Page 147 of Golden Queen
Ida stood there, holding a tray with a little vase that held a flower arranged in the neck of an old whiskey bottle.
I pulled the covers over my shoulders and smiled at her.
"Good morning, Milord and Milady," she said with a wink. She was dressed in a more modest gown that looked to be brand new, and her graying hair was pulled back in an elaborately styled updo.
"Good morning, Ida," I greeted her as the aroma of coffee reached me.
"I brought your dinner last night, but the sounds through the door told me you might not want to be disturbed." She glanced back at Io who was by the door shrugging on his shirt. "It sounded like that one knows what he's about," she said, waggling her eyebrows.
I laughed, but Io narrowed his eyes on me in mock disapproval.
He was trying to suppress a grin as he took the tray from her and set it on the table.
"He does indeed know what he’s about," I said, holding his gaze as my cheeks warmed.
The look he gave me, tilting his head in surprise, and then tightening his mouth in mock warning, made me laugh again. I knew he was thinking of the things we had done in the night just as I was.
After Io gave her another few gold pieces, likely more than she would have made in a year working in the Beaver Trap, Ida left.
We ate in bed with him propped against the pillows with the tray balanced on his lap while I sat cross-legged beside him with the covers pulled up around my shoulders.
He fed me with mock solemnity. "I'm telling you, this is the height of romance,” he said as I laughed and took the proffered bite.
"Somehow I think it should not be done with floppy strips of bacon," I replied.
He muttered something under his breath, though I could see the humor in his eyes.
"Did you say,I'll show you a floppy strip of bacon?" I teased, doing my best impression of his deep voice. That was definitelynotwhat he said, and the laugh that escaped around the words ruined the effect.
He moved the tray carefully to the bedside table and turned quickly, catching me under the backside with his big hands, sliding me down the bed and trapping me beneath him.
I laughed as his lips found my neck, "What are you doing?" I asked, though I knew the answer well enough.
"Showing you my floppy strip of bacon, of course," he said with a mockingly seductive voice.
I choked on the laughter that sputtered out of me, and when he joined me, the shaking of his big frame jostled the entire bed.
The teasing did nothing to diminish the fire that had been lit, though. We made love again, since that was what it had turned into sometime in the night. Even when his hands had been rough and he’d said such wicked things, it had been love between us.
The pleasure was as intense as ever, never seeming to diminish whether he took me urgently and hungrily, or slowly, as though cherishing every slow caress and movement of our bodies.
Afterwards, we lay on our backs with my head resting on his shoulder and his arms around me, and we talked—more than we ever had before.
The raging snowstorm outside had halted our world for the time being, and we took advantage of it, completely ignoring what was waiting on the other side. Living as though we were simply two people who loved each other, snowed-in, inside a brothel.
I told him what it was like to be a child in Albiyn castle—meeting Tatana and Set—how they had become the family I had never had.
I told him what Markus had done to my sister; how long she suffered before I made my deal with him.
"He will die for that—and for so many other things, Sera. I am a patient man—that is one of my many virtues," he said with a sly grin. "But I know he’s the one who put those bruises on your neck," he reached out to trail his fingers across my skin, as though remembering. "And when I retake your city, he will be the first to pay for it. I swear it to you."
I smiled, knowing he spoke the truth—after all, he was sworn to me. The oath demanded it. Consequences could be dire if someone broke the old words of fealty.
I told him about how badly I had wanted to train on Fareye—and how Markus refused, even when Arkadian's father offered to pay the guild price for my entry himself.
"He told me,Girls may go to the Nuoctelenne, but princesses never do."
Io narrowed his eyes. "That’s a lie, of course. My sister, Eyildr trained on Fareye—though shewaskicked out after only three years—for being too violent, they said."
