Page 80 of The King's Maiden

“Shh.” He silenced any further questions by taking my hands, sweeping his thumb over the inside of my wrists. “Relax, Quinn.”

My pulse pounded beneath his touch, and I wanted to argue over the ridiculousness of his request. But the way he held my hands, softly caressing my skin without pushing for more, stopped me from protesting. He waited until my heart rate settled before speaking again.

“How long has it been?”

I blinked up at him, struggling to stay focused on the question. “What?”

“Since you were touched where you and I both know you need it.” His hooded gaze flicked down to the hem of my negligee and desire liquified my core as if he’d melted me with one look. “How long has it been?”

“A week.”

“Since you touched yourself?”

My cheeks colored at the thought of what I’d done in the shower before bed last night, only because I hadn’t expected to tell him about my perfectly healthy exercise in self-love.

Believing it would be enough to keep my head straight, I had been quick to find release after all the tense moments of the day. But I’d been sorely mistaken in thinking it would make me want this less.

I definitely couldn’t bring myself to admit that.

“Less than twenty-four hours,” I said, giving him a partial truth I prayed he wouldn’t recognize.

He nodded at my admission, looping the leather strap of the belt over my wrists. “It’s harder than you thought it would be, isn’t it?”

My eyes flicked to his erection, darkening the stain of red heating my face.

I looked away and nodded. “Yes.”

He murmured his acknowledgment but said nothing else as he looped the strap around and back over. Crisscrossing between my wrists and over again, he bound my hands together.Then, he eased my arms up over my head, letting his body follow the movement.

“Our bodies were made for this, Maiden.” Hovering above me, he reached for something I couldn’t see and secured the belt to it. “Designed to respond and react. To give and to receive pleasure. It’s natural to want it. To find yourself tempted even when you just had a release. The female body…” He slid down over my form until he fell back on his knees between my legs. “You were meant to receive endless pleasure. Given the ability to reach climax over and over again…Until you felt you couldn’t bear it any longer. Until you cried out that you couldn’t possibly come again. And do you know what would happen then?”

He paused, as if giving me the opportunity to respond. But he knew as well as I did I couldn’t speak. Any hope for coherent thought died as the picture he painted with his words filled my mind.

And he wasn’t done.

“Your body would still find a way to reach that peak if the pursuit of it wasrelentless.”He skimmed his fingers up my legs, the corner of his mouth lifting at the way my body tightened under his touch. “And I would be relentless, Quinn. Any Knight would be…With you beneath them.”

“Oh, god,” I whimpered.

My eyes fell closed as my pussy throbbed, and I moaned at the delicious ache it created. The achehecreated with the slightest touch. Clenching my thighs, my core—my back arched. I pressed my head back into the bed, trying to stave off the need building inside me.

“How can I earn your loyalty just by giving…Or even by denying something youneed?”

He dropped his head, pursing his lips and blowing softly between my legs. I cried out as everything coiled tighter inside me. And I found myself panting when he stopped.

“Landon.”

He raised his eyebrows as I breathed out his name, but he didn’t tear his eyes from my body. I writhed beneath him, going out of my mind with need—for him, for his touch, foranytouch to ease the pressure inside me. I didn’t care.

I just needed it—needed it now.

“Fuck.”

It hit me that he was right. That I would fail if I didn’t figure out a way to fight the havoc he wreaked on my senses. I wanted to win—my mindknewI needed to win—but my body needed just as much.

And I couldn’t see how to get both.

But Landon knew.

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