"Allow me."
I scoffed at him. "I can undress myself, thank you very much."
"Let me do this, princess." Nuss's tone had gone back to the captain of the guard, man in charge, delicious kisser and I melted.
He turned me so I faced the pool and had my back to all of them. I felt the bodice's lacings tug and then loosen bit by bit. It had never been tight and uncomfortable before, but now I found that I couldn't breathe. I waited for his fingers to touch my skin, to send that flash of magic to caress the connection between us. All I felt was Nuss's breath on the back of my neck. He was so close yet said nothing until the top was loose enough to take off.
"Lift your arms over your head." I did as he told and the anticipation of having his fingers brush over me as he pulled it off was killing me.
Zucker and Tau stepped to my sides, and each grabbed the hem. They skimmed it up and off, leaving me naked from the waist up. I dropped my hands to cover my bare breasts and waited. Was Nuss finished with me so soon?
But no. My Fae Princes moved away and Nuss pressed himself to my back. He wrapped his arm around my waist and found the tiny ribbons securing the fluffy skirt at my waist. With a flick of his wrist, the ties were undone, and he pushed his hand down into space between the material and my stomach.
I sucked in a long, deep gasp as his hand continued down much farther and he cupped my pussy. "Never think that I don't want to share in giving you pleasure. Everything I am and have is for you."
"But?" I could hear it coming in his intonation, so I pushed him to continue.
"You need to have time to bond with each member of your guard. I will give you that, because when it's my turn, when we have the Snowflake crown in hand, I'm not going to want to share this, share you."
I opened and closed my mouth, the words being blocked by the pure lust his declaration had bubbling up inside of me. I'd always thought I'd ever only be with one man. Now I couldn't imagine not being with all my men. So, I didn't understand why Nuss's possessiveness was sending tingles through my core. "But I thought you agreed to the kind of bonding the Gingerbread Kingdom has with their women."
He pressed his lips to my ear and stroked over the soft fabric covering my pussy. "I have, and I will share your magic, your love, and your body with each of my brethren, but when you and I consummate our bond, you will be mine and mine alone for that one brief moment."
Before I could respond to his words, he shoved the skirt down my legs to pool at my feet. He followed it down, coming around and kneeling in front of me. "Leb, come and get her skirt."
Leb came over and waggled his eyebrows at me but didn't say a word. I'd needed him to break this tension, and he left me to the wolves, or rather the puppy who'd turned into a wolf before me.
Nuss took my hand and set it against one hip, then placed his own on the other. "Push the tights down for me."
He wasn't asking, and I was sure as sugar complying. The tights and soft panties underneath inched down my thighs, a little on my side, a bit on his, until they were at my knees and my pussy was bared to him. He stared at me and licked his lips, and I felt the wetness build between my legs. Would he taste me, right here, right now in front of the others?
With a final nudge, the tights and panties dropped past my knees, and I stepped out of them. Nuss plucked the panties out of the pile and stuck them into the pocket of his jacket. "When you consummate your bonds tonight, I'll be watching again, and stroking my cock with these."
Whoo, man. I swallowed and pulled my bottom lip between my teeth. He had me more than ready. And I'd thought Zucker was the master of sensuality and anticipation.
Nuss stood and stepped aside. Zucker and Tau came up and escorted me down the short slope until the water of the grotto's pool tickled my toes. I dipped one foot in, and it felt funny until I realized the water was exactly the same temperature as my body.
"You're sure you're safe swimming to the flower's island?" Tau let go of my fingers as I walked in deeper.
"I'm sure. Unless there are any marshmallow crocodiles or strawberry stinging jelly-fish."
I probably shouldn't have said that.
LOVE IS LOVE IS LOVE
ZUCKER
I'd never known real fear until I watched Clara glide silently through the water in this strange underground grotto. To watch her strong athletic movements propel her so easily from this sugar crystal shoreline and across the invisible border between the Land of Sweets and the Land of Flowers had my own heart pounding.
I was normally an enthusiastic fan of the trembling of my very cells in anticipation but seeing her go to a place that I couldn't, had me fidgety and feeling helpless. I paced at the water's edge. What the fuck were we going to do if something went wrong while she was in the water? Go out there and drown ourselves?
I was ready to crawl out of my skin, much less my clothes. "Tau, the Land of Flowers is filled with rivers and lakes, surely you've learned to swim in them."
He shook his head. His arms wrapped around him projected just how nervous he was too. Likely feeding off my emotions. "They're freezing. More than a moment in them and its death. I've never seen a body of water this warm."
"The lake in the Land of Spirit and Magic is warm," Nuss said like that wasn't the news of the century.
"How do you know that?" Leb asked. He was the calmest of us all. Perhaps because he was bonded with Clara and saw her as a powerful warrior woman like all the Gingerbread Vikings.
