“Living in the moment…considering consequences…it’s probably best to have a little of both.”
While the hams roasted on spits, the yams nestled in the ashes slowly roasting, and Prim commandeered children to stir the soup, the musicians played songs. The goblins danced and sang, bare feet in the grass, and I was happy to join them, clapping my hands, the air cool on my flushed face as the fires danced and sparked. Even Nyar had shed his boots and rolled up his sleeves.
Selnay grabbed my hand to dance at one point. “My lady,” she said. “I wonder if you’d let me protect you.”
“Protect me?”
“The queen will need a bodyguard or two. My father is Nyar’s bodyguard already. I’m good with weapons and you’ll want a few female guards who can sleep in your room with you if you ever have reason to be afraid. And Huldie, well, she’d rather I ask because she’s always shy with new people, but she would like to apply to be one of your ladies in waiting.”
“Goodness, I wasn’t even thinking about choosing staff,” I said. “I didn’t want to be presumptuous before I’ve even gotten married. But—I would love that.”
“I’ll teach you how to be a right good goblin maiden.” Selnay hopped from foot to foot.
“I have no doubt.”
“You could still call me Knife, if you want. I’ve never been much of a Selnay.”
“I will call you anything you like.” I suppressed a smile.
Just as I was getting too exhausted to dance one more step, the food was ready, and we feasted like barbarians, plates on our laps as we sat on benches, juices dripping. The goblins hadn’t tasted food in ten years and they cleaned out every pot and ate every tiny scrap of meat off the ham shanks before sucking out the marrow.
The wine, too, was enjoyed in large quantities. I drank more than usual and before long was warm and sleepy on Nyar’s lap. The goblins sat around the dying embers, telling stories of their glory days. I wasn’t sure I’d remember them, but I was also sure I’d hear them again.
Before I knew it, I must have fallen asleep, and Nyar was carrying me to bed. I curled up against his chest, pressing my ear against him to hear his heartbeat.
He kicked open the door. “Can’t expect a man to learn how to wait forever, in just one day, can you?” he said.
“No,” I said. “I suppose that was pretty cruel. But I’m very tired.”
“It’s the wine. But you’re going to wake right up.”
He tossed me on the bed, and I bounced, then fell back and stretched out my arms and legs, content as a kitten. Home at last.
He climbed into bed with me, prowling toward me. His clothes were already inviting me to take them off. As he had gotten warmer dancing himself, he had shed his jacket, unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt, and cuffed the legs of his pants to keep them from getting grass-stained, although that plan had certainly failed.
“My future queen,” he said. “Where was I?”
He tore my bodice away from my breasts again, and cupped them with his hands, then ran his tongue up my neck to my ear. His fangs nibbled lightly on my earlobe, and his warm hands rubbed my breasts, pushing them up, relishing their fullness. I pushed my pelvis toward him, wanting to feel how hard he was, wanting him inside me already. But I knew he was going to torture me for a while first.
“Nyar…” My voice came out whispery. But he was right. Already, I wasn’t feeling nearly as tired.
His fingertips returned to my nipples, pinching and stirring all my sensations before his claws began to lightly trace the tight ripples in my flesh there. His claws seemed so sharp at a distance, or when they moved quickly. But they felt more blunt now, when he was being so slow and careful.
I pulled off his shirt. “I want to see you,” I said.
“You’re the only human girl who ever says things like that to me.”
“I’m also the only human girl who ever broke your curse. How is that for a coincidence?” I helped him get his shirt off. “Besides, I don’t know what they’re missing.”
Perhaps beauty was in the eye of the beholder where his face was concerned. But I didn’t think his body would give anyone reason to complain. He was magnificent. His skin had a grayish pallor under the glaring sunlight, but in the moonlight he was luminous and perfect, like a statue, sculpted into lean muscle.
And his cock— When he unbuttoned his trousers, I had to run my hand over it. It was hard not to believe that men weren’t made out of iron, feeling the unyielding hardness of it just beneath the soft skin.
He leaned in closer to me, his arms wrapping around me. My bare breasts met his skin. I licked his neck the way he’d licked mine; I couldn’t help it, I wanted to taste him everywhere.
His hand stroked my cheek and then we were kissing again, a wild and passionate tangle of tongues. I reached down to clutch his buttocks, trying to urge him to rub his erection against me, but he resisted me. His fangs grazed my lip and I tasted blood but felt no pain.
He licked the blood from my lower lip. “Didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“I think just maybe you did.”
He gave me a knowing look before dropping more kisses on my cheek. His hand reached down. “Hold still,” he said, because my hips kept twitching eagerly. His clawed finger carefully parted my fragile lower lips, tracing my slickness. “Very very still…”
Where his claws had once touched me, safe behind the leather gloves, now he stroked his claws up and down, around all of my delicate folds. I was frozen now, forcing myself not to move, but it grew more and more difficult with each swipe of his dangerous fingers. I felt the edges of him, different angles of his claws—the gently curved underside almost tugging on my clit before the blunter top of the claw stroked the other way.
It was astonishing how tender his touch could feel on the edge of danger. When we were together like this, I felt like he was the whole world, and I was his whole world.
“Too much…” I was shivering with the pleasure, the torture of not being able to move.
It seemed as if he teased me forever that way, the world slowly tilting before my eyes as I sank into the feeling of it.
When he finally stopped, I was sweating. “Please,” I begged him, without being quite sure of what I wanted. Did I want him to keep drawing it out forever or would I rather just be fucked?
He took a deep breath.
Chapter Fifteen
Nyar
I could hardly bear how beautiful she was, how the sound of her pleading cut to my heart. I wasn’t used to waiting. I wanted to take her right now and fuck her until she couldn’t get out of bed tomorrow—theoretically. In truth, I knew that was hardly possible. Gods, I’d already tried.
But I had promised myself I would tease her tonight, give her a five course meal of pleasure before shattering her.