If there were consequences to the insanity in my head — and I had no doubt there would be — then so be it. Running from this, and running from her? I’d never be able to live with myself. Because I’d seen what I wanted in life. I’d seen the woman who’d be mine.
And there was no way I was going to shy away from that.
My blood was pounding as I put in my request — a week back at the main barracks in the capital. I was a good, loyal soldier, and I was already a month past my rotation out of the insurgency zone anyway, because that’s just who I was. And the Major in charge had faith in me. Of course the request was approved.
The road was quiet as I took a guard jeep back to the capital surrounding King Lorne’s castle. My heart roared. Blood pounded in my ears. My cock was hard enough to dent steel between my legs.
Fuck the rules. Fuck the consequences. Fuck this being inappropriate or “not okay.”
I’d tasted Princess Adele, and now I’d have more.
Chapter 5
Adele
We made it on time for the dress fitting — barely. I’d even had time to duck into my room and put on some damned underwear, thank God. Anya pressed me most of the drive and after we arrived at the castle, still peering at me with that detective look of hers as if trying to piece together why I’d been so quiet on the ride home. But of course, she couldn’t know that it was because a rough, gorgeous, much older man — one straight from my dreams, had kissed me, and then touched me in ways no one ever had before.
Of course she didn’t know that, because of course I couldn’t tell her.
I’m not sure why I didn’t, to be honest. Anya and I had confided secrets in each other our whole lives. But there was something about this one that just felt like it was mine to keep. It was my dirty little delicious secret to hold onto, and let tingle through my whole body.
After the dress fitting, which went fine, I headed back to my room. I was barely aware of the dress I’d been fitted to wear to this stupid ball in Avlion, and I couldn’t remember a single thing I’d talked about with Susan, the dressmaker. Anya had left right after we’d started, which was lucky because she would have had a field day with my blank answers and conversation.
Who knows what Susan thought of it.
The door to my room shut behind me, and I sank against it with a sigh.
I wanted more of him. Leaving those woods earlier that day had been horrible, since leaving them also meant leaving him. And I knew, after him putting together who I was, there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell I’d be seeing him again.
I slipped the sundress over my head and tossed it to a chair in the dark dimness of my quarters. Nearly naked, I shivered again as I thought about his hands touching me like that. I remembered the feel of his strong, powerful hand cupping my ass, the other on my hip as he pulled me into him. I remembered the way his lips had tasted — like sweat, and woods, and man as he’d claimed my mouth.
And I thought of the way that thickness in his pants had pressed so hard into me, as his big finger had dragged through my soaking wet—
I screamed. Or rather, I would have screamed, if not for the hand that suddenly shot out of the darkness and covered my mouth. The adrenaline spiked through me, my body going rigid as another powerful arm snaked around my middle and pulled me tight against a rock-hard body.
“Shh, Princess.”
I froze, and then instantly melted against him at the sound of that deep, growling voice in my ear.
Damon.
All of a sudden, I was enveloped by him — by the feel of his arms around me, the manly, woodsy scent of him, the growl from his lips as he purred into my ear. I shivered against him, panting through the hand still covering my mouth. I didn't know how he’d managed to get here, or into the castle, or here into my quarters, but I didn’t care.
Somehow, the man who’d shattered everything I knew in one second, who I never thought I’d see again, was standing in my room, holding me in his arms.
“You know why I’m here,” he purred into my ear.
I nodded, panting, my heart pounding in my chest.
“I know who you are now,” he growled, his hand pulling me a little tighter into him.
“Will you scream?”
I shook my head, and then gasped as he suddenly flipped me around, pulling me into him. I whimpered, feeling how hard his body was, feeling the warmth of his hands as they moved to my hips and slid over my near-naked skin. One thumb traced the edge of my panties back to the small of my back, a single finger dipping inside to stroke my bare skin.