Page 76 of The King's Maiden

I almost didn’t catch the sounds coming from behind their closed doors, but a girl crying out pulled my head up.

When she screamed, Landon’s arms came around my shoulder. I tried to get out of his grip, but he pulled me tighter against him, stopping in the middle of the hall and spinning me into his chest. His arms wrapped tighter, pinning mine to my sides.

“Landon,” I protested. “Let me go.”

“Just wait.” He growled as I battered his side with my fists, but he didn’t let me go.“Trust,Maiden. I’m asking for your trust.”

He didn’t say it, but he asked for what he’d given me downstairs.

I stopped fighting him.

But when the girl’s screams grew louder, my discomfort became more insistent. As if sensing that, Landon hitched my body up higher against his chest.

He leaned down and whispered in my ear. “She has her safe words, just like you do.”

The deep rumble of his voice and warm breath against my skin combined at just the mention of my safe words sent a wave of arousal through me. But it hit me what he was saying—he thought her cries were from pleasure. He assumed they were consensual.

“The girls think using their safe words makes them weak,” I argued. “At the Maiden’s Luncheon, some of them were scared of being punished or eliminated.”

His jaw clenched where it pressed against my cheek. “It’s not supposed to be like that. And I promise I’ll address it with Kingston, but I know Gavin and his history with his Maiden. This isn’t…It’s not the first time for them, or the rest of us within earshot. The Quest, I mean.”

“Oh.”

That information changed things, at least, for the moment. Suddenly, knowing the sounds coming from their room truly were consensual, it became impossible not to imagine what they were doing. I couldn’t help but think of the different ways a Knight might draw out that kind of response from his Maiden.

My nipples hardened.

Which was unfortunate, since they were pressed against Landon’s chest.

He pulled back, his attention snagging on my breasts. “Her Knight is also particularly skilled at reading his Maiden’s reactions. He knows when to ease up…” His gaze traveled up thecolumn of my throat to my mouth. “And when to push and go harder.”

A tiny gasp escaped me, my lips parting as his eyes locked on mine.

“Just like I do.”

Breathing heavily, we stared at each other as her cries dissolved into drawn out moans. My face flooded with heat at the same time as arousal pooled between my thighs.

Landon studied my reactions, his eyes darkening.

“Does it turn you on?” His lips curved as he brought them to the shell of my ear. “Knowing what he’s doing to her? Hearing her pleasure?”

I bit my lip and nodded.

“Tell me.”

“Yes,” I breathed. “Yes, it turns me on.”

“Does it make you wonder what it might feel like? To have your own limits tested?”

I couldn’t admit exactly how much it intrigued me. But thankfully, Landon offered me an out—a way to deny the truth building to a crest inside me.

“Or maybe it just makes you more open to the thought of preparing? Training with me for what you’ll be up against next?”

“Yes. I want—” I swallowed deeply, wetting my lips as my ears filled with the sounds of pleasure that could be mine. “I want you to prepare me for the next challenge. I’m ready.”

His pupils dilated as my tongue darted out to wet my lips. Every muscle in his body coiled tighter around me. And desire pulsed between my thighs. Even as I denied the full truth to him, I couldn’t lie to myself anymore.

I wanted him, and I was ready.

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