King of the Seditious
Bonds too Close

“Chavias didn’t punish me.” Savage argued.

“But neither of you talked much.”

“We didn’t need to.” Savage sighed. “We were two animals of a breed. We understood each other as best as anyone could. He was the closest thing to a father I ever knew.”

“Did he love you like you love him?”

“I don’t know if I’m capable of love. I don’t know if he is.” He said thoughtfully. “I’m not sure what it feels like. I think he probably did. As much as anyone could…” He paused before adding. “I’m hard to love.” He turned his head to look at her pointedly.

“You’re not hard for me to love.” She reached to caress the blonde hair near his forehead endearingly. Making the wooden kill beads in his hair rattle together.

“You use the word so flagrantly.”

“Only in reference to you.”

“That’s not how you act in Winter’s Haven.” He murmured.

She acts like a viper in a den.

“I have to protect myself!”

From who? Them or me?

“No, you don’t.” He looked forward again. Stating it as fact.

“Because you do?” Her voice rose.

He looked at her again, unblinkingly. Long dark lashes silhouetting eyes most perceived as icy.

But she sees something else. He was comforted by that. That one person in the whole land could see him as something more than a monster.

I am a monster. A niggling little voice in his head reminded.

“What about when you’re gone?” Dimurah challenged. Asking who protected her when he wasn’t at the Winter’s Haven.

I’m not willing to disclose that yet.

“Has anyone ever hurt you?” He countered. Purposely evasively.

“No.” She admitted.

He stared again. Motionless. The unnerving, piercing gaze that could cut right through an enemy. Isn’t that answer enough?

Dimurah wriggled under the intensity of it. “You speak of me behaving differently in the alehouse!”

Implying that I do? She’s right about that.

“I do.” He said flatly.

“What about you?”

She’s trying to have something to fight about.

I was making her uncomfortable. It happened to him often. His habit of cutting straight to the center of everything made people nervous.

It’s not the way of normal people. I’m not normal. That was something he was well aware of.

I unnerve people. Even when trying to bond with them. It was just in his nature.

“I am what I am.” He shrugged.

“You pretend to be someone else.” She countered.

“I don’t pretend, Murah. When I’m around other animals I am the most vicious.”

“Then why are you so different with me?”

“You’re no animal.”

There was a long silence before she blurted. “Why did you cut off Joe’s hand?”

And there it is. What she’s currently wounded at me for.

He slumped but his chin lifted as he gave her a reprimanding look. Any answer will start the fight she’s looking for.

“I’m not going to fight with you, Murah.”

Recognizing he wouldn’t answer she expostulated acidly. “Why did you come to my hut?”

Giving her a dark look, he leaned over her. Positioning an arm on each side of her and twisting his body over hers. He dropped enough to catch her heavy lower lip between his teeth.

She was panting hard and glaring heatedly at him but as frozen as a deer in an archer’s sights.

He released her lip. Slipping his tongue along it soothingly. “Because I want you.”

“I’m not so easily had as that.” She huffed. Clenching the sheets at her side to keep from reaching out and touching him.

She wants to. It was all over her face.

“Aren’t you?” He brushed his lips against hers and they reflexively opened. Their softness beckoning him.

That small unconscious invite was enough for him.

He descended on them like a starved creature. Crushing his lips to hers.

She lurched up to object and he swallowed the sound. Letting her lean up as he twisted with her. Catching his hand along the back of her neck to hold her in place.

It was less than a heartbeat and her resistance melted into warm heat.

Her hands lifted to his shoulders as though to push him away but suddenly they drew down his chest and clenched at his studded tunic, yanking him closer.

She wants more.

He knew that reaction from her well enough.

He tugged her nightdress down her shoulders and rolled to his feet to strip it from beneath her on the bed. He was unlacing his breeches while she was already trying to pull him down. “Patience, Woman.”

Though in truth, it was a relief to see his wanton yearning for him. Even if it means she’ll hate me all the more for it in the morning.

He tasted his lips to ensure she wasn’t intoxicated. But as usual there was no hint of drink in her flavor. He pulled his studded tunic over his head. Baring him.

He was warm golden flesh and clacking kill beads. Blonde hair and blonde brows and heated light blue eyes. His hands were everywhere at once. Touching every bit of her flesh as if he couldn’t get enough.

Feeling her soft curves and the lush roundness of her thighs.

Already making him yearn to sink between them. Everything about her was soft. Though she was small she had wild curves and he trailed each one. Knowing them as well as every backtrail in this land. Taking his time caressing her.

While I can.

She’ll be back to venom tomorrow. But all this reminding himself of such things was not dampening the hardness of his rod which was already erect and jutting hard against her.

She put her elbows to the bed and lifted her hips, rolling them down on to him before he could stop her. Impaling herself on him down to his sack.

He tossed his head back and caught them. Guiding her ferocious movements forward and back.

“Murah!” He grunted.

“What?” She panted in a husky aroused voice.

“You’ve gone hungry a long while. You should’ve summoned me. I’d have fed you well.” He braced her back and straightened her. Tugging her over him in a straddle.

She was already rising and falling, slamming herself down on him so hard he wondered how it didn’t cause her pain. She was already slick with her desire, and he glided smoothly. Burying in her silken warmth.

He gripped her shoulders so tight he knew he had to be hurting her, but he was trying to resist coming into her already.

She’s trying to make it quick. To push me too far too fast.

I’m not nearly done with her yet.