But it wasn’t an intruder. It was Elric, standing a few paces back from the tent, sporting a look of such fury we should’ve caught fire under its force.
“Did you touch my betrothed?” he whispered.
Sigrid raised her chin. “What if I did?”
I nudged her behind me, not needing this to turn into a brawl. “She didn’t.” I squeezed Sigrid’s hip. “Stop antagonizing him.”
Elric bristled with rage. “I know what I heard.”
Sigrid smirked. “Do you? You don’t entirely seem like you’ve witnessed a woman orgasm before.”
He lunged for her, but I stopped him. “She’s not like you. She’s brave and kind and pure and she deserves better than to be defiled by the likes of you!”
He froze when Eleanor appeared at the tent opening, her cheeks pink and hair unbound. “Would you consider yourself more qualified to defile me, Captain?”
At the invitation in her tone, Elric’s jaw dropped.
Then his shoulders went rigid. “I respect you too much to have sex before we’re wed.”
Eleanor raised an eyebrow, giving him a look that dripped with desire. “So we won’t have sex…”
When Elric stood frozen on the threshold, I moved aside and gave him a push through the tent flap.
I put an arm around Sigrid, sweeping us towards the woods. “You’ve corrupted Lady Eleanor. Elric may never recover.”
“She’s been repressed too long. Motherfucker better give her what she needs.”
“And what about what you need, wife?”
She cupped my still-hard cock, pushing me up against a tree once we were out of earshot. “I need to feel you lose control.”
We lost ourselves to hands and mouths and the rhythmic thrusting of our love-making. If the bandits came upon us, we’d deal with them, but in that moment I needed to claim my woman more desperately than I needed to breathe.
When we were both sated and panting, lying together on a makeshift bed on the forest floor, I kissed her forehead gently. “Now, do you want to tell me what the fuck that was about?”
She stiffened. “I don’t want you to feel limited by our marriage. If you ever find yourself needing something else, you have my blessing.”
I lifted her chin, forcing her to look at me. “Do you need something else, Sigrid?”
For a few charged seconds, she simply looked into my eyes, seeing into my very soul
“No,” she said, dropping her chin again. “You’re all I need, Bastian.”
I’d never seen her so afraid.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
BASTIAN
“We’ll enter from the back of the cave. Godric, you’ll be stationed with the archers at the front. Pick the bandits off if they turn coward and run.” I checked everyone’s faces, making sure they were ready for the fight ahead.
The soldiers were tense, but resolute. Eleanor stood with her back against Elric’s chest, his arm draped over her protectively, but she was affectionately stroking the top of his hand, looking more confident than I’d ever seen her.
We’d ridden hard to get to the cave before dusk, and Eleanor had been next to Elric the entire way, occasionally looking over at him with a shy smile. Evidently, they were a good match.
“Aye, my lord,” Godric said in response to my orders. The archers gathered their bows and headed for the forest.
“Rufus, you’ll lead us the rest of the way to the entrance and then wait outside.”
