all day but so much better, because with each pass of my hips, a blunt kind of pleasure rose. But I knew there was more to be had. I bit down on my lip and my hands clawed at the table as I sought the relief I needed.

"Well, well, what do we have here?"

Two more men appeared by the table and that seemed right, too, because what burned inside me was surely more than one man could deal with. The one who'd spoken had hair the colour of flames, hugely muscled arms that rested on the table, and a massive sword strapped to his back. An amused smile touched his lips as he watched me rolling my hips and panting helplessly. He lifted a hand to stroke his chin, the smile growing as my eyes followed the path of his fingers, back and forth, back and forth. My attention was only drawn away when the other man stepped in closer and stared intently at me.

He was big, too, but he gazed unblinkingly at me without the trace of a smile, his focus like that of an animal, not a man. His nostrils flared as his hazel eyes—containing every shade of brown and green—flicked across my body, moving rapidly from here to there, taking all of me in with quick bites. He took a deep breath, then raked a hand through his thick beard before sitting down abruptly next to Silas.

"Arik's found himself a little slip in the first flush of roseblood by the look of that beer," Silas said to the others, then turned back to face his friend. "But I'm assuming you didn't bring us here to watch a girl rub your cock to bleeding, trying to get herself off."

"A deal…" Arik was breathless, his teeth clenched together so that each word had to be forced out, and I knew why. A red tide thrummed in his blood, just as it did in mine, and it was coming in with a great rush. A dim, distant part of my mind reminded me of all the things I'd been taught as a princess, but I ignored it with ease. I wasn't Jessalyn now; I was Pearl. Perfect, shining, and whole and gleaming more by the second. "Show them… the jewels."

It took me a moment to piece together the meaning of his words, for I'd somehow lost my purpose in being at the tavern, become distracted by all the sensations running through my body. I blinked, pulling one hand away from the table to reach beneath it, finally finding my pocket before reaching inside it and tugging free a fistful of pearls. As I dropped them to the tabletop, the other men's eyebrows shot up, even as they each moved to capture any that bounced up or rolled loose. Silas squinted at one, looking it over closely.

"These are premium-quality saltwater pearls, not freshwater ones." He glanced at us with a slight frown. "How did you come by a king's ransom of pearls?"

"Does it matter?" I panted, pulling my hand back from my pocket again, this time dropping my tiara down on the wood next to the pearls, all the while willing my body to still.

I just needed to get the money and then I could… The sharp pants of the woman at the sailors' table made clear what awaited me, and I wanted it with a viciousness that took my breath away. Jessalyn was not allowed to want anything other than to be obedient and dutiful. Pearl, on the other hand… I was sure my mother hadn't thought to create an alter ego for me when she consulted with Rachael on the design for my wedding dress, nor to provide me with the means to escape my fate, but I was going to grab with both hands any opportunities that presented themselves.

"I guess not…" Silas' voice trailed away as he watched me move, only the chuckles of the other two men dragging his focus back to the jewels. "What do you want for them, lass?"

"Gold…" I gasped. "As much gold as I can get."

"And what will you do with that?" the red-haired man asked, snagging my tankard and then drinking deeply from it.

"Run." Yes, that: that was what I wanted, and that feeling of my feet skimming over carpets, the ones I'd only ever dared take measured steps upon, came back to me. "As far away from here as I can."

"Escaping a fate you'd rather not face?" Silas asked. He didn't wait for an answer. Instead, he nodded to the man sitting beside him. "Give her what we have."

There was the muted clink of coins—many coins—as a sizeable leather bag landed on the tabletop, and I realised I had everything I needed to make good on my escape. Well, almost; because as soon as that need was met, the one that raged in my body flared hotter. I dragged the pouch closer, hefting it in my hands before Arik grabbed it.

"Best hide this somewhere on your person." He slid his hand under the table and my whole body tightened in response. When his fingers found the opening of my pocket, then thrust the coins inside, I almost whined in frustration, because that wasn't what I needed. "There's unscrupulous types around that'd steal the hair off of your head if they thought they could get away with it."

"Especially a girl riding the red dragon." The big man with the red hair licked the roseblood-flecked foam from his lips as he set my drink down. "That beast will bring you crashing down at some point, though from what I hear, it's far more pleasurable to do so with a partner." He glanced at the others. "Or several."

"Roan…" growled the man who'd been silent up till now; the only one of them whose name I hadn't heard.

"What?" Roan shrugged. "If you're going to hit the ground hard, you may as well do so screaming from pleasure rather than pain."

"You've got your money," Arik said, his voice turned ragged. "Now, we need to get you to your lodgings for tonight. We've already drawn enough attention."

Attention was exactly the thing a well-bred lady didn't want. I'd been taught that if men watched you pass and ate you up with their eyes, like those around the table—and beyond—were doing, it was your fault. It meant you'd been behaving inappropriately.

"Don't have lodgings," I moaned.

"Of course, you don't," Arik hissed, because I'd found that ridge again, and I was blissfully rocking back and forth on him.

"Well, there's nothing for it, then," Roan said.

"Don't, Roan," the quiet man said. "Don't."

"You'll need to come back to our rooms." There was something wild in Roan's grin, as if he was daring me or any of the other men to contradict him. "We've got a quite nicely appointed suite. Grand enough for a lady like you."

"I…" Something was swelling inside me, making me feel like a cup being filled too rapidly with wine. There was a strange kind of tension as I was torn between fearing the wine being spilt and wanting it with my every breath. "I…"

"She's not in her right mind," the man next to Silas said.

"She drank that roseblood of her own accord, Creed," Silas replied. "There's no way Arik would've forced something like that upon her. So…" He eyed me closely, and his sharp gaze was like a knife dissecting me into a million pieces. "What's it going to be, princess?"

My title was a common enough term of affection for a woman, but the word stung as hard as if he'd slapped me. I could almost hear the rattle of my cage, threatening to close around me again. I drew myself up tall upon Arik's lap and his hands went to my waist, ready to stop me if I tried to slip free.

But he needn't have worried.

I turned in his lap, draping my hands around his neck and tipping my head back to look into his eyes, just like I'd seen the serving girl do.

"What do you want, Master Arik?" I asked, my lips closer to his than they'd been to any other man's. "Do you want me to come back to your lodgings?"

"Gods…" he hissed, his hips bucking upwards. "Right now, I can't think of another thing I'd want more."

I wanted to kiss him then because I'd never kissed a man before, and if I was going to, I wanted it to be by my choice and with a man like this. One who waited for me to show him that I was sure; one with eyes the colour of a summer sky. I liked the pained expression he made as my lips darted closer to his then stopped, hovering in the air between us. I liked the feel of his hand sliding up my back, anchoring me to the spot, though he didn't move to close the gap separating us. I knew he wouldn't do that; that he'd wait until I did. However, as soon as my lips brushed against his, he took over.

The grip on the back of my neck tightened and my tentative little kiss became something much harder, much hungrier. I had been trained in all the niceties of setting a table but not in anything like this. Not how to cope when a man kissed you open-mouthed, his tongue sliding against yours; when it felt like he'd eat your entire mouth with his hunger. That tide inside me was rising again, like a great wave, and I rose on his lap, unable to sit still. I hung over him, holding his head between my hands, sucking on his bottom lip, chasing his tongue when he pulled his back until we were forced to pull apart, gasping, to draw breath.

"Yes?" Arik's blue eyes were hard now, piercing mine as he asked the question intently. "I'll need to hear that over and over if tonight is to go as I hope."

"Yes," I said, meeting his gaze with just as much focus, then stroking the side of his face and repeating softly, "Yes."