“Did our bond bring you here?” I wonder. It’s nothing I’ve heard of before, but like in the dream, she feels very much here and present with me.
“I think so,” Rosalina says. “I was in the bath, getting ready for a Spring jubilee tonight, but then I felt … Well, I felt you.”
Memories of the last time we were together flood back to me, how desperately I’d craved her, how in that moment I’d have done anything to claim her. I can’t let that happen again.
“You should go,” I growl.
“This place is magical,” she sighs, wading about. Her long neck tilts up to stare at the large, cavernous ceiling.
She glides around the rocky corner. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t see you there.”
I swivel to see she’s face to face with one of the Deep Guard. Lars, I think his name is. A good soldier, broad shoulders, with long blond hair, currently dripping with water.
“Don’t apologize,” Lars answers. “I haven’t seen you around before. Are you new?”
Lars doesn’t see me from behind the rock, but I don’t think it would matter if I was right there. His eyes are entirely on Rosalina.
“Uh, kind of,” she replies, taking a step back.
He has the gaze of a starving man as he takes her in. She’s a rare bloom in this barren place—perfect skin, sweet full lips, and just how much of her body can he see beneath the water? His own naked form is only inches away.
“Hair wash. Good idea.” He smirks and reaches for her head.
I’m in front of him in an instant, grasping his wrist almost hard enough to snap. “She’s with me.”
Lars’ face shifts instantly from lust to terror. I release him and he slinks back. “High Prince Keldarion.”
I say nothing more. He retreats, rejoining the rest of the group far away from us. I stay still, breath heaving in and out of my chest. My fists are clenched at my side to stop myself from following him and doing something I’ll regret.
“Kel?”
Her voice drives me into a different sort of trance. I cannot let anyone else see her. Not here when she’s naked. Not when she hasn’t been properly claimed by me.
I grab her around the waist and drag her deeper into the cave, secluding us behind another cluster of rocks. No one else can have what’s mine.
She squirms against me, and I feel her soft naked body against my hard planes. I can’t let her go, not yet. I press her against the rock wall. Warm water curls around us as I shelter her in.
“Kel,” Rosalina says softly, her fingers threading through the white strands of my hair. “This is a side of the wilde courtship I haven’t seen before.”
“Is that what this is?” We’re far away from the crowd now, their voices a muffled murmur.
“Your pupils are huge,” she whispers. She’s no longer squirming against me, but writhing. Her body moves in a rhythm, and her legs wrap around my waist. Seven realms, is that her slick pussy rubbing against my stomach?
“He shouldn’t have touched you. Shouldn’t have even looked at you.”
“It was an accident.” She smiles, then still holding on to me, dips her head back, rinsing the suds from her hair. “You’re not this jealous and possessive around the princes of Castletree.”
“They may see you. These men can not.”
“What does that make you want to do?” she whispers. She gently touches the snowflake necklace, then curls her fingers in my chest hair.
“Rose,” I warn. My cock is hard with her body pressed so close to mine. “You know I can’t. I can’t let this thing take over again.”
“Fine, but there’s something I want you to know.” She takes my hand and presses it against her chest. “Can you feel my heart?”
“Yes.”
“Right now, it’s beating just for you.”
The rapid rhythm seems matched by my own heart. I close my eyes, relishing the sound. “I feel something else.”
“That is?”
I lower my hand, unable to stop myself from grasping the full weight of her breast. Gently, I knead the soft flesh with my fingertips before palming the entire mound hard.
Rosalina pushes against me, mouth opening against mine, and we both desperately gasp in the humid air. I cup her ass, allowing myself one single moment of bliss, her center sliding against my aching hard cock. “Oh, the things I want to do to you. The sounds I want you to make for everyone to hear. There’d be no doubt that you are mine.”