Page 152 of The King's Man
My blood ran cold.
“Dee?” I croaked.
“Mmmm?” she asked from where she crouched over the flames, poking at them with a long, green branch to spread the coals more evenly.
“Come here,” I said, trying to keep the fear from my voice.
She looked a question at me over her shoulder, but she must have felt my unease in the bond, because she didn’t speak, but got to her feet and walked to me immediately, standing between my knees where I sat on the hammock. The moment she reached me, I slid hands to her hips and pulled her right up against me and held her there.
She tipped her head and looked at me with compassion. “I know you’re used to being the strong one and doing the heavy lifting, but I promise you, this is what God made me to do. They won’t even know I’m there—”
“I know,” I said reluctantly.
Her brows rose slightly. “Then what—”
“I love you,” I said, exhaling deeply.
“I love you too.” Her smile was precious and sweet.
“And… I need you,” I rasped, pulling her up into the hammock as I turned my hips and lay back down—relieved to note my back was noticeably more comfortable after herministrations. I only winced once in lifting her up, and it was because I had to hold her out, away from my body to lift her high enough that she could straddle me.
“Jann!” she squeaked as I lifted her like a child and settled myself into the hammock. It swung a great deal as I manhandled her, but the edges curled up around my sides, and when I pulled her down to lay on my chest, her knees bent at my waist, I was happy to simply wrap her in my arms and let the furs swing lazily while I stroked her hair. At first she struggled a bit, spluttering.
“You need to warn me if you’re going to throw me around like a sack,” she muttered, but her shoulders slumped and she sighed, releasing tension as she relaxed over me, her head on my shoulder.
I stroked her hair and down her back as the hammock swung us both back and forth, and I felt her fully relax, letting me take her whole weight.
I closed my eyes, buried my nose in her hair, andfelther.
It was like sinking into warm water—surrounded by her touch, her warmth, her scent. Something in the bond fluttered, then expanded and my chest expanded with it.
I knew she felt it too, because she took a deep breath and nuzzled up under my jaw, her hand coming around to cup the side of my neck and hold herself to me.
For a moment I could barely breathe. The simpletogethernessof it touched that raw fear within me, simultaneously soothing it and creating an even greater urgency to keep her safe.
After a few minutes of breathless closeness, she sighed and pulled her head up, crossing her hands on my chest and resting her chin on them to stare at me.
Focusing on her eyes made the world behind her swing lazily back and forth. I reached for her hair and tucked a strand behindher ear, trying to find words to describe what I was feeling, but failing miserably.
When she smiled my heart swelled.
Then other parts of me swelled as well, and it occurred to me that it wasn’t words I needed to offer her.
She squirmed on me and her smile broadened, turning wicked.
“What about your back?” she whispered.
“Fuck my back,” I muttered then pulled her up to kiss me as she giggled.
The minutes that followed were sweet and delicious and something I’d never experienced with a woman before as she took such care with me because of her concern for my back. But we wrestled with her clothes, and with the hammock.
She laughed when I swore because I shifted myself in the hammock and almost flipped us. Then I chuckled because she sat up on me to take off her shirt and lost her balance when the hammock moved and fell forward over me, bracing her arms on the tied furs above my head.
But of course, that brought her breasts right in line with my face and I couldn’t resist but to lift my head to suck one of those rosy peaks into my mouth.
Diadre, stretched out above me, sucked in and arched—which only reminded me that I still had to get her leathers off, because I hadn’t exaggerated when I said Ineededher.
It took more maneuvering and more laughing, but finally I had her naked and sprawled on top of me, my breath growing harsh in the growing dawn light.
