Page 33 of The Sunbound Princess
Only then did I remember I wasn’t alone. Tensing, I opened my eyes.
Dain and Nikolas stood frozen, their gazes locked on me. There was no mistaking the look in their eyes.
Desire.
Want.
Raw, unvarnished lust.
Nikolas stood halfway between the tub and the door, his fists clenched at his sides and his dark eyes glinting with an intensity that should have frightened me. Dain had moved around the chair, and his chest rose and fell rapidly. His blue gaze lingered on my breasts, which bobbed above the water, my nipples thrusting lewdly.
As it had at the river, a little voice in my head told me what Ishould havedone. I should have covered myself—crossed my arms over my chest and hunched in the tub, shame and embarrassment dropping over me like a blanket.
But the fire inside me wasn’t vanquished. No, it was merely banked. Under the men’s avid stares, fresh embers stirred, a new blaze sparking under my skin. The voice in my head ordered me to hide—to spare the men my lust. The fire whisperedgive them more.Maybe the heat was my punishment for staying at the river when I should have fled.
Well, the men and I were even now.
“I know you’re lovers,” I blurted. “I saw you at the river.”
Nikolas’s eyes glittered. “We know.”
My breath hitched. Anger stirred, cutting through the haze of desire. “You knew?” We’d spent the whole day together, the three of us walking through the forest. “You knew this whole time, and you said nothing?”
Dain grunted. “You didn’t say anything, either.”
I snapped my mouth shut.Damn.He had me there.
He dipped his gaze to my breasts again. His nostrils flared, and a muscle ticked in his jaw. He wanted me. They both did.
But they also wanted each other.
“You…” I began, only to falter. Even nude in the tub, my body still trembling from an orgasm, I couldn’t bring myself to ask the obvious.
“Do we like women?” Nikolas guessed, a wicked twinkle in his eyes. “Oh, yes, my lady. We most certainly do. Don’t we, Dain?”
Dain didn’t lift his stare from my chest. “A lot.”
The embers under my skin sizzled to life, the fire building anew. I shifted in the tub, and water lapped at my nipples. Pleasure-pain stabbed at my breasts and shot between my legs. My pussy clenched, my inner walls clamping hard.
Oh gods.The orgasm hadn’t solved anything.
I curled my fingers over the edges of the tub as my teeth started to chatter again. “The potion,” I managed, biting back a moan. “It’s not stopping…”
Nikolas stepped toward me. Then he halted, his knuckles going white as he appeared to struggle with some great inner turmoil. “One release won’t be enough. Not with this high of a dose.”
Panic tightened my grip on the tub. “How do you know this?”
A shadow flitted through his eyes—there and gone so quickly I couldn’t be certain I saw it. “This isn’t the first brothel in Saldu to use such tactics,” he said.
It was criminal. The human king had a responsibility to put a stop to it. I opened my mouth to say as much when heat blindsided me. The fire roared, the flames even hotter than before. I writhed in the water, jaws of lust clamping hard. I thrust my hand between my legs and stroked. My clit buzzed, but the friction wasn’t enough. It was never going to be enough.
“What should I do?” I gasped, tears clogging my throat. Even as the haze of desire descended, the little voice lectured, reminding me of my duty. Of decorum.You’re the Crown Princess of the Summer Court. You don’t lose control. You don’t let go.
But it was too late for that. The fire had already engulfed me, burning away my inhibitions. Now it was back—and it bent close and whispered a suggestion.
Use the men.
“I can’t,” I gasped, squeezing the edges of the tub. I was betrothed to Corvus. I had a duty to the Summer Court to marry a high-ranking lord and give the kingdom an heir. Besides, I loved Corvus. He was intelligent and handsome. He knew his way around a woman’s body. He was hung like a?—
