Page 76 of Warrior's Reign
She tangled her hands in his hair. “Taste me now, then.”
“If I begin, I won’t stop.” Something like pain crossed his face. He lowered his forehead to hers, closing his eyes. Hiding from her. “I fear I don’t have the control not to hurt you.”
Vykhan wasn’t a male prone to melodrama. She didn’t understand what he feared, but his words made her wary.
“You were planning on have sex in our marriage? It’s going to happen sooner or later. Whatever you’re afraid of, you’ll have to just trust me.”
His eyes snapped open, mouth thinning as her hand traveled between their bodies and cupped him. He stiffened, jaw flexing.
“Please,” she said. “Take me. I’ve needed this for so long.”
Reign felt his will waver, then break. He lowered his head.
“Son?” a voice called out. “Reign?”
His weight was gone in a flash, Reign’s wrists grasped as he pulled her to her feet. Vykhan quickly rearranged her robes, his broad shoulders shielding her from view as footsteps neared, then stopped.
A polite cough. “As I thought,” Aanyah said. “I knew my son would forget his manners.”
When her clothing was straight again, Reign stepped around Vykhan and met Aanyah’s amused gaze.
“Dessert,ya’adoan?” she asked, voice arch. “At the table, perhaps.”
“Yes, mother,” Vykhan said, but took Reign’s hand as he led her back into his home.
26
“Please,”Ibukay wheedled.
Reign scowled up at her former friend. She lounged on theBdakhun’sbed as Ibukay tried to coax her into formal dress for the symposium.
“This isn’t in my job description.” Fancy dress, being paraded around as Ibukay’s pet human. “I can’t guard you if my identity becomes widely known.”
“Reign, your face was already plastered on all the news vids and gossip channels throughout the province.”
She sulked. “I don’t like dresses. I look—”
“Desirable? Pretty? Delicate?”
“Are you trying to piss me off? Sexy, bad ass, fine as hell—I’ll take all of that. Delicate? Those are fighting words, female.”
Ibukay snorted. “The whole point of the exercise is to demonstrate an example of how Adevega’s agenda is wrong. You’re an educated, skilled, citizen who integrated so well into our culture you trained under one of our most renownAdekhyuns.”
“And I speak so well too.”
Ibu gave her a blank look.
Reign sighed and rolled off the bed onto her feet. “Like I said, your pet human. The blue one.”
Ibukay scrunched her nose. “I hate flesh tones. They’re so conservative. What about the pink and yellow?”
“Do I look like a damn fruit fizzy? The blue one.”
The blue dress was actually a two-piece outfit, and similar enough to her betrothal garb she could fight in it. An overdress with silver leggings, sashed and corseted, with wide flowing sleeves.
But at least she could fight in this outfit, which was why she’d chosen it—not just to mess with Ibu, who never spurned a bright color if she could help it.
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