Shalin gently ran her hand down the length of him, her small smile growing until she fairly leered at him. “Oh, it’ll be my great pleasure, m’lord,” she said, before she took him into her mouth with one deep swallow.
“You have to tell me,” he said softly.
Shalin, who’d found a comfortable position with her head on Ailean’s flat abdomen while his fingers combed through her hair, glanced away from the window and at him.
“Tell you what?”
“Who, Shalin?” And he smiled in disbelief. “Who in all the bloody hells named you Innocent?”
With a chuckle, Shalin kissed his stomach, loving the way the defined muscles jumped at the touch of her lips. “Adienna.” She chuckled at the surprised expression on his face. “Adienna named me Innocent.”
“Why?”
Shalin repositioned herself a bit so her chin rested high on his stomach by his ribs and her right arm wrapped tight around his waist. “Because I kept rejecting her cast-offs. She kept tossing these dragons at me with these little comments as to how they were as lovers and why I should try them out. As if she were giving them a go first for my benefit. When I rejected one of Ceanag’s sons—I forget which one—she started calling me ‘innocent.’ And I decided not to argue the point.”
Ailean ran both his hands through her hair as he so often did and gazed into her face. “But you didn’t see me as a cast-off?”
Her eyes narrowed and she saw the look of concern on his face. “I won’t say she didn’t want you from the beginning, Ailean. But I can assure you that her knowing I wanted you so badly made it extra special for her.”
When he only stared at her blankly, she admitted, “She knew I wanted you. And she made it her mission to get you. And afterward, every time she obsessed about you or talked about the night you shared, she did it to make sure she hurt me. Adienna likes to see others in pain.”
Ailean took a deep breath, let it out, and said, “I’m sorry.”
Shalin shook her head. “I don’t need you to be. I’m completely aware of how enticing she is. Of how much others desire—”
“No,” he said softly, cutting her off. “I wish I could tell you I wanted her because I had to have her. Because I desired her so much. But it was really because I couldn’t believe a princess could want me, the low-born.”
“I hate that term. It’s cruel.”
“But how we’re viewed. I went to her bed that night for every wrong reason there is and as soon as I got there I regretted it more than I thought possible. I always felt like these past years with her obsessing over me was some sort of punishment for not doing what I normally do.”
“Which is?”
“Fuck the ones I want.” He laughed, but it was bitter. “I didn’t even fuck her. I brought her pleasure but that night I found none myself. I pushed her until she passed out, and then I ran like some startled kitten.”
“You wouldn’t be the first who ran,” Shalin said. “Although you may be the only one who didn’t come back out of fear. I do think you may finally be free, though. I’d heard a bit before the North dragons arrived that the queen has chosen a mate for Adienna. And Adienna is none too happy about it.”
“I feel sorry for the poor dragon sharing his life with her for the next six hundred years. I’d rather swallow glass.”
Before Shalin could respond to that, Ailean gripped her shoulders and pulled her up until they were face to face. “I’m sorry, Shalin.”
“Stop it. There’s nothing to—”
“I should have done what I’d planned to do that night, but I was stupid.” His hands went from her shoulders until they cupped her face. “It was you I was going to see that night. You I was walking toward. Then someone stopped me, I don’t remember who, and asked me some questions. When I turned back around, you were gone.”
Shalin stared at Ailean as that night came back to her with stunning clarity. Finally, she gave a soft laugh and shook her head. “That bitch.” She stroked his chest with the tips of her fingers. “She came to me that night, telling me to track down one of her personal guards. I searched everywhere. Every cavern, every chamber. After more than an hour I returned and found her guard already there. But the two of you were long gone. That explains why her friends were snickering at me the rest of the night, but I didn’t pay it much mind. They did that a lot, anyway.”
Ailean pulled her head down a bit and kissed her forehead. “I should never have listened to her. She told me you ran from me. That me, my reputation, scared you. And, like a fool, I believed her.”
“She’s very good at making a body believe whatever she tells them. Trust me when I say I won’t hold it against you. However,” she kissed his jaw, his throat, “that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make it up to me.”
Ailean roughly grabbed her rear and pushed her up his body until her breast hung over his face. His tongue flicked against the nipple, making Shalin gasp until he took it into his mouth and she groaned.
He sucked and teased until Shalin gripped his head and held him tightly to her. That’s when he flipped her onto her back, him on top.
“I promise, Shalin,” he said, his mouth already moving to the other breast. “I’ll make it up to you all night long.”
Ailean looked down at Shalin again. Asleep, she had her head resting against his chest, one arm around his waist, the other fisted against his shoulder. Her
