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  Havyn stood and addressed the man guarding him. “Thanks, Omar, for filling me in as to what’s been happening in Ardenia.” He stepped to the dungeon door.

  Oxford took his brother’s arm.

  “You’re not very happy about her wanting to see me, are you?”

  Black eyes met Havyn’s. A whisper of a grin touched the edge of Oxford’s mouth. “Those are my orders.”

  He turned to the other guards watching the exchange. “You men can take the rest of the evening off. I will guard the prisoner.” He shoved Havyn out of the dungeon and into the hallway.

  “I take it she remembered who she is?” Havyn couldn’t hold back the question any longer. He’d worried from the moment she left the cellar with the Queen. The guards fed him and told him the latest news of the land, but his thoughts stayed centered on Faye Lynn.

  Would she still want him?

  “Yes, Melvin coaxed her memory back into place and renewed some of her youthful confidence, but she blocked access to the events around her disappearance.” Oxford led the way up the steps to the main floor of the castle. “She told the Queen she wished to rest. They’re meeting again tomorrow morning.”

  Havyn followed Oxford to the next set of stairs and down a hallway. “And even after remembering who she is, she still wants to see me?”

  “Yes, she told me she needed to see you.” His brother stopped in front of a door.

  “Right.” Havyn’s hand paused over the latch. He didn’t know what would happen in the next few minutes. This could be the last time he’d ever see her before they threw him out of Ardenia again.

  “Oh, and,” Oxford laid a hand on Havyn’s arm, “all the castle guards are on alert. Don’t even think about leaving.”

  Havyn nodded and opened the door.

  He searched the frilly room and found her slight form silhouetted by the glow of the walk-in fireplace. Still dressed in colorful leaves, her creamy skin sparkled with life. The sight of her drew him closer. He longed to hold her, kiss her, shield her from the pain of the past, but they both had to face their prior lives if they wanted any chance at a future.

  “Faye Lynn?” He stepped into the room and closed the door.

  She turned. The regal tilt of her head and straight line of her spine told him better than words how much she’d changed.

  “No, my name is Kesia.” Her hands formed a knot. “You were right. I am the daughter of the Queen of Ardenia. My father died in the war against the giants.”

  Havyn didn’t move, waiting instead for her to take the first step.

  She held out her hand and beckoned him forward. “You are Havyn Westmore, part of a royal family who has served in our country’s regiment for years.”

  After taking a few steps closer, he kneeled on the rug in front of her feet. “At your service, your majesty.”

  She giggled and wrapped her hands around his face. “Oh, Havyn, what would I have done without you.” Her lips brushed his, and her body embraced him.

  Shocked, he blinked. Her mouth lifted from his before he could respond.

  “Don’t you want to kiss me?” She peered down at him, her breasts only inches from his chin.

  “No. Yes. I’m stunned you still want me.” He gently laid his hands on her small waist. “You’re the princess of Ardenia while I’m an outcast, a sworn enemy of the country.”

  She placed her hands on his shoulders and whispered in a noble tone. “You, my dear man, are pardoned of all crimes, and you’re free to enter Ardenia at any time.”

  He shook his head. “Can you do that?”

  She giggled again and rubbed her breasts seductively against his jaw. “I can’t say, but I’ll use all my power to see that it happens.”

  His hands slid over the soft curve of her ass, squeezed the firm flesh, and drew her closer. “But the people of Ardenia believe I sold out to the enemy. I defied our rules of war.”

  “And saved lives that would have been lost on both sides if not for your clever deception.” Her hands brushed through his hair. Her gentle gaze caressed his face.

  “But the Queen found me guilty.” His fingers yanked at the leaves he’d placed on her skin. Much to his frustration, only those would give to his touch. He drank in the sweet scent of her skin.

  “True, but I think she will pardon you. After all, you did find her daughter.” She nestled out of his embrace and twirled around in a circle. “I feel so alive. Melvin not only restored my memory, but he gave me the confidence to make everything right.”

  She sauntered to the pit in the corner and turned. “I know we have obstacles to overcome. And I have duties I need to perform.” Her gaze shifted away for a brief moment before she blinked, then glanced his way again. A wicked smile played over her lips. “Right now, though, my only desire is to feel you deep inside me. Your mind and body joined with mine.” Her fingers peeled away the pink leaves covering the rosy tips of her breasts.

  He groaned.

  Her hands fell to the purple foliage that hid the sweet petals of her pussy. She ripped them off and threw them to the floor.

  His loins ached with a hunger he couldn’t contain. He stood and took a step. “Faye Lynn.”

  “No, I’m not Faye Lynn anymore.” Her eyes grew moist with a pain he couldn’t understand. “You must make love to me, Kesia.”

  “My princess.” He strolled to her and lifted her so her eyes were even with his. “You are an amazingly brave woman who has wormed her way into my heart.”

  She grinned and put her arms around his neck. “At times I haven’t acted very brave, like when I hid under the bed.”

  “Yes, but you stood in front of Jacko in your natural form without flinching.”

  Kesia shook her head, “Only because you were standing behind me.” She put her fingers over his lips to stop him from interrupting. “And now that I have you, you’ll be my humble servant for the rest of my life.”

  The weight of her words sank into his skull. Her brown eyes glistened with the truth of her statement. Her lips met his.

  He didn’t argue.

  For this one moment in time, she would be his, and he would be hers. Tomorrow, he’d leave.

  And he’d spend the rest of his life learning to forget how much he loved her.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Havyn laid her in the center of her sleeping pit. The silky fabric of the blanket nuzzled her back. He kneeled next to the wooden frame.

  Her gaze brushed over his dark whiskers, his broad shoulders, and then fell to the black hair shielding his chest. Kesia stared at him, rediscovering the man she’d already grown to love. She couldn’t hold back her hands.

  She caressed his jaw with her fingers and teased the short strands on his chin.

  He smiled.

  Her palm ventured near his mouth, and his tongue licked her fingers. A shiver swept over her skin with an eager promise of all the pleasures to come.

  “I don’t know what would have happened to me if you hadn’t found me, Havyn. You’ve taught me so much about who I am and what I can be.” She lost herself in the dark depths of his eyes.

  “You would have remembered sooner or later and found your way back home.” His hands slid over her shoulders and down her arms, releasing them from their place around his neck. He shifted her hands over her head and wrapped her fingers over the frame of the pit.

  “But you led me back, showed me the way, put your life on the line for me.” She wanted him to understand how much he meant to her. “I owe you everything.”

  “No, there’s no debt to be paid,” he whispered against her mouth. His lips skimmed along the surface of hers, not demanding entrance or seeking possession but a gentle request to share the pleasures of his mouth. The sweet kisses he placed on her lips held a taste of hot and spicy desire. His tongue traced the line of her teeth and played on edges, teasing her senses.

  Kesia’s breath suspended in her lungs, waiting, waiting for him to demand more. “Havyn,” she sighed softly, begging for him to
end the torture. “I need...”

  “Easy.” He lifted his head and placed a finger against her lips. “I want to take all night to make love to you, treasure each sensitive spot and find every secret place that excites you.” A light butterfly touch traced the seam of her lips. He toyed with her mouth.

  She closed her lips around his finger, wrapped her tongue around it, and sucked lightly.

  His gaze darkened. Lust burned in their depths. The whirling hot vortex sucked her in and lit her senses with the same hungry cravings.

  The slight salty taste of his skin fed her desire. She continued to swirl her tongue around his finger until he tugged it free and covered her mouth with his.

  Different, this kiss didn’t play but dove deep. His tongue slipped between her lips, danced with hers inside her mouth. Passion flared. She released the bed, but he held her hands in place.

  His lips whispered. “Hold onto the frame.” His black stare burned the message of “only I can touch you” into her head.

  “But...” The fire in her blood grew a little hotter.

  “Just tell me what you long for, the desires of your flesh. This time the game is for you to tell me how you want me to love you.” He glided his mouth down the side of her neck and nibbled on her ear. The rough hair on his chin rasped against her skin, delighting her senses.

  “Havyn, you must—” She gasped.

  His mouth slid lower to run along the curve of her shoulder. With the help of her legs, she lifted her hips. He stroked his hands down her arms and along her sides, taking a slow torturous journey over her stomach and thighs. She yearned for his intimate touch.

  Her fingers grew numb with the grip she had on the frame. “Please, Havyn, you’re not cooperating.”

  He lifted his head and met her gaze. “You haven’t said exactly what it is you yearn for.” His hands cupped her breasts and kneaded her flesh.

  Anger, sparked with lust, inflamed her senses. She started to release the frame, but he shifted back. “Do you really want me to tell you every move to make?”

  A wicked smile passed over his lips. “Yes, Kesia, I’d like to see exactly how my princess will command her court.”

  She balked at his words. He wanted her to be in control, the meek peasant girl who worried about defying her father.

  No longer true, her duties as a princess included taking care of the people in her kingdom. Responsibility settled over her.

  “You’ve been a servant to your father for years. Now it’s time for you to take charge and see your true ability to rule.” His teasing thumbs played with her nipples, running over her puckered flesh without satisfying her desire.

  An unsteady breath rushed from her lungs. “You’re playing with me like you did at Jacko’s place, trying to force me into speaking my demands so you can torture me with my words.”

  She forced her body to relax and tilted her head slightly so she could get a better look at his face. “It takes a good servant to perform exactly as a Princess demands.”

  His hands squeezed her breasts. “Your wish is my command.”

  Endless possibilities tempted her, and her mouth watered. She licked her lips and met the challenge in his eyes.

  “I really must admit. I enjoy the incredible feeling of your mouth on my breasts, sucking on my nipples.” His focus shifted to her breasts. “I think you might savor the pleasure as well.”

  A small smile creased his lips, and he leaned closer. His tongue licked one tip before he whispered against her skin. “You are a gracious Princess.” A second stroke circled the peak. “And you taste like a sinful treat.”

  He closed his lips over her breast, drawing as much as he could into his mouth. Her breath escaped in a surge of pleasure, bordering on ecstasy when nerve endings sizzled along her spine.

  It wasn’t enough. Her mind raced with where his hands should go, and what they should do.

  “Havyn, move your hands.”

  They inched along her side.

  “No, faster, I...” She yearned for his fingers to play between her legs and feed the hunger of her passion.

  His hands increased their speed and rushed over her knees.

  “No.” She spread her legs and dug her heels into the soft fabric of her blanket. “Your hands should stroke my inner thighs until they...”

  He caressed her sensitive skin but stopped at the top of her legs. She shifted, trying to get his hand to move between her legs. Hot fluid seeped from her sex. She could smell the musty scent in the air.

  “Havyn, please.” The sexual frustration building between her legs drove her almost crazy. She demanded his touch.

  A wayward tongue licked her breast with one last stroke before he lifted his head. His black eyes met hers. “Yes, my Princess, what is it you desire?”

  Kesia blinked several times before she could zero in on his face. “Your hand should venture higher.”

  His gaze scorched her with the fire burning in their depths. “You want me,” his hand swept along the edge of her leg, stroking the petals of her sex, “to dip my finger into your warm, wet pussy and play with your rosebud.”

  His words narrated his action.

  “Yes,” she gasped. Her vision lost focus. The slick stroke of his fingers robbed her of all ability to think.

  “And can I lick your cunt until you scream with your release?” He didn’t wait for her approval but lowered his head. His tongue, stoking, questing, searching for the allusive flower, he answered the longing screaming through her blood.

  She wriggled, and her hips left the surface of the pit. Strong hands gripped her butt, holding her in place for his mouth to pillage.

  She wanted more, needed more, had to have...”More!”

  Her hands bracketed his head, pulling him closer. His tongue increased its pace. One of his fingers slid deep into her throbbing vagina in a plummeting invasion of her senses.

  The hard and fast motion had pleasure moistening her skin. A groan bubbled in her throat and popped from her mouth. Her release plunged her into the blissful abyss. She hurled through time and space to the peaceful place where only Havyn existed.

  Only a moment later, the rumble of Havyn’s deep voice beside her ear made her open her eyes. “Kesia, my princess, are you completely satisfied? Or should I seek to please you in another way?”

  His body suspended above her, his weight rested on the strength of his elbows and knees. His black eyes glazed over with desire. The tip of his thick erection hovered at the entrance to her heat.

  She smiled and laid her hands on his shoulders. Taking on the persona of a royal ruler, she answered in a regal tone. “You’ve done an excellent job. One I’m sure most women would have enjoyed. But alas, I don’t think you’ve given me your all.”

  She arched a brow. “You really need to dig a little deeper.”

  The tip of his penis invaded her wet channel.

  “Press a little harder.”

  The solid lines of his frame slid against her soft curves. His wide chest blocked her view of everything else in the room. Every craving she needed, felt or longed for, he filled.

  “And you’ll have to use the full length of your desire to give me the ultimate satisfaction I require.”

  He thrust his hips forward.

  “Yes,” she gasped and put her arms around his neck. “I believe you’re beginning to get the idea.”

  The gentle rocking of his rod into her throbbing pussy changed into a steady trot, and she trembled. Her legs circled his waist. Her hips bucked against his in a rhythm that left them both breathless and needy.

  She longed for the overwhelming pleasure to last, or end, or morph into a mind-blowing release. On the edge of an orgasmic cliff, she clenched his hair tighter. She ached for relief, but he slowed his pace, going slowly in, slowly out.

  “No. Faster.”

  He used a gradual dragging motion to withdraw. The unbearable tension grew inside her into a tight twisted rope of need.

  “But you need to feel
every inch of me, know the full force of my eagerness for you.” He thrust his hips forward, driving the long length of his cock deep, causing a shot of bliss to vibrate through her vagina.

  He again leisurely withdrew from her body.

  “Havyn,” she gasped. “I can’t take this.”

  The heavy restraint he placed on his movements caused a mist to form on his back. Her hands rubbed over his slick skin, trying to hold onto him. “Why are you doing this?

  His hot breath caressed her ear. He swiveled his hips and drove deep. “I’m not your servant.” His pace quickened. “Or your salvation.”

  “I...” She couldn’t think what to say. Had they taken the game to far?

  “I’m the man...” He pumped in earnest now. “Who will love you...”

  She shook and shivered and quivered with her release, but he didn’t slow. He raced on. His pace dragged her along, took her farther, and raked her back over the sharp blades of desire. The deep cuts stripped away the honored title and her poor girl fears. Only her truest essence remained.

  She clung to him, bare of false truths. A ravenous lust ripped through his body. Her senses hummed. Her thoughts devoured the tiny scraps of his hunger, and his desires ricocheted into her.

  Queen—servant, peasant—master.

  No boundaries, no lines.

  One heartbeat, one love.

  All thoughts flew from her mind, and she soared for an eternity, one bright, brief moment with Havyn. Then all too quickly, she floated back down into the soothing warmth of his arms.

  “Forever” sang through her head, and she drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Where are you going?”

  Havyn paused at the sound of Faye Lynn’s—no, Kesia’s voice the next morning. Halfway across her suite, he’d planned to be on his way home by the time she woke, but he hadn’t been able to drag himself from her arms.

  “I’m on my way home.” He didn’t turn. To look at her would only make it that much harder.

  “Why?” The rustling noise of her rising from the square pit she’d called a bed forced him to take one last peek.