Fantastical (Fantasyland #3)(35)

He grinned and answered, “Not even a little bit.”

The squishiness in my belly and the excitement at seeing his castle disappeared and I glared at him.

“So we’re back to that?”

“We never left it.”

“You let me have a bath, clothes and dinner without earning it,” I reminded him.

“You cleaned my cave,” he informed me.

Ugh!

“Why is it when I think I can start liking you, you remind me why I don’t?” I asked and that earned me another insolent grin but no response.

Drat the man!

“I think I should get a pass considering I helped you hold back the vickrants and put up with your foul temper in the church,” I informed him.

The grin faded and the amusement in his eyes died but still he said, “And I think you should stop talking and earn your breakfast so we can be on our way.”

I tried to unlace my fingers from his (and failed, by the way) so I scowled up at him. “You forget, I’ve decided to go it alone.”

“And you forget that you foolishly left me, taking my horse while doing it. It’s my duty to protect you, you put yourself in danger and doing this, you negated anything you might have earned in our fight and enduring my foul temper in the church.”

“That doesn’t add up!” I snapped.

“It certainly does,” he returned.

“It doesn’t!” I shot back and his fingers tensed and stayed tensed in mine.

“The curse has just begun. The Shrew cannot complete it unless she has a half of both the souls. She gets you, and it’s highly likely, you go on alone, wherever the bloody hell you think you’re going, she’ll get you. That means my land, my people, will live under that curse in all its fullness until the next divided souls blissfully wed. My people, as yet, are unaware of what has befallen them. They are experiencing unpredictable weather patterns but, as far as I can tell, nothing more. As the curse has not descended for millennia, there is no known record of what to expect except whatever it will be will likely mean floods, droughts, crops failing, plague, famine and the only hope would be to endure, for a shred of humanity to hold on as the decades pass until the new souls are united in matrimony. You endangered that, again, my love, and for that we return to our terms and you earn your keep.”

Oh dear. I didn’t know any of that. I’d f**ked up again. Royally (in my case, seeing as I was a princess, that was weirdly literal).

Shit.

“Then I’m not hungry,” I decided. “We can just go.”

“You’ll eat and you’ll earn it.”

“Nope, I’m fine. Thanks for your concern but I’m good.”

“Did you eat yesterday?”

No, I did not and, incidentally, I was starved.

I didn’t tell him that.

“Cora, you can earn it or I can take it from you.”

I blinked up at him. “What?”

“You kiss me or I kiss you. Those are your choices. You have two seconds to decide.”

“Don’t you dare kiss –”

“One.”

“Noctorno, you kiss me, I’ll –”

“Two,” he muttered, his eyes dropping to my mouth then his lips dropped there.

Hells bells.

I fought it, I did. Seriously. And I worked hard at it. And it seemed I was winning.

I kept my mouth resolutely closed no matter how he coaxed (and he coaxed) with lips and tongue to get it open.

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself when his free hand suddenly cupped my breast and his thumb, with pinpoint accuracy, swept over my nipple.

Holy crap.

My mouth opened at the shock of pleasure that shot through my system and his tongue swept inside.

Oh shit. I forgot just how stinking much I loved how he tasted and how much more I loved how he kissed.

My body gave in before my mind, my arm curving around his broad shoulders then my back arched to fit my breast more firmly in his hand.

He groaned in my mouth and I loved that too. So much, that was when my mind gave in and he had all of me.

He deepened the kiss and my fingers glided into his hair to hold him to me as his thumb stopped sweeping my nipple, his hand went up, tugged the fabric down then he went back to my nipple, thumb and finger this time, rolling and squeezing.

Oh my. Nice.

My h*ps surged up, my fingers still laced in his hand held on tighter and I moaned my pleasure in his mouth.

His lips left mine and I moaned again because I didn’t want them to go.

But they didn’t go. They just moved to relocate. His hand cupped my breast, lifting it, his body angled down then my nipple was in his mouth and he instantly started sucking even as his tongue swirled.

Oh my God. That felt freaking great.

My fingers still in his hair fisted and I breathed, “Tor.”

His lips left my breast, his hand cupping it warmly again, just cupping it this time as his mouth came back to mine.

My eyes opened and they stared into the heated depths of his.

“Don’t stop,” I begged, arching into him again.

“Why do you burn so hot now, sweets, when we must go?” he muttered, his mutter husky with want at the same time I sensed frustration.

“We can delay,” I whispered, my hand leaving his hair to cover his at my breast and my other hand squeezing his insistently.