Page 274 of Sorrow & Strangers

“And how would you do that?” he asks skeptically.

“Not talk about him, maybe? Not tell you when I’m seeing him?”

“Princess, please, I’m already struggling with this,” he says, and even in his avatar I can see how tightly wound his body is.

“I’m just trying to⁠—”

“Little fae,” he warns. “It is very difficult for me to allow this. For you to even be near someone else. You cannot make it better.” He cups my cheek. “We are friends, for now. But you know what I want. What I have always wanted, and it is not friendship.”

My breath hitches.

“So if you are asking me how to make it better, it would be for you to never see him again. Or anyone else. To be mine. Forever.”

“Right.” I look away.

He gently pulls my face back up to his. “But I’m trying. Trying to control it. All I ask is that you consider how you would feel if our situations were reversed.”

I nod and swallow the feeling clogging my throat. “I should get home.” Jealousy is clawing at me already, and I desperately need to claim him.

“Already?” he asks, and I tip my head. He drops his hand to his side, clenching it in a fist. “I suppose it’s wrong of me to ask you to stay.”

“Ask me,” I whisper, staring at him, my breath growing shallow. The sound of my resolve shattering is deafening.

He pauses for a moment. “Stay,” he asks, the vulnerability in his voice rocking me to my core.

My cheeks heat as I nod, and I feel in my core the need for his touch against my skin. It’s been months since I felt it, and I need it so badly.

“Touch me?” I ask, but when he touches my cheek, all it does is make me want more. “No, really touch me.” He goes as still as a statue. “Blindfold me.”

He looks around. “It’s not safe here, princess.”

“Then take me somewhere that is.”

He thinks again for a long moment, and then I hear the faint sound of magic behind me as a portal opens. Without looking away, I step back into it. The warmth of a fireplace ousts the cool outside air, and the soft dirt beneath my feet becomes hardwood flooring. I have a brief glimpse of my surroundings before everything turns to black beneath the softest blindfold I’ve ever felt.

I hear the soft snap of the portal closing, and then I can feel him. I feel his magic, and it’s more than just an echo from the avatar. My lips part in anticipation of his touch, amped-up by the fact that I can’t see him, but I can feel his eyes on me. My breath catches when I feel the barest of touches against my naked waist, his fingers ghosting along my skin. The small sensation makes me pant, and when he drags his knuckle along my jaw, I can’t keep myself from moving against him. The relief from feeling him physically here in front of me is incredible, and I slide my hands over his chest to trace the strong column of his neck before plunging my fingers into his hair.

“Stranger, I want to reach you. Lie us down,” I whisper, standing on my tiptoes to nuzzle his jaw.

“Princess,” he groans, and again, I’d forgotten how intoxicatingly delicious his voice is in person.

He steps backward, pulling me with him. He stops when the backs of his knees hit the mattress. I moan and push hard at his chest, hearing him land with a small exhale. I crawl up his long body until I can straddle him.

The stranger’s lips brush along my neck, and I tilt my head back for him, my pulse hammering for him. His hands glide to my ass, and I moan as I feel him hardening beneath me. His tongue darts out, flicking against my skin, and I rock my hips against him, his bulge applying teasing pressure to my pussy, making it throb for more.

He hisses, and the world spins as I am flipped with his weight above me, his soft sheets beneath me.

“Princess . . .” he says, biting my neck hard, and I cry out from the pain, from the agonizing pleasure. I yank his hair, lifting and rocking my hips against him, needing more, needing relief from this gnawing, agonizing desire.

Friends! We just agreed to be friends!

I am not sure whose voice that is, but I suspect it belongs to the part of me that can still reason, and it succeeds in pulling me back into my body. As if he’s read my mind, he tenses and rolls off me, and I instantly miss the loss of his weight.

“Friends,” I pant.

“Can you call us friends when you know my cock is engraved with your name?”

“Stranger . . .”