our marriage and I have a feeling that this feeling will not fade overly quickly.”
She stills beneath me, her soft pliant body almost as hard as stone. Shifting off of her, I roll onto my back and throw my arm over my eyes, still inhaling and exhaling deeply. “You didn’t just say that,” she hisses.
Turning to her, I remove my arm and notice that her face is red with anger as she stares down at me. She’s sitting up, her hair tumbled around her, covering her breasts from my view. She looks beautiful in her anger, stunning actually.
“Say what?”
She shakes her head once. “That we’re compatible in bed, but that it will eventually end.”
“Does it not in your world? Do couples always burn with desire as they do in the beginning of their coupling?”
Sybilla presses her lips together, her eyes searching mine and I know that she is truly thinking about my question. I also know that I am right in my assumption when she doesn’t answer immediately.
Then something that I cannot read crosses her face, and I have the urge to know what she’s thinking. She reaches forward, her fingertips touching my scar along my eye, as she seems compelled to do quite often for some reason.
“I’ve never been married, Elias. But, obviously I was not a blushing virgin when we met. I can say, that while in the beginning, it seems that new relationships are full of passion and lots of sex. I like to think that as a couple grows together, a different kind of passion consumes them.
“My parents have been married for thirty-five years and they still hold hands. My father still stops what he’s doing when my mother enters the room and he watches her adoringly. So, maybe they don’t screw like rabbits, but they have a deep passion that has grown between them over the years.”
Her words, from what I could understand of them, are beautiful. Aleida was correct in her assessment when she said that Sybilla was kindhearted and felt deeply. Lifting my hand, I wrap my fingers around the side of her neck and squeeze before I run my thumb along her plump bottom lip.
“The more you show me, Sybilla, the more I wonder how you ended up in my bed. Then again, the more I learn about you, the more I realize that perhaps this was exactly where you were meant to be, sweeting.”
She leans against my palm, closing her eyes as she sighs heavily. I may be keeping her to ensure the safety of my people, my country, and my crown. To ensure that the prophecy does not come to fruition, but what builds inside of me has naught to do with any of that.
What builds inside of me is simply because of how she makes me feel, as a man. That terrifies me. I’ve never felt for a woman before, and in only a few days with Sybilla, I feel too much.
This time away from her will be good. I need the distance, and I need to put distance between us. She is nothing but the queen to my king and the vessel for my heirs. I need to remember that.
“Time for sleep,” I murmur.
She curls against my side, her naked body pressing against mine, her thigh hitching over mine as she lays her head on my chest with a heavy breath.
“Just to say, I wouldn’t mind if you had indoor plumbing in this castle. That would be pretty sweet,” she sighs.
“I know not of what you’re referring to, sweeting.”
With a hum, she curls deeper against my side, as if she is trying to crawl inside of my body. Closing my eyes, I realize that I like her this close.
I need to leave.
Wrapping my arms around her body, I pull her against me as she tells me her fantastical story about what plumbing entails.
I need to get away from her.
I’m falling.
Too fast, too deeply.
SYBILLA
I wake with a moan. Elias has his mouth between my legs, his tongue working me—like magic. In fact, I think the man holds some kind of magic. He has stamina like I’ve never experienced before from any of my lovers, not even when we were teenagers.
Sliding my hand down, I sift my fingers through the strands of his hair and hold on, arching my back and rolling my hips. “Yes,” I breathe.
Looking down, I watch as he eats me. His eyes lift to meet mine and I whimper at the glittery black orbs that meet