Page 35 of The King's Maiden

His face hovered an inch from mine, taking in my reactions to adjust the pace of his hand. He gently worked his finger in and out, easing deeper before each slow withdrawal and coaxing my body to relax.

My legs fell away from his hips as I let him in more.

“Landon, I—” When he slowly added a second finger, my eyes widened at the stretch. “Kiss me.” I begged. “Please, I?—”

He shook his head, pulling away abruptly to bury his face in my neck. Easing back down to one finger, he slowed his thrusts.

“That’s rule one,” he said gruffly.

I whined, both at his refusal and the way he circled his thumb over my clit.

“I plan to kiss every inch of your body. I’ll do it over and over until you scream.” He sucked deeply over the beat of my heart in my throat. “But not on the mouth.”

“Wha—” I cried out as he increased the pressure of his thumb, rubbing with tight quick strokes over my clit.

“No exceptions, Maiden.” His ministrations stopped and he withdrew his finger. “If we’re going to do this, there have to be rules.”

I groaned and wriggled on the bed underneath him. My mind begged me to ask more questions, but even as my heart—that bitch who wasn’t even supposed to be involved—protested the lack of intimacy, my pussy throbbed with need. That ho was resolutely against the idea of arguing semantics at a time like this. And my mouth agreed.

“Fine.” I huffed. “No kissing. Not exactly how I pictured my first time, but fuck it. Let’s do this.”

He recoiled. Eyes wide, they jumped between mine as he hunted for my meaning. He opened his mouth to ask a question that never came.

Thrown off by his sudden retreat, I frowned. “I’m not a nun or anything. I mean, I fooled around with my ex in the past, but we never…We were going to, but—” My fingers found my scar, tugging on the strands of hair around it. Shame and guilt rushed through me, and I blurted out the truth. “Fuck. I chickened out, okay?”

He stared at me for a long time before he finally spoke, stating plainly, “You’ve never had sex before.”

But something in the way he looked at me felt different, realization or understanding registering. It was like my status ofNot Penetratedhad just been stamped on my forehead and it explained everything. But I didn’t know what that was.

“You’re telling me you’re a virgin?”

Groaning internally, I muttered. “Yes, that’s typically the word for it.”

He stared at me, a muscle in his jaw tightening as he worked through whatever was going through his head, his eyes starkly shifting from arousal to anger. Betrayal flickered in his expression. Suspicion creased the line of his brow. And ragetightened his hands into fists where he clenched them at his sides and far away from my body.

A torrent of dark emotions rained down on me with all of Landon’s intensity, and he echoed the words I’d heard earlier but still didn’t understand.

“You’re here for the King.”

Chapter Ten

QUINN

Given that my ex had been practically obsessed with my virginity, always saying how awesome it would be when we finally had sex, I had to admit I expected Landon to react differently.

But then again, my ex’s reaction had been sort of cringe-worthy. And a contributing factor to why I hadn’t gone through with it, besides not feeling with him even an ounce of what I’d felt tonight. At the time, I just thought every guy felt that way about virgins.

Apparently, some guys didn’t share the same fascination with it. Maybe they didn’t all see it as a prize. Maybe my ex’s implication that our first time together would be less amazing if I’d slept with other people had been a giant red flag, and a lack of fascination was the norm.

I hadn’t expected the anger, though, or the betrayal on Landon’s face. And I definitely hadn’t expected him to say what Max had said earlier.

“What does that mean?” I pushed up to kneel on the bed, noting the way he stepped back as I got closer. “Max said that earlier, too. But I don’t understand.”

Landon stopped his retreat, his eyes narrowing on me. “You were talking to Max Dread tonight?”

“Okay, seriously. You too? Does everyone call him by his full name?”

“Answer the question, Quinn.”

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