Page 36 of Brought to Light
But my fingers tightened around his wrist as the words left my mouth, and I wasn’t so sure I could follow through on that, even if he begged me. My fingers tightened a little more. The fragile bones of his wrist dug into my palm, and his pulse pounded wildly.
“You killed Evalt and fulfilled a dread prophecy,” Linden said, the words dragging out of him in a way that sounded painful, his voice hoarse. “And now you’re a rich and powerful man, and your renown will spread to every distant corner of the realm. I’m a servant here, Lord Cal—”
Nope. No, no, and triple fucking no.
I wrapped my other arm around his waist, hauled him flush against me, and kissed the living daylights out of him. He struggled a little, even though his lips parted under mine the second I touched him, eager and sweet and soft. Linden tasted a little like tears and a little like the same scent he carried with him, something bright and crisp and fresh. I ignored his wiggling. Well, I didn’t quite ignore it, since it rubbed his perfect body against me really, really enjoyably.
But I didn’t let him go. I kissed him, and then kissed him some more, nibbling his plump lower lip and licking into his mouth and chasing the taste of him, until he’d bent back over my arm and gone completely, beautifully pliant. The hand I didn’t have pinned crept up to my shoulder and held on tight, and he kissed me back.
I moved down to his neck after a while, and I needed more leverage. The enormous bed…but we were both filthy, and I didn’t want to rub purple Evalt-residue all over the bed, since I had plans for it later after Linden and I got clean.
I shoved him up against the wall by the door instead and wedged my thigh between his legs, pressing up enough to make him gasp.
“Please don’t,” Linden moaned, even as he squirmed against my leg. “Please. This isn’t—you’re not—you’re a lord now, and I’m notanyone.”
Fuck. Did he think I was—taking advantage of him? The magic-realm equivalent of a rich asshole hitting on the maid when his wife wasn’t looking?
I pulled back from his neck with an effort. The skin there felt so soft between my lips and between my teeth. I wanted to mark him up everywhere.
Or even worse, even more unbelievable, did he think he should be—what, staying in his place? I stared at him, taking in his tortured expression, caught somewhere between arousal and misery. What the fuck was I supposed to do now?
And then it came to me, as easy as breathing.
“What Lady Lisandra said. About single combat. Does it have to be to the death, or what?”
Linden blinked at me, his lips parted. “What?”
“Does it?” I demanded. “Did I have to kill him, to get all his lordliness and everything?”
“No, you didn’t,” Linden said slowly, his brow furrowing. I wanted to kiss those little lines away. Kiss him all over. “If he had formally yielded, that would have been enough. Lord Callum—”
“Stop fucking calling me that,” I snapped. “Now hit me.”
“Hit you.”
“Yeah, hit me, like with your hand—”
The slap came out of nowhere, with a surprisingly genuine amount of force behind it. My cheek stung like a bitch. Linden pulled his hand back, letting out a shocked little sound, like he hadn’t expected to want to smack me across the face quite as much as he did.
The impact wasn’t much. I’d given myself worse bumping into walls after one too many bourbons. But it zinged straight down, my half-hard cock perking up another notch, and I grinned at him.
Linden cringed back against the wall like he expected me to retaliate. Instead, I leaned in and kissed him softly, just once, letting my lips linger for a second.
“I formally yield,” I whispered against his mouth.
Linden went completely rigid. “What do you mean?”
I pulled back again, enough that I could look him in the eyes. And try not to get distracted by how blue they were. I sort of succeeded. “I mean I yield. You hit me, I yielded, single combat achieved. Congratulations, Lord Linden. My lands and title are all fucking yours.”
His eyes widened until I thought they might take over his face. “You’re insane,” he choked out. “You’re—that’s madness. That’s not how it works! You don’t mean that!”
I shrugged and ground my leg against his cock a little bit, pressing my own against his abs. That felt so fucking good. He needed to get with the transfer-of-lordliness program, because I had to be inside him or I was going to lose it.
“I mean it, that is how it works because you just told me so, and yeah, maybe I’m crazy, but I’m also not interested in being a lord. So nowyou’rea lord, and I’m nothing more than some asshole who killed a sorcerer and really wants to fuck you. No—conflict of interest. Yes or no, Linden?”
“Oh,” he gasped. “Oh. But you’d make an excellent lord. You’re a soldier. They’d respect you. They wouldn’t respect me.”
“They’ll respect you, or I’ll fucking kill all of them,” I growled. “Me. Fucking you. Yes or no?” I slid my hand down his back and palmed his ass, pressing my fingers between his cheeks.
