Chapter 6
Enjoy your prize.
In the giddy relief that her mysterious champion—Cuan, the elf queen had called him—hadn’t gotten his head sliced off, Tamsin had almost forgotten why he’d been fighting for her in the first place. But now, as the warrior led her deeper into the warren of stone corridors, the reality of her situation returned again.
Cuan hadn’t fought the duel to free her. He’d done it to claim her.
He swore he wouldn’t touch me. Tamsin swallowed hard, commanding her racing heart to slow. He asked permission before he even took my hand. He seems to be a good guy. He’s not going to do anything without my consent.
And she definitely wasn’t going to consent to anything. Nope. No way. No matter how good he looked.
Which was almost offensively good. Even wounded and exhausted, the man exuded raw, animal sex.
Just a trick, she tried to tell herself.She hadn’t forgotten the mind-control magic that the other elves had used to keep her calm when she’d first fallen through the portal. He’s making himself seem super-attractive so I won’t want to run away.
Knowing that it wasn’t real…didn’t help in the slightest. Her body was still more than willing to fall under his spell.
Tamsin set her jaw. She stared at the back of Cuan’s dark head, not letting her gaze drop to the broad sweep of his muscled back. She couldn’t let his panty-melting magic and chivalrous manner distract her from the truth. For all that he’d defended her, he was still her jailor, as much as the other elves. She had to remember that he was her enemy.
Admittedly, a smoking hot enemy.
In leather pants.
With a fabulous ass.
Damn it. She jerked her eyes up again.
“Hey,” she said, adopting a stern, no-nonsense tone to cover the way her hormones were shrieking take me now! “Slow down. We need to set a few things straight between us.”
Cuan didn’t respond. He kept limping down the corridor, his strides uneven but rapid. He never looked back at her. Either he was simply assuming she would follow…or he was very, very certain that she couldn’t escape. Given the way that he’d flattened the armored knight, Tamsin was betting the latter.
She tried again. “Look, I’m, uh, really grateful for what you did back there. But I meant what I said earlier. This doesn’t mean that you own me.”
Cuan still didn’t look back at her. He lurched sideways, disappearing through an arched doorway. Tamsin followed on auto-pilot, and found herself in a dimly lit chamber. Her attention immediately snagged on one thing.
A bed.
A very large bed.
Covered in deep, lush furs.
She jumped as the door shut behind her with an ominous, very final-sounding thud. Cuan stepped out of the shadows, looking down at her at last.
“You belong to the fae.” The elf warrior’s green eyes burned with hungry fire. “You belong to me.”
Uh oh, whispered Tamsin’s common sense.
Hell yeah! cheered a much more primal part of her.
She swallowed hard, trying to concentrate on the captive part of an insanely sexy fae warrior with incredible shoulders is holding me captive. This was alarmingly difficult. The feral intensity in the way he was staring at her, the broad expanse of his chest, even the barbaric streak of blood smeared across his face…it all added up to an intoxicating cocktail.
Cuan stalked toward her, every muscle moving with smooth power. Despite her predicament, a jolt of pure lust spiked through her veins. Mouth dry, she stared up into those hard green eyes.
He bent down, slowly, holding her gaze the whole time. Closer, his eyes filling her world, so close that she could feel the harsh rasp of his breath against her parted lips…
And then, with a sigh, he collapsed.
She barely managed to stop him from face-planting straight onto the floor. The sudden weight of his body knocked her off balance as she caught him. He ended up sprawled across her lap, head on her shoulder, eyes closed.