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As our eyes met, I felt a low sadness hovering around him and I wanted him to know I was not poking fun.
He grunted some sort of understanding, then looked out the still-open front door, then back to me. “They may not have hurt you, but you are hurt. I don’t know how to heal you, but I’m quite sure I know how to make you feel better. Much better.”
I swallowed hard, a rush of heat on my cheeks and between my legs making me look away, sure he could hear my heart beating.
“I’d like that,” I heard myself say, and after a long silent moment, he set my foot down, grunted and rose to his feet.
As he stepped away, I swear I heard him mutter under his breath…
“I know you will.”
Chapter 4
Randal
I’d never been so close to Iris before, not even that day in the castle, and it took all my fucking strength not to lose myself in her gorgeous eyes, not to get wrapped up in memorizing every freckle and dimple.
And her tits.
Fuck almighty, those tits. The way they rose and fell with every breath as she watched me on the floor, caressing her calf muscle, her ankle, her bare foot. I was so fucking close to her pussy I could almost taste it.
Her scent was like fresh rose water and sweet wine and my blood pounded in my temples, the word that had pulsed through me since I saw her that day beating its way through my chest.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
It played over and over in my head, but I kept my shit together. Even when I asked her name, feigning ignorance, it was part of a plan I didn’t even realize I had. I wanted to soothe her, and it seemed the safest question to ask. Also, I didn’t want to slip up and use her name and have her wonder why the fuck I knew it already.
The fact that she hadn’t immediately withdrawn in horror at the sight of me was a miracle. The last thing I needed was to remind her of how hideous I looked with a monstrous act or a slip into my baser nature.
I wanted to ravage her. Every instinct in my brain told me to take her while I had the chance. When would another opportunity arise? We were alone, was that enough? Maybe.
I could have her skirt up, her underclothes torn in a second. My cock was ready, that was sure. I was ready. I could lift her to the kitchen table and rut into her like the animal I was. I could bind her hands with my belt, secure them above her head, lash her legs apart as her luscious ass hung on the edge of the table, pussy spread, offering herself to me…
“It’s good of you to—” She caught her breath as I looked into her eyes, crouching back down after dampening a cloth in the bucket of water next to the fireplace. “I…I mean, thank you. For protecting me from those men. It’s nice to have someone watching out for me, making sure I’m safe.”
Her words sent a shiver down my spine. Someone watching out for me. Protecting me. Making sure I’m safe.
“I’m fine now, really,” she said. “It’s just a bruise. I’m certain you have better things to do than look after me.”
“Fuck that,” I muttered, making her fall silent at the gruffness of my words, but nothing on earth was more important than her.
Fate had given me the shove I’d needed. Iris had seen me, and rather than recoil in horror she’d spoken to me like an ordinary human being. She made me feel like a human being. Knowing that she didn’t see me as some freak turned my resolve to possess her into stone.
“I may be no medical man,” I said, tracing the cloth over the deep purple swelling along her ankle, “but I don’t think that’s just a bruise.”
“No,” she agreed, pressing her lips tight and squeezing her eyes shut for a moment.
I knew what she was thinking. If she couldn’t work, she couldn’t pay the farm’s debts to the royal household. She didn’t know that I’d already made that a non-issue, and now was not the time to reveal the depths of my obsession.
I looked up into her dark eyes. This is where I fucking belong, I thought to myself. But I had to think quick—I needed a good excuse for “passing by” her farm at such an early hour.
The place was pretty much in the back of beyond. I also wanted an excuse for staying as long as possible.
“This is Millstone Farm, right?” I knew good and fucking well where I was.
“That’s right.”
“The royal land council hired me to come do some maintenance on the barns. I’m a carpenter.”
Iris blew out an exasperated breath as a smile tipped her lips upward, and the thought of them around my cock had me as hard as the fire poker she’d dropped in the hall outside her bedroom.
