Page 134 of The King's Maiden
“No,” I said right as Gia shouted unhelpfully from the living room, “Yes, she did! Man, he really does know all your secrets.”
“You’re not helping, Gia!” I said in my sweetest voice possible before turning my iciest glare on Landon. “Fine. Maybe I did decide to come back.”
“God, you’re so fucking stubborn.” He shook his head and dropped down, bending to pick me up and throw me over his shoulder.
“Landon!” I screeched. “Put me down, you maniac! I’m still mad at you!”
“You can be mad in the car. And in bed later.” He swatted my ass and dipped, and it took me a second to realize he was saying goodbye to Gia. “Pleasure to meet you, Gia. I’ll return her to you as soon as The Quest is over.”
“No rush!”
Landon spun me around. “Say goodbye, Quinn.”
“Don’t tell me what to do. And Gia, whose side are you on here? Traitor!”
She laughed and hopped up from the floor, her eyes darting down to Landon’s ass and her hand waving towards it and my current situation. “Girl, the guy just threw you over his shoulder caveman-style to take you back to his bedroom.” She kissed my cheek and whispered in my ear. “And you didn’t tell me he had an ass like that. Honestly, who cares if he’s a fuckboy?”
“I heard that,” Landon chimed in, boosting me up in his grip so I jostled over his shoulder. “Time to go, Maiden.”
I grunted and slapped his butt, which only earned me another swat on mine. Gia giggled like a schoolgirl witnessing a real-life fairytale, and I rolled my eyes at her. “So not helpful.”
She waved as Landon carted me away like a sack of potatoes. “You’ll thank me later!”
I called out from down the stairs. “Jury’s still out on that one! Bye, traitor!”
“Love you too, trollop!”
Landon chuckled as he set me down on my feet, and I found myself smiling before I realized what I was doing and frowned. He gripped my chin and tilted my head up. I pursed my lips, waiting for whatever he had to say.
He surprised me by pressing his lips to mine, pushing me backwards until my back hit the side of the black SUV parked on the street. His tongue swept in andliterallyswiped away the last dregs of my anger. I moaned into his kiss and wrapped my arms around his neck, rising onto my tiptoes so I could bring us closer.
Maybe I was an idiot for giving him another chance. Maybe I was a fool for falling for him to begin with, but I had. And I wanted to believe him.
He kissed me so thoroughly that by the time he pulled back and put me in the car, my panties were drenched. I straddled his lap in the backseat, paying little mind to the pledge driving the car away as we pulled out onto the street. Before we pulled onto the main road, Landon disentangled me from his arms and put me in the seat beside him.
With an obvious amount of care and gentle movements, he reached across me and slowly buckled my seatbelt. When it clicked, our eyes met. He smiled and pressed his lips to mine.
Pulling back, he stared into my eyes and said, “I really am sorry. I should’ve told you the truth when you asked why I was holding back. I was trying to decide how to tell Kingston and?—”
I cut off his words with my lips. “You don’t have to explain.”
He took my hands. “Yes, I do. And I need to explain to him, too…He’s my best friend, Quinn. Whatever there is between the two of you, he still deserves to hear how I feel from me.”
I nodded. “Whatever you need to do, you should do it.”
He kissed me again, deepening the kiss this time until we were both panting in the backseat. A throat cleared to alert usthat we’d arrived back at Camelot Court, and Landon kissed me one more time as the pledge climbed out of the car.
“Climb up front,” he said, unbuckling my seat. “I have something I’ve been wanting to show you. We can go there and talk before the ceremony tonight. I just need to grab some things from my room.”
My eyebrows lifted, as did my curiosity. “What kind of surprise?”
Chuckling, he climbed me out of the car and nodded toward the front seat. “If I told you that, it wouldn’t be a surprise.”
With one last smile, he closed the door and jogged around the back of the car. I climbed into the front passenger seat and watched him go inside the main house.
Staring up at it as I waited for him to return, I thought through everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours.
We had a lot to talk about. There was a lot I needed to know, and things I had to share with him, but for the first time, I felt like the walls between us had fallen away.
