Royal Recruit - Susan Grant Page 0,48

to him in a whoosh of fluid silk. She tinkled faintly—jewelry inside her outer wrapping of robes—and the scent he’d smelled before radiated from her skin. He liked her scent, he realized. A combination of her personal scent and perfume, something he’d never smelled before, it was unique and exotic, like her. “My bloodlines are second to none. They are uninterrupted all the way back to the beginning of time.”

“So why are we wasting time talking about your bloodlines when I could be helping you extend them? You know, the old-fashioned way.”

She gave a little gasp of outrage. “Your accent is too thick—I cannot understand you,” she claimed, even though he was sure she knew exactly what he’d meant.

“Maybe I’d better talk with my hands.” He whipped his arm out of the cuff.

The cable whipped around. He kept his arm clear. In a frenzy of whirring, it hunted for purchase and found Keira. The cable, it seemed, didn’t care whose wrist it grabbed, only that it had one.

It snaked around her wrist and tugged her down, crossways, over his body. What luck! He couldn’t have arranged something this good if he’d tried.

Wiggling her cute little butt, she twisted and bucked, struggling unsuccessfully to get up. He was rock-hard immediately. No surprise there. He was pretty much naked with a beautiful woman lying on top of him, writhing and wiggling—a woman who was his wife. How could he not react? He felt every warm curve of her firm, athletic body. Her breasts were crushed against his chest. She squirmed as he laughed at the craziness of the situation and her indignation at it, and it only made his raging hard-on worse.

“Well, I didn’t realize you wanted to work on your bloodlines so fast. I was hoping to get to know you a little better first. But here I am—barbarian at your service, Goddess. Where shall we start?” His hand landed on the small of her back. She was sprawled on top of him, one thigh wedged between his legs. A bolt of arousal went straight to his groin. He ran his hand over her ass and down her thigh.

She yelled and yanked off her veil. Her eyes were wild with humiliation and fear. Anger had turned her cheeks bright pink. “Get your hands off me!”

“Hand,” he corrected. “The other one is tied up.” But he did as she asked, laying his arm across his forehead. There was nowhere else to put it. “So. Let’s talk. We haven’t had a chance to yet. Where’d you grow up?”

“Where do you think?” she snarled, her teeth clenched.

“Getting sassy are we?” He took a strand of her amazing hair and wrapped it around his finger. “Women handcuffed to barbarians probably shouldn’t be too sassy.” He rubbed the tips of the strands across her plump, pouty lower lip. She tried to bite him and got a mouthful of hair instead.

He laughed as she spit it out. “Now see? That was sassy. That’s what happens.”

She arched her back and swung a punch at him. He caught her fist but her knee shoved up between his legs. “Ooph.” Eyes watering, he coughed out a groan of pain. With a full hard-on, that was not fun. He slammed his eyes shut and took deep breaths.

“Jared…” He felt inquiring fingers brush across his face. “Did I hurt you?”

He opened an eye to her worried face. “You actually care?”

Instantly, her expression darkened. A wall came over her expressive brown eyes and she closed him off. But for a minute, he’d peeked inside her. It was a glorious sensation, and one he might not repeat for a long time if her angry expression was any indication. “Not about you,” she snapped. “I was worried I’d hurt your…” She blushed, her cheeks filling with pink.

So, she was shy. He’d assumed she was experienced, having made out or made love to one or more men over the years, but maybe the near-rape was all she’d known.

“My what?” he asked, gentler and with a slightly playful tone.

“Tonight we must mate,” she told him, answering without really answering.

“Ah, so you thought you needed to handcuff me to do it? You didn’t think I’d make love to you voluntarily?”

Her gaze slid to the side.

“Or were you worried I’d try to do it before you were ready?”

Her wide eyes snapped back to his. He stopped her tirade with a finger pressed to her opening mouth. So, she had been scared of him. He saw it in her face