desire—the desire she’d always felt for him, the desire that had burned slowly hotter all night as she’d awaited him—so she shoved her worries aside and tried to be bold. “Only tempted ?” She pushed her lower lip out, pouting slightly, trying to look sensual, ready to be a willing, wanting woman for him.
He stood at the foot of the bed, arms crossed, looking at once aroused and amused, until finally that same devilish smile she’d seen before crept over his handsome face. “Yes, only tempted, princess.” Then he slowly stepped up to the headboard and began untying one wrist. “And I’m afraid you’ll have to leave now.”
Even the touch of his rough fingertips on her tender skin was exciting, but his words left her dumbfounded. What was he saying? “What do you mean? I thought you wanted my body in exchange for hiding me.”
When the leather strip loosened, freeing her wrist, she drew her aching arm to her side and watched as Garon circled around to begin unknotting the other tie. “I do. But unfortunately, I can’t have it.”
As her other arm dropped to her side, tired and heavy, she bit her lip, trying to understand. “Why not?” She feared she sounded terribly disappointed, but forced herself to continue. “Because…well, it’s not so much that I wish you to have it, but we made a deal—you did hide me, and so I’m indebted to you now. I…would not feel right if I did not pay that debt.”
That familiar grin reappeared as he hovered over her. “Indeed, you are indebted to me—and you have no idea how much I would enjoy finding out just how warm and tight that virgin pussy of yours is, but…you’re a bit too dangerous for me.”
She sat up a little more. “Dangerous? Me?”
Again, he crossed his arms. “If I sank my shaft between those slender thighs and your father found out, what do you think he’d do to me?”
Oh. She hadn’t thought about that. And though the answer was obvious, she only mumbled, “I don’t know.”
“Well, I do. He’d probably cut my cock off. Or my head. Either way, that’s not a
chance I’m willing to take, even for a ripe and royal little cunt like yours.”
“It has no hair,” she said. She wasn’t sure why she said it, only that she wanted him to know. If he wasn’t going to fuck her, she wanted him to know what he was missing and be sorry he was missing it.
“What?” he asked, blinking.
She swallowed, nervous now that she’d brought up such an intimate—and perhaps bizarre—topic. “It was…all removed. For my wedding.”
He seemed to stand up a little straighter, his mouth cutting a grim line across his face as he held up a hand. “Stop, wait. Your what ?”
“My, uh, wedding.”
Garon let out a long sigh and ran one hand back through his sandy hair.
26
Carnal Sacrifice
“But don’t worry, I didn’t get married.” She sat up still more, began massaging one wrist, where the leather had been, then the other. “And I’m not going to. At least not to that man.”
“That man?” he asked, sounding matter-of-fact even if slightly more worried than just a moment ago.
Trying to think how best to explain, she let out a sigh of her own. “My father promised me to an old man. A very old man. And I was going to try to go through with it, but then I saw him, and I heard him talking about me—and I just couldn’t . So…I ran.”
“Here,” he said, seeking clarification.
“There was no time to form a plan.”
He sat down on the edge of the bed, blinking slowly, his gaze calmer now. “Makes sense, I suppose,” he said, then slowly let his expression transform into something more naughty. “But now, back to your cunt. They removed the hair?”
She nodded. “I’m told men like it that way.”
His eyes stuck on hers, sizzling like blue flames, and they simply looked at each other for a long, smoldering moment. She’d never wanted to be so close to fire—but she