Page 60 of Hidden Kingdoms

And just like that, my desire was doused in ice as I cringed away from the offending fabric, averting my eyes as the memory of the guard’s hands pawing all over them came back to me.

“Blue’s my favourite colour.”

I scooted back slightly on the bed trying to cover my reaction, but Kaius’ hand tightened on my leg keeping me in place.

“What just happened?”

“Nothing.” I kept my voice light, pulling away and moving to the middle of the bed. He stood, muscled form towering over me like a god with the underwear still held in his hand.

“That wasn’t nothing. Tell me, Elodie.”

“Honestly it is. It’s nothing.”

“I promised I wouldn’t lie to you, so don’t lie to me. Tell me what happened.” His fist tightened around the lace, and I hated to admit he was right.

I twisted the rings on my fingers, wondering how I would even explain it to him. Maybe I had been overreacting?

“The guard that gave them to me creeped me out, and I didn’t want to wear them after he’d had his hands on them.” It felt stupid saying it out loud, but it was the truth.

The guard hadn’t done anything except hold them and be a creep.

A flash of dark energy spread through the room, slithering along my skin with tiny pinpricks of pain that had my pussy throbbing in a way that was so inappropriate right now.

He knew there was more than I was letting on, even if I didn’t know how else to explain what had happened. He was almost at the door before I leapt off the bed and grabbed his arm.

What a fucking idiot, why had I believed he would stay?

“You said you’d stay if I needed you!” My small hand clung to his toned forearm, and his eyes softened despite the anger pouring from every part of him. The assault on my body lessened.

“I’m not leaving you, but I am about to break that guard’s face.”

“No, it wasn’t him! It wasn’t any of the ones who have been outside. He was new, I don’t know who he was.” I needed him to move from the door despite his assurance he wasn’t leaving, and slowly he allowed me to guide him back to the bed.

“Do you swear? That it wasn’t one of the guards who have been on duty?”

My mouth opened to speak before I realised I couldn’t swear to that. I had no idea how many guards had been on duty since I’d been in this room.

“All I know is that I have never seen him before and there was still a guard outside.” I could do nothing to stop him as he charged to the door, wrenching it open and leaving me frozen to the spot as it slammed shut behind him.

He’d left.

He didn’t owe me anything. As far as I knew, I had been brought here to help them, not the other way around. But as I tried to push down the ache in my chest at his absence, I couldn’t quite make myself move from this spot.

As the door flew back open, Kaius stalked back into the room, the crumpled form of the guard who had been stationed outside visible on the floor in a heap.

Fuck, that shouldn’t be such a turn-on.

His eyes were pools of darkness as they locked onto mine, faint shadows curling through his hair. “I’ll find him, Goldie. No one should have been in this corridor without the Commander's permission and the guards know that.”

The bundle of blue lace tore itself apart in his hand, the fabric reduced to nothing. Body tight with anger and hands now fisted at his side, he stalked towards me. Placing a shaking hand on his tattooed chest, I marvelled at how his body relaxed under my touch. My fingers trailed lightly down his taut stomach before reaching for his hand, fighting back a smile as a shiver ran through his body and his eyes fluttered shut.

Tugging him to the bed, he slid in behind me, pulling the covers up as we settled next to each other. My head rested on his bicep as his hand flexed on my hip, and the need that had waned came back with a vengeance at the feel of his hands on me. His hard body pressed against my back. I twined my fingers with his, trying desperately not to squeeze my thighs together at the smears of red spread across his knuckles from the skin that was split in a few places.

I didn’t hate the thought that it was because of me; I liked his display of protectiveness which was mental because I barely knew this man.

No, not man. He was a Fae—a Prince.

One who had kidnapped me. Taken me from everything I knew and brought me to a strange place.

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