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A throaty groan spread from my chest. Briar’s fingers wound through my hair as she blinked at me. “Hi,” she whispered, her voice worn from exertion and saturated with pleasure.
This woman couldn’t know how delirious and devastated that word made me. I wanted to tether that intimateHiinto a knot and unravel it every day, unspooling it from her like a ribbon—a rare and secret gift.
She spread herself over me, my body still partially fitted to hers. Her head rested on my shoulder, her hair a red mess across my chest, the locks matted as though she’d walked through a tornado. A fragrant mist of apples and sweat wafted from her naked skin.
Like a trickster, she fingered the inclines of my hips. Damnation, how I liked that.
Matter of fact, I liked it so much that it was beginning to show yet again. My insatiable cock twitched inside her, and my plaintive growl made her chuckle. Seasons, I could do this forever, listen to that laugh and make love to her until the sun rose. Sensuous and slow. Rough and fast. There remained at least half a dozen evil things I’d like to do to this female.
But soon the bell would toll midnight, and eventually dawn would sneak over the horizon. One by one, carnival revelers would notice our absence.
But there was much to discuss, namely that Briar had bargained me and my son to Autumn. She had my gratitude for that—to an extent.
Once released from prison and questioned by the Crown, I had rushed to Jinny and Nicu. Plagued by nightmares, my son hadn’t yet recovered from what happened. I’d held him and coaxed him to sleep, the wrathful father in me plotting ways to make my former sovereigns bleed from their fucking ears.
As desperate as I had been to see Briar, the only reason I returned to the castle before our journey to Autumn was that I’d been handpicked to be the Fest Fool. That had robbed me of hours comforting Nicu and bidding Jinny farewell.
Although lying about our blood relations could enable Jinny to come with us, her bones were too old to make the trip. The woman who had raised me, whom I’d sworn never to abandon—as my parents did to me, as Nicu’s mother did to him—would end her days alone.
The grief had been immeasurable. When I gave her the news, I cried more than she had.
Jinny had smiled bravely. She’d rubbed a poultice into my wounds, then held my face and told me to be well, to stay together and make a home for Nicu.
Intolerance existed on a quieter note in Autumn—up to this point, at least. Ultimately, it was still intolerance in a climate that hadn’t been tested yet. Not only would I be prying Nicu from the only place he’d known, but the threats wouldn’t end in another court. The risks would only take on a different shape, a new sharpness no one could predict.
Through us, Briar would be put in danger, too.
The backs of my retinas burned. Mercenary impulses clawed through my fingers. If anything happened to them, I’d slit throats and draw rivers of blood.
But for the time being, the sight of Briar’s flushed face rinsed away those instincts. I tapped her nose. “I suppose I’m under your command now. But then, I’ve always been.”
She propped herself above me, her breasts skimming my ribs. “It was the only way.”
“Indeed.”
“And us?”
I wavered. Seasons no longer came between us. But that left three-hundred and fifty-three other conflicts to deal with.
She was royalty. I was the professional butt of a joke, the court’s precious whore, and a pricey trinket to be shown off at feasts. At all times, I was the most worshipped, the most desired, the most envied, the most hated, and the most controversial person in the room. This was nothing new in Spring.
But not in Autumn. What upheaval I’d cause there remained to be seen. But whatever happened, whatever I did intentionally or unintentionally, it would affect Briar.
Pain rippled through me. I balanced myself beside her, wanting to take the words back even as I spoke them. “I’ll be your Court Jester. I’ll entertain and advise. I’ll gain countless fans and foes, as befits my station. And on some fateful day, I’ll watch you marry an archetypal suitor with immaculate teeth and table manners. And whilst the wedding guests fill themselves with bucketloads of alcohol, I’ll mock everyone within a twenty-foot radius, and they’ll despise me for it, as much as they’ll lust after me for it, as much as they’ll resent me for it.”
Denial clambered across Briar’s face. “In the bell tower, you asked what you meant to me.”
“I merely wanted to know. I wasn’t counting on it for more, however much I fancied the idea. You were the one who reminded me of our differences.”
“And then I changed my mind.”
“Sneaking into alcoves under the cover of night and hiking up your skirt for a quickie? Speaking in riddles to communicate, or manipulating the system to send missives? Slipping into your suite, covering your mouth so no one but me shall hear you moan, and leaving before dawn? Romance is labor intensive, don’t you agree?”
“Be serious for one minute,” Briar snapped.
If I did that, I’d have to tell her it would be worth it. Every secret moment, every effort to steal a moment with her. I would do it a thousand times and more. It wouldn’t be difficult. Nay, it would be instinctual.
But if I went there, I would only delay the inevitable.
