Chapter Text
Her teeth down my neck hardened my cock. That little black dress she wore slid higher up her thighs as she ground against me. Maybe it was my hands pushing the dress higher as I held her to the door of the hotel room. She lifted her mouth off my neck, and I kissed her again, sucking her tongue into my mouth. She kissed me hard, wrapping her fingers in the hair on the nape of my neck. Tiny spikes of pain mixed with pleasure skated over my spine, causing me to twitch against her.
She was looking for a rough fuck. It would only be gentlemanly of me to provide her with what she wanted. I pressed into her body again, squeezing my hands around her thighs and then her perfect ass before snaking one arm around her waist, hoisting her higher on my hips. She tightened her legs around me as I moved us to the bed. I tossed her down onto the sheets.
Her eyes were blown out with lust. Her legs were still spread wide, showing off her thighs and just a hint of underwear. She lay back on her arms, observing me. I leaned over her, reaching out for her as her breath caught, I tugged on the pin keeping her up. I leaned back again, to admire my handywork. She was as lost to this heat between us as I was. Her eyes sparked between amber and blue, lips swollen from our kisses. Cheeks flushed with want. Need. She needed me as much as I need her right now, if that sliding hand of hers had anything to say. But it was her hair that almost had me undone. The length of her hair fell over one shoulder and down her back, brushing against her breasts.
I sat up quickly, sweating from the memory that haunted my dreams. The woman that haunted my fantasies. It was just a one-night stand three months ago. That’s all. Not uncommon, and not out of character for me. So why am I hung up on her? Flashes of the silver in her hair that night keep playing in my mind. From the bar to my hotel room that night. I don’t even know her name. She left me with nothing but a memory… and her underwear.
Keeping mementos of past conquests had never been my thing, yet I found myself unable to throw them away. Instead, they stayed tucked inside my top drawer. I won’t admit to occasionally pulling them out to remember our night together. For some reason, her leaving her underwear in my hotel room didn’t feel like a ploy. I’ve had a few women claim to leave things in my room, needing to get in touch with me to get them back.
Not her though. She was gone before I woke up the next morning.
It had taken me a few minutes to realize she wasn’t in the bathroom. I’d lain in bed, hard and waiting for her to come back out so I could hear those delightful sounds from her again. Minutes had passed, the light was still on in the bathing chamber, the door ajar. I got up, not bothering to cover myself. I knocked on the door. No answer. I poked my head in and frowned. There, on the mirror, written in eyeliner, she left me a goodbye note.
‘Thanks for an amazing time, and it was amazing. I’ll think of you from time to time. I’m sorry to leave like this, but I have to go. Maybe in another life. -Vi <3’
Vi.
That was all I had besides her underwear. Vi. That could be anything. I searched a book of baby names I’d guessed was my mother’s. Vivianne, Vienna, Virginia, Viola. The list had 452 names that Vi could have been short for. I looked for her the next night, at the same bar. I stayed two days after my predicted arrival time back home in Aretia.
When I got back home, I’d been told the Assembly had attempted to set me up with an arranged marriage to Catriona. Maybe I could have made it work and I did try, for a few weeks. But I was hung up on my one-night stand. In a desperate moment, I almost let Garrick convince me into a Cinderella moment. Not that anyone else knew I had her underwear. I’d never let that secret slip. No, he’d taken the two letters of her name and ran them through our network, trying to find who I could have met while handling a deal in the Isles.
“Would you even recognize her again?” Garrick asked.
“I’m positive I would. Neither of us were drunk. I’d gotten there maybe five minutes before she did.”
I shook my head, remembering how the sparkling amber-blue haze swirled in her eyes. I was dumbstruck by this woman. This tiny, flirty woman who’d given me a night I’d never get out of my head and left me high and dry the next morning.
“So, is it because she left you first?” Bodhi chuckled.
“No. There was just something different about her. She was just…different.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you lovestruck, Xaden,” Liam teased.
“I’m not lovestruck,” I scoffed. “I wanted a few more rounds with her before we went our separate ways.”
Bodhi and Liam exchanged looks while Garrick laughed at me.
“Whatever you say, man. What did she do anyway that’s got you so hung up?” Garrick asked.
I didn’t answer him. He rolled his eyes and changed the subject.
“You know the Navarrian delegates will be here in a few hours. You need to get your head together, dude. The assembly is going to be pushing for a trade agreement since we backed out of the deal with the Cordellas…”
“We didn’t back out of the deal,” I cut Garrick off. “They made offers I couldn’t accept in good faith. You know how Tecarus is! He wanted Cat on the Tyrrish throne to try and control any children we’d have together. They’d try to take Tyrrendor from the inside.”
“That’s a large jump of conclusions,” Bodhi attempted to disagree with me.
“But not an incorrect one,” I cut him off too.
The Navarrian Delegates were coming on behalf of King Tauri’s request for a summit. He and my father had gone to war several years ago. While neither side truly won, Tyrrendor maintained independence and we brokered a peace agreement. My father and King Tauri’s son, I forget which one, had both been killed in battle, among countless other lives wasted. We agreed to a summit every few years as a show of trust.
I grit my teeth and shook the thought away. I’d need to play nice with the Navarrians while they were here. I couldn’t go about reminding myself why I hated them.
“Tell me about your dream girl one more time,” Garrick said, completely dispersing my thoughts.
“She’s pretty, tiny, feisty,” I shrugged, and Garrick rolled his eyes.
“How about anything useful? Any defining features? You were in the Isles, so was she from there? Did she say where she was from if not? What language did she speak?”
“No, and she speaks three languages, including Tyrrish. And she’s fluent in three of the dead languages.”
“Impressive. So did you speak our language to her all night?” Garrick asked.
“Yeah. She was out of practice and wanted to brush up. We’d also spoken Navarrian, Poromish, and even Lucerish. She speaks all of them with no accent.”
“Are you sure she wasn’t a spy sent to seduce you?”
“Definitely not,” I shake my head.
I could read her intentions clearly. She’d been looking to get away from a problem, wanting to drown herself in booze before facing whatever problem her brilliant mind had been pondering.
“No, her only goal that night was a distraction.”
Liam snickered, “I don’t think she was the only one who found a distraction. You’ve been distracted for weeks. Months.”
I resisted the urge to throttle the ones closest to me. Sgaeyl had been less than helpful as well. She’s been resting in the Vale, ‘not ignoring me’, I pointedly sent down her bond.
‘Not ignoring, hibernating. The long chill is coming soon.’
I rolled my eyes. It would be winter soon, and Sgaeyl hated the cold. She’d sleep through most of it in her den with her mate.
‘I’ll know if you need me. I always do.’
‘I know, rest. Enjoy your time with your mate,’ I sent back through the bond.
When the war between kingdoms died down, the need for riders and fliers also died down. Less dragons were waiting to bond with riders. Sgaeyl told me not to pry into Empyrean matters, but that if the need arose, bonding would up for both Tyrrish and Navarrian riders.
Neither here, nor there.
“Have all the preparations been completed?” I asked. “All the guests assigned to their rooms?”
“Yes. Imogen took care of that. Sloane helped with the guest lodgings and the riders who come on dragons will be stationed in the barracks.”
“They’re here early,” Garrick said, communicating with his dragon.
“Well then, let the games begin.”
It took twenty minutes for the delegation to completely dismount, the guards to be dismissed to the quarters, and for the dragons to fly off. I waited impatiently in my meeting chambers, sitting as casually as possible in my throne. One by one, the delegates walked in. I counted the first thirteen, and noted two were missing. As I opened my mouth, to draw attention to the disrespect, Cam Tauri and his fiancé Violet Sorrengail were announced. And my whole world shifted once again.
She was there, looking prim and proper as she had the night I met her. She lightly touched his arm as he escorted her. The moment she looked up to me, and met my eyes, her eyes widened, and her mouth dropped slightly. She regained her composure quickly. I cocked an eyebrow at her.
She’s the youngest Tauri’s fiancé, the general’s youngest daughter, and the baby sister of Brennan Asereigh, my friend and mender. I wasn’t sure which of those gutted me most. She pursed her lips tightly, recognizing me instantly. So, did she know who I was that night? Or did she not? I thought back to the note she left me.
‘Thanks for an amazing time, and it was amazing. I’ll think of you from time to time. I’m sorry to leave like this, but I have to go. Maybe in another life. -Vi <3’
I’m tempted to believe she didn’t.
“I wasn’t aware royal fiancés were allowed out of Caldyr,” I said, acknowledging Cam.
“Violet is special,” Cam lifted his chin at me.
I watched as that delightful blush coated her cheeks.
“So it seems,” I smirked. “Is this your first royal tour, Violet?”
I saw the moment the fire sparked in her. Instead of cowering, she stared me down, as if challenging me to say something about our night in the Isles. The heat from her face hit my dick hard.
“Yes. Cam and I were betrothed forty-five days ago. Pleased to make your acquaintance, your majesty.”
I could taste the acid on the last word, it had a distinctly delicious flavor. Garrick narrowed his eyes on her. I caught Bodhi staring her down as well.
“Welcome to the rest of you as well,” I spread my arms open, in a friendly gesture. “I greet you, Cam Tauri, second in line to the throne of Navarre, and your vassals. May those of you here in good faith with pure intent find friendship and peace, and may swords fall on those with ill intent. You will be shown to your rooms.”
I waved them away in dismissal. Bodhi, Garrick, and Liam all but rushed the dais. They were silent, waiting for me to speak first. When I didn’t, Liam spoke up.
“Soooo...I guess I’ll ask the obvious then. Vi is Violet Sorrengail?” Liam rocked back on his heels, crossing his arms.
“She wasn’t engaged the night you met her,” Bodhi scrunched his nose, calculating the dates.
“And, judging by her acerbic tongue, I’d guess she didn’t know who you were, did she?” Garrick finished.
I smirked. Violet Sorrengail and I were going to have interesting next few weeks. I wonder if that fiancé of hers knows about her little dalliance.
“Tell Imogen to bring me the guest list with their room assignments,” I didn’t even glance to them as I stood up from the dais, eyes still on the door where my violent little…my violent little what?
The feel of her nails raking down my back and sides as I pushed into her reverberated in my head.
My violence.
Not mine.
Yet.