Page 38 of Thorns & Fire
He kissed her, and positioned himself again, right where he knew she wanted him, ready to thrust his hips—
Torj jerked awake, a moan on his lips.Watery light filtered through the canvas, no thunder or rain to be heard.
A dream.It had been a dream.One he regretted waking from with every fibre of his being.Catching his breath, he came back to himself, the tent coming into sharper focus around him.But that feeling of longing lingered in his body, and he found himself as hard as granite.
With good reason.
Wren’s hand was wrapped around his cock.
Without any more sudden movements, he turned his head, finding her fast asleep beside him.Even in slumber her brow was slightly furrowed, as though she were warring within her dream.Her lashes kissed the tops of her cheeks, and he noted how her new scar cut through her freckles.
The blanket had slipped slightly, revealing the smooth curve of her shoulder.But her grip on him was like iron.And every time he shifted, a bolt of pleasure rolled through him.
Furies save me.He stared up at the ceiling, wishing he had stayed asleep.The dream was a far more pleasant outcome than any he surmised would come to pass...To him, the possibilities were: Wren would wake and think him a complete pervert, or be completely mortified; she’d move in her sleep and he’d come all over them both; or she’d startle and yank his manhood clean from his body.
None of these options pleased him.
He resolved to try to move her hand, and if she woke, he’d simply have to explain.With a grimace, he reached down beneath the blanket and slowly tried to prize her fingers from him—
Wren startled with a gasp, and in a blur of movement, she was suddenly astride him, her hair loose and wild, her poison-tipped pin pressed against his throat.
‘You’ve been practicing,’ Torj managed, not daring to move, not when he was a hair’s breadth away from deadly oblivion or being sheathed inside her.Pain bloomed in the wounds on his back, but he didn’t give a fuck.
Wren was on top of him.Naked.
She seemed to realize it at the same time he did, and yet she did not yield.‘What were you doing?’she demanded, unabashed, the pin still held at his jugular.
Torj didn’t move a muscle, even though he could feel the heat of her against him, the dampness there telling him she might have been having a similar dream.‘You had me in a compromising position,’ he gritted out.‘I was trying to extricate myself.’
Her eyes narrowed.‘Oh?’
But Torj had let this go on long enough.With a hard strike of his hand, he knocked the poison-tipped pin aside, disarming Wren and flipping her onto her back, pinning her arms above her head and her body beneath his.
‘Best keep practicing, Poisoner,’ he murmured.
He heard her sharp intake of breath, noted how her back arched, pressing her bare breasts to his chest.And her eyes...Her eyes grew hooded with lust as her legs tangled with his.
Gods, he had to stop, had to get away from her, before all his restraint became nothing but dust in the wind.
But the way she was looking at him...He’d yearned to see that expression for weeks, to know that she still wanted him, despite everything he’d done—
Torj suddenly found himself being flipped onto his front, caught off guard by the swift twist of Wren’s legs.What he’d mistaken for passionate entanglement was, in fact, a calculated move to gain the upper hand.
In one fluid motion, Wren straddled his hips from behind, her weight pressing him into the ground.She grabbed a fistful of his hair, yanking his head back sharply.The sudden pain elicited a gasp of surprise from Torj’s lips.
Wren leaned in close, her breath hot against his ear.‘I’ve practised plenty,’ she hissed.
Taking advantage of his stunned state, Wren snatched the blanket and her clothes.She rose in one graceful movement, leaving him naked and alone in the tent, his cock harder than ever.
CHAPTER 14
Wren
‘Both Naarva and Delmira fell in the years leading up to the final conflict that would ultimately become known as the shadow war.However, the two kingdoms suffered different fates.While Naarva was overrun with wraiths and darkness, Delmira festered from within, its lands slowly dying, becoming barren’
– The Midrealms Chronicles
SHE HAD BEENdreaming of the Bear Slayer moving between her thighs.It hadn’t been the same lovemaking she’d experienced in the meadow.It hadn’t even been fucking.
