The vision faded away slowly and I found myself staring into Khol’s eyes. “What did you see, my little Queen?”
“You don’t know?” I breathed.
“No. The vision was closed to me for some reason. Tell me what you saw.”
“It was just Bryn and you talking . . . about me. You told him to fight for me—you told him—”
“The Queen’s powers are beginning to show themselves in you. I know of which conversation you’re referring to because it only just occurred, before I came to see you here.” Khol pushed the hair on the left side of my face behind my ear. “But it was not meant for you to witness.”
“Yeah, I kind of got that,” I said dryly. “So you plan on seducing me away from Bryn to break our bargain?”
Khol hesitated for a moment before responding. “Yes. I’ve made no secret about my desire to claim you . . . the right way this time.”
I tried to be mad at Khol as I stared into his strong chiseled face, meeting his fire-consumed eyes. I tried to be mad at him as I ran my fingertips over his high cheekbones and brought the fingers of one of my hands to caress his firm and yet supple lips. I tried to be mad at him as he gripped my hair at the base of my neck and tugged gently as he sucked one of my fingers into his mouth, reminding me of other things his oh so talented mouth could do. And I tried to be mad at him as his free hand slipped up to pull me closer to him, eliciting a moan from me. “I can’t trust you not to cheat,” I murmured.
“No, you can’t.” He nibbled on my fingertips before letting my hand drop away so he could claim my lips. I clutched at him, unsure of whether to push him away or pull him closer, my body craving his touch, and yet my mind screaming at me to punish him for his actions.
“Let’s end this now.” He began kissing a heated path down the side of my neck and I finally decided that pulling him closer was the best course of action to take at the moment. “Let me claim you so that none of us suffer any longer. You saw for yourself, he won’t fight for you.”
“It could be Bryn’s child,” I said, trying not to lose control under Khol’s heated lips.
“He still doesn’t want to fight for you, and I don’t care who the father is. I will love it like it is mine . . . either way.”
“I know,” was all I could manage to say; my brain was short-circuiting on lust. Khol continued his way down my body, nibbling, kissing and suckling. He paused to tug at my pants and alarm bells began sounding in my head. I knew he was intending to wear me down slowly, another few rounds of what he’d done to me before and I’d be begging for him to make love to me, consequences be damned. So I decided to do whatever I could to prevent that scenario from happening. “Wait . . . stop!” I said with desperation. “Let me—” Let me what? Then my thoughts went to what Jenna had asked earlier. “Let me . . . reciprocate.” Khol stopped short, his heated gaze resting heavily upon me. “Please, I want to.” I pushed up from my prone position and dipped down on my knees in front of him. As I unzipped his pants, I felt Khol’s body thrum with tension. He seemed almost reluctant to let me repay his favor from earlier, or maybe he saw my aversion tactic for what it was.
Khol caught my head in both of his hands and he forced me to look up at him. “Are you sure you want to do this?” His voice came out sounding strained, and broke an octave lower about halfway through.
I searched my feelings, asking myself if I really wanted to do for Khol, something that I’d only ever done for Bryn, and only a handful of times at that. But the answering clench of my stomach followed by a rush of heat to my middle let me know that I did indeed want to give Khol this particular gift. “I’m sure,” I rasped. I was surprised at my feelings, but I didn’t doubt them. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of me taking control of Khol, of me having power over him in that kind of intimate way. “Now just sit back and relax,” I commanded.
And Khol obeyed.
9
“No. Just stop. I let you curl my hair but you’re not attacking me with hairspray again. The last time I let you at me with that stuff I had to deep condition . . . twice . . . before I could even get a brush through it.” I scowled at Jenna, who was currently brandishing the biggest can of hairspray I’d ever seen.
Her brows furrowed together with annoyance. “Just a little bit, or your hair’s gonna fall.”
I stood abruptly and scrambled away from her, waving my hands around my head to keep her from spraying at me on the run. “I said no!”
“Come on, P.J., I don’t see what the big deal is!” She vaulted after me and pushed down the aerosol button on the top of the can and let loose a stream of spray in my direction.
“The big deal is that my hair is already white, if you spray it until it could withstand a tsunami then I’m going to look like a little old lady!” I crouched as Jenna shot another stream of hairspray at me.
“Don’t be ridiculous, you’re almost nineteen not ninety, and without make-up you still look like you’re twelve, so just let me make you look pretty for this stupid announcement thing!”
“No means no Jenna!” I screeched as I whirled around and grabbed the can from her, but still managed to get shot in the face. “Oh come on!” I coughed.
A prickling of power across my skin signaling Khol’s emanate arrival made me stop and straighten up. I still hadn’t figured out what was going on with me being able to sense Khol’s arrival before he actually appeared, or how I could tell it was him, but I had a feeling it had something to do with my still new to me powers. I hadn’t had the opportunity to test out if I could sense it with anybody but him yet, but I was sure I wouldn’t have to wait long.
“Khol,” I breathed as he appeared a few feet in front of me. The smile he gave me made me weak in the knees, and I knew the answering one I wore probably made me look like I was a little drunk. And maybe in some ways I was. “I’m not ready yet,” I murmured trying to ignore the little flip-flop that my stomach did as memories of what we’d done together, of how he had let me explore him with my mouth with leisure, and of just how he tasted, rose unbidden to my mind.
“My little Queen,” he practically purred, and I had to fight the urge to fan myself.
“Jenna, hey . . . um . . . can you give us a couple minutes?” I said without breaking eye contact with Khol. I wanted a few minutes alone with him after what happened between us. We hadn’t really gotten a chance to talk; in fact, right after I’d finished . . . my job . . . Drake had called him away on some sort of dragon business. At the time I was kind of relieved because I was pretty sure I was about five seconds away from doing something stupid with him, but now I was regretting the lost intimacy that being with him afterwards would have surely offered me.
“Yeah, I guess,” Jenna pouted. “But don’t do anything to mess up your hair.” She left the room grumbling under her breath about not being appreciated enough.
