“I don’t want to go,” I whispered.
“It’ll be lots of fun, Princess. Your parents are excited to show you off to the world.” I sighed. I didn’t want to be shown off to the world. I wanted to be understood and cherished. I felt like an ornament to be perched upon this kingdom’s shelves. It was all so weird. I didn’t have anything to compare this relationship to, but weren’t parents supposed to be loving? Attached? I always envisioned getting to know my family, and it never went like this in my dreams.
“Lilac, I feel like I got pulled out of the water. Like a fish. And everyone here expects me to suddenly breathe the air when I’ve never done so in my life.” She’d spent so much time making me look beautiful that I was afraid to even move. If I stayed very still, I might be able to pull off this look. Walk around and it was going to all go to hell. I just knew it.
She furrowed her brow. “I’m not sure what to say, Princess, this is not stuff I know about. I serve your family; I always have, always will. I don’t know how to do anything else.”
“Then how about you serve her a stiff drink?” Cypress’s voice shocked me, and I jumped as he stepped out of the shadows. Lilac squeaked, and we both stared at him.
He shrugged. “Assassin.” As though that answered our unasked question, which I supposed to him, it did.
I whirled around looking at Lilac. “Yes, that drink. Please.”
I supposed it couldn’t hurt. Didn’t people drink when they were stressed? She nodded once and fled from the room. At the Fae inn, it just made me sleepy.
Rounding back on Cypress, I pointed my finger and pressed it into his chest. Hard. “How long have you been standing there? Were you watching me dress?”
He smirked. “Yes.”
Well, at least he was admitting it. “I suppose you’ve seen me naked already.”
“Yes, but it’s one of those things that I’ll never get enough of looking at. Like the first time I saw you naked, I didn’t notice that you had the smallest dimple in your hip. It’s sort of sexy and adorable.” Cypress dropped to his knees in front of me, bunching my skirt in his hands before he lifted it up. “Taunting me. It will take her a long time to find that drink. Your people aren’t big on liquor. She will have to leave the castle for it. So...stand here a second and let me fuck your pussy with my tongue.”
My legs went weak at his words. I was at the mercy of his hot mouth, teasing me with kisses on my creamy skin. I squirmed as the scruff of his jaw tickled me. “We really shouldn’t,” I rasped. What if my mother came up here to check on Lilac’s handiwork? What if my father? I cringed. I didn’t know how this place worked.
“Layne,” Cypress urged, his voice dark and husky. “I want to taste you. Do you not want to come all over my face, Princess? ’Cause I can stop right now if necessary.”
I swallowed. That actually sounded like the best way to spend my evening. Fuck the ball. “What if—”
My words were cut off when Cypress lifted me up and dropped me on the bed. My carefully designed hair started to fall out of its braids. I would wrinkle my dress. “What if what?” Cypress asked while prying my thighs apart. The slit in my dress made maneuvering through it easier for him.
“We’re supposed to be downstairs,” I replied, though my argument sounded lame even to my own ears.
“So you’re telling me,” Cypress began. His hot breath washed over me, and I shivered at his closeness. I felt so bare to him. “You’d rather parade around this castle, wearing a crown, than let me taste your cunt? Speak now and we can go. I’m dressed and ready.”
At his words, I looked at Cypress’s outfit, then blinked twice to clear my vision. Yeah. Cypress was definitely dressed and ready.
I swallowed as he waited for my answer, making sure to kiss around my clit without ever touching it.
“I want you,” I rasped.
“Good, Princess,” he replied.
He pulled down the tiny undies that qualified as my panties and tongued my clit with a growl. I cried out the second his warm tongue made contact with me. Yes, I wanted him. Even more than I realized. I didn’t have to think when he did this. I just had to feel, and I needed that more than I required air at the moment.
He swirled his tongue over that tiny bud of nerves until I panted for it. Still, it wasn’t enough. This felt amazing, like pleasure had taken over the world, as though I were wrapped in its embrace and only Cypress could keep it going. It wasn’t going to be enough to make me come. I writhed on the bed while he made love to me with his mouth.
And then like he understood, he let go and pressed two fingers inside of me. Yes, that was much better.
“Layne, you are so beautiful. Like you define the word. And you don’t know how much I want to fuck you with my cock right now. I want to push inside of you and deep dick you until you can’t walk for days. That’s what I want. But it might fuck up your pretty little dress. I don’t want to do that. Your fuckable, pretty little ass is all wrapped up in that doll dress. So you’re going to come on my fingers.” He smiled up at me with a hard gleam in his eyes that was somehow both scary and adoring. “Because I said so.”
His words were like striking a match. Fire burned within me. A sense of power surged through my body, and the room became fragrant with the scent of sex and
