AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A warm, towering presence came to her side, wrapping her in the familiar scent of rosewood and leather, of home.
‘Take me to bed,’ Thea murmured to Wilder.
He leant down, close enough that his lips brushed the shell of her ear. ‘The day I say no to that is the day I’ve lost my mind.’
‘Then what are you waiting for, Warsword?’
They made no excuses and said no goodbyes as they slipped away from the raucous night that had unfolded around them. Thea glanced back, a smile on her lips. There would be several sore heads in the morning when they reconvened to solidify their plans, but… an ember of hope flared within her. It was certainly not the group of disciplined, ruthless warriors of Thezmarr she’d always imagined fighting alongside.
It was better.
As she and Wilder climbed the stairs to their room, she asked, ‘Is there a particular task that you want to volunteer for tomorrow?’
He fitted the key to the lock on their door and ushered them both inside. As soon as the door was closed behind them, he had her up against it, his mouth hot and insistent on hers before he broke away, peering into her face.
‘I don’t give a fuck where I go, so long as it’s with you.’
Thea loosed a breath.
‘You good with that, Princess?’ His eyes took on that dark smoulder that made her toes curl and his hand dropped from her nape, down to her chest, where he put his hand over her racing heart.
‘I’m good with that,’ she told him, covering his hand with hers. She stared at their fingers lacing through each other’s, his large, calloused palm turning to greet her own small, scar-littered hand.
Then she shifted onto her tip-toes and kissed him, hard and wanting. A noise of pleasure escaped her as he opened his mouth to her and brushed his tongue against hers while his body crowded her against the door.
She wanted him everywhere.
And Wilder Hawthorne obliged her.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
THEA
Wilder had wrought so much pleasure upon her that Thea thought she might die. There was a delicious wickedness to her Warsword when he was completely unleashed, uninhibited. The things he could do with his fingers, his mouth, his cock… Yet despite the countless climaxes he’d wrung from her trembling body, despite the steady rise and fall of his broad chest beside her, Thea couldn’t sleep.
Whether it was the return of her magic or the thoughts of the war to come keeping her awake, she didn’t know. But she felt restless, far more alert than she had any right to, and her skin was crawling, like she needed to move.
For a while, she watched Wilder sleep in the golden glow of the dying fire. She studied the lines of his beautiful naked body, the hard muscle sculpted by years of training and fighting, the scars he wore like badges of honour… His fierce expression was softened in sleep, a side of him she knew not many were lucky enough to witness.
When she had memorised every scar, every freckle, every line that graced his sun-kissed skin, Thea slipped from the bed,unable to quell the unrest within, her feet practically itching to move.
She dressed in silence, congratulating herself that she was still stealthy enough to get ready without disturbing the mighty warrior in her bed. As she left the room, closing the door with a quiet click behind her, the restlessness in her body eased, ever so slightly.
Nervous energy, she told herself, making her way downstairs.
It must have been the very early hours of the morning. In the tavern, the chairs and stools were placed upside down on the tables, the notes of lutes and fiddles long gone. Folding her arms over her chest against the faint chill of the open space, Thea wove between the furniture, hearing the faint tinkle of glasses beyond.
In the heart of the tavern, a fire still crackled in the main hearth, and she found a smaller group gathered around the bar, talking softly with one another. Anya, Dratos and Marise sat on stools, while Everard stood behind the bar, drying tankards with a rag.
‘Couldn’t sleep?’ Anya asked, pulling out a stool for her.
Thea shook her head. ‘You?’
‘Don’t sleep much in general,’ Anya replied.
Thea sat down, though she couldn’t sit still completely, her knee bouncing beneath the bar.
Marise pushed three bottles towards her. ‘What will it be?’
