Sophia couldn’t help but stare at Sikthand.
She’d studied him as they’d quietly walked back to their wing. While she’d bathed, changed out of her armor, and selected an outfit, she’d pictured his tense jaw and even tenser posture. And now, sitting across from him in his study, she watched his tail flick back and forth as he silently pre-read the next candidate file.
No matter how much she tried to convince herself otherwise, she kept arriving at the same conclusion.
Her future husband looked nervous.
She wanted to sigh.
A knock sounded at the door, and Sikthand shot out of his seat like there were hot coals underneath him. She waited, cheek resting on her fist, and tried to decide how to handle the jumpy king.
They hadn’t talked about their little encounter in the library, and despite her lying awake at night, hoping he’d come to vent, he hadn’t. Was that why he was nervous? Did he think she had regrets? Or was he nervous because he didn’t want it to happen again?
Alno stepped into the study carrying two trays of food, and they exchanged glances that silently communicated, He’s acting fucking weird.
Sophia was beyond happy that Alno was back. She’d apologized to him over and over, and he’d waved her off each time. Apparently, the stint in the dungeon had only made Difila keener toward him, and she’d had to clap her hand over his mouth to get Alno to stop relaying the greeting Difila had given him when Sikthand released him.
Alno gave her a significant look when he set the trays down and said, “Ezros was thrilled when I went down there and demanded some of this fruit.”
Sophia peered at her plate and found a large chunk of the unnamed purple-leafed fruit they’d tried on their tour of the farms. Had Sikthand made Alno go all the way down to the farming floors to get this for her?
She peered at the king. He was staring hard at her as though trying to gauge her reaction, but then glanced away when she caught his eye.
Fuck a duck. Heat seeped through her insides. She was going to get into the king’s pants tonight if it was the last thing she ever did.
“Thank you, Alno. You can go.” She shooed her grinning chaperone out the door and waited till she heard the bedroom exit close before turning to Sikthand.
He was back in his chair, staring hard at the file. She narrowed her eyes and broke off a piece of the fruit. His pupils weren’t moving up and down the page as they should’ve if he were reading.
She popped a piece of fruit into her mouth and let out an exaggerated moan. “This is so good.” Sikthand’s body tensed at the throaty sound. She broke off a few more pieces and casually strolled closer to him. “Did you ask him to get this for me?”
“I mentioned it was a food you enjoyed,” he rasped, blinking at the paper in the same spot he’d been staring at for a while now.
She squinted at him and popped another piece of fruit into her mouth. Was he trying to be modest? Did he not want her to know he’d ordered Alno to go get this?
She’d grown pretty close to her chaperone, and she knew he complained about traveling down the tower far too often to have retrieved this fruit for her without being expressly ordered to do so.
She pursed her lips. “You only mentioned it? And he took it upon himself to go all the way down to the farming floors and get it for me? Wow, Alno really is a thoughtful male.”
Sikthand’s jaw tightened, and his eyes raced from side to side. Poor man was thinking very hard about something.
She stepped in front of his chair, close enough to invade his personal space. His silver gaze flashed up to meet hers. Sophia let the mischievousness she felt seep into her expression and smirked when he caught sight of it. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. She held a dripping piece of fruit out just before his lips. “Want some?”
He looked at the fruit, then back at her. She pressed closer, brushing the wet edge against his lower lip so he couldn’t mistake what she was doing. Ever so slowly, he opened his mouth, allowing her to press her fingers between his teeth.
His fang scraped over her thumb as his tongue swirled across the tips of her fingers. Her breathing hitched at the deep sound that rumbled out of his throat. Their gazes remained locked.
Sophia lifted her fingers to her mouth and slid her forefinger in up to her knuckle to lick off the rest of the sticky juice that had run down her hand. Crumpling paper sounded from near her hip.
“Sikthand?” She turned slightly and tugged the destroyed paper out of his stiff fingers.
He let out a dangerous growl that seemed like the closest version of What? she was going to get at the moment. When she stepped between his now empty hands and lowered herself across his lap, his growl burst forward, then morphed into a purr. His hands slid back to grip the arms of his chair. Always the bit of him to be the most emotionally revealing, his tail silently wrapped around her ankle, pulsing and squeezing.
“You forced Alno to go get me that fruit, didn’t you?”
His chest heaved in deep breaths, and his gaze kept falling to her mouth. He gave a slow, deliberate nod.
Bringing her mouth close to his, she smiled wide. “Thank you.”
Sophia gave him a chaste little peck.
He broke—his body lunged forward, and his mouth crashed over hers. She was still sitting across his lap, but he’d curled forward, her shoulder blades flattening against the arm of his chair. His right hand fisted the hair at her crown as he delved his tongue into her mouth, and the other hand slipped under her back, pulling her body against his. The right side of her waist wedged in the crook of his arm.
Sophia quickly lost control of the situation. He kissed her with such ferocity, his tongue slipping over hers slow and deep. The moans and whimpers rising from her throat finally hit her own ears. She’d just managed to catch her breath when his grip in her hair tightened, and he took her mouth again.
He’s been studying, she realized with a shiver.
His hand slid out of her hair and gripped her nape while his thumb curled under her jawbone. He forced her head to fall back, exposing her throat. Heat raced to slick her core. His other hand rubbed up her belly, then her ribs. He hooked his fingers over the edge of her sweetheart neckline and wrenched it down, dragging the bunched fabric until her breasts popped out.
Her head was still forced back, her long hair sweeping across the ground. All her soft parts were exposed to him, her tender throat, her chest, her breasts, and stiff nipples. He took advantage.
She writhed under his mouth. Tongue, lips, and fangs brushed over every inch of exposed skin, licking and nipping, and making her moan out some ungodly sounds.
She lost her breath altogether when Sikthand’s thick tail grazed up her inner thigh under her dress and slipped over her sex.
“Wait,” she breathed, trying to shake her head to clear it. “Wait,” she said louder, eyes shooting open when the reverberation of his purr began buzzing through his tail. She shuddered as the vibration hit her sensitive clit.
For a second of bliss, she almost said fuck it and let her knees spread wide. But he stopped.
His fingers snaked back into her hair, and he pulled her head forward, none too gently. “Are you asking me to stop?” His voice had turned guttural, and an embarrassing whine tinged her shallow breaths.
“Yes,” she panted.
A muscle ticked in his jaw, and he inhaled a growl of frustration before dragging himself back against the chair.
She licked her lips, heat pulsing between her legs. Sophia was commanding a king…and he was letting her.
He tipped his head to the ceiling and slid his eyes closed as though trying to regain his control. She bit her lips together in a grin when he huffed out another irritated snarl and tore his tail, which was still slipping up and down her leg with a mind of its own, away. He clutched the wriggling appendage in his fist.
Shakily, she sat up on his lap. “Don’t worry, Your Majesty.” She tipped forward against his chest and kissed the tight cords of his neck. Her lips buzzed from the answering purr running through his vocal cords. “I don’t plan to stop.”
His gaze shot toward her, and she grinned at his wide, confused eyes. After first tugging at his shirt until he got the hint and pulled it over his head, she shifted her legs and began sliding down his body. She dragged her hands over his torso as her knees lowered to the floor between his feet, loving the way his muscles jumped under her touch.
Her hands came to rest on the tops of his thighs. She grinned up at him again, her fingers inching toward the stays of his pants. A large unmistakable bulge strained against the fabric, making her lick her lips.
When she’d untied the last knot holding him in place, his cock surged forward, and her eyes nearly crossed. Her pussy pulsed desperately around air. She was so empty and hollow. Sikthand would stretch her out so deliciously if she asked. She could climb back up his powerful body and lower herself on this divine dick so easily, but she held herself back, locking her thighs together to relieve the worst of the pressure.
His cock was just as beautiful and devastating as the rest of him. Enormous and ridged. She’d almost thought the raised sections running along his shaft were thick veins, but they were too perfectly spaced for that. The king’s dick was fucking ribbed. She nearly moaned.
Her hands slid farther up his thighs until her fingers formed a diamond around the base of his cock. She glanced up and found his stare blistering in its intensity. Shivering, she wrapped one palm around him.
His big body quaked, and he hissed out a vile curse. The subtle sound of fabric ripping was muffled beneath his hands. His clutching fingers had pierced the arms of his chair.
Sophia pumped her fist over him and whimpered at the way his chest and stomach rolled like a wave with her actions. Her free hand stretched to run over his gorgeous abs as he rocked in her hold.
It was beyond uncommon for Clecanian women to take their men into their mouths. Had he ever been given head before? There was a veritable puddle pooling under Sophia’s dress, fantasizing about what reaction Sikthand would have to what she planned next.
Her breath came out in shaky pants as she moved her fist lower. She gripped the base of his shaft, then gave the thick head a long slow lick.
Sikthand jerked within her hold. “Sophia.” His voice was pained and rougher than a sack of tumbling rocks. She glanced up at him, ensuring her breath ghosted over the wet crown. He shivered.
He didn’t say anything else. He just stared at her, his chest not even moving to take in breath. She paused for a moment longer to make sure he didn’t want her to stop, then gave him another thick lick.
This time his whole body seemed to melt, deflating, then violently inflating as he sucked in a ragged breath. Never in her life had she been more turned on by this task. She took him into her mouth, sucking him in as deep as she could.
Each one of his loud moans and growls had electricity sparking across her nipples and pulling at her clit. He didn’t touch her as she sucked him deep, letting her saliva pool so her mouth slipped more easily over his enormous shaft. She glanced up and found his tail thrashing in his crushing grip.
“Let go!” she cried, releasing him from her mouth. “You’re going to break your tail.”
The king looked down his nose at her, his dark hood making his silver eyes glow more brightly than normal. “Are you sure, little human?”
She nodded.
The domineering look in his eyes had her insides melting. His thighs were spread, his greedy stare possessive and oh so hungry.
The hand not crushing his tail went to her mouth. He slipped his index finger between her parted lips, placing the pad against her bottom teeth. She whimpered as his strong finger pressed down, hinging her jaw open wider and wider for his use.
By the time she felt his tail snaking around her neck, she was trembling all over, her hips torturously rocking against nothing. “Swallow me deep, wife. I want to feel the grip of your throat.”
His tail on her neck dragged her head down while his finger kept her lips open wide. He fed his cock into her mouth inch by inch until it hit the back of her throat. She moaned around him, her eyes rolling when a deep masculine purr of satisfaction buzzed through his shaft.
His fingers brushed over her cheek, and before his tail slid away from her neck, he gently rocked into her throat, releasing a drawn-out shuddering groan as though he’d never felt anything better.
Her mouth worked over him once more. She bobbed, firming her lips and pulling hard as she rose, then sucking him deep. Her jaw ached from his size, but she wanted this to be as seared into his mind as it would be in hers. She wanted the memory of this blow job to keep him up at nights as he was trying to fall asleep.
Tears burned in the corners of her eyes, her sex throbbing, weeping for attention. As though he could sense her need, his tail shot between her legs and nearly lifted her off the ground like she was straddling a hook.
The embarrassing garbled sound of her cry while her throat was stuffed full of his cock couldn’t be helped. He was purring, loudly, and the vibration rumbling through his tail buzzed into her skin everywhere it touched from her low belly, to her clit, to between her pussy lips, and up through the cleft of her ass.
All she could do for a few moments was quiver with his dick deep in her mouth as waves of vibration pulsed through her. Moaning with each strangled exhale, she slipped her mouth over him again. She rode on his vibrating tail, his skin slick and dripping with the hot liquid arousal leaking from between her legs.
She swallowed him deep as she humped his tail into a delicious orgasm. He called her name, urging her on and groaning his praise. His body tensed under her, his cock swelling until it was so hard she might as well be sucking on a metal pole.
The end of his tail wrapped around her thigh in a bruising hold, and he roared to the ceiling. His chest quaked, his body pulsing with great big throbs as jets of cum coated her throat. She swallowed as much as she could, her hips still absently rocking over his tail.
She drank him down, then licked him clean while he gazed at her as if she were the most glorious thing he’d ever seen.
Sophia stayed kneeling on the ground between his knees, her head resting in his lap as his fingers scraped through her hair, massaging her scalp until her lids drooped. His tail remained locked between her legs, and though she no longer rubbed herself against it, there was something comforting about the firm pressure.
The next morning, she woke up in her own bed, though she couldn’t recall getting there. As she went about her day meeting with Bavo and Lindri to approve the designs for her throne, she felt a twinge of sadness that she hadn’t woken up with Sikthand’s arms wrapped around her and his tail firm between her legs.
She tried not to let it bother her. Clecanian couples didn’t usually sleep together, and she knew Sikthand was less likely to break that tradition than most since the bitch-who-must-not-be-named had injected that ink into his eyes after they’d fallen asleep together.
Still, Sophia hoped beyond reason that she was special to him. Maybe one day she could defy the odds and be the one he allowed to cuddle with him late into the night.
Any trepidation she might have felt evaporated, though, when Sikthand led her into the study the next night.
She halted in her tracks and stared at the towering piles and piles of purple-leafed fruit burying his desk.
