Page 50 of Foundling

Quick as could be, he leapt a step ahead, slinging his arm around her middle to draw her into his side. “I hope you see that whatever you may want, I’m always game, phetala.”

“Hmm, yes, I understood that much.”

His hand on her belly flexed, and she watched his slitted pupils dilate. “My aim will always be to please you, my Queen. Whatever that may mean. Ropes, spanking, sweet-talk, sharing, whatever you—”

Leita snapped her fangs in his face. “Fae don’t share azai. I don’t share.”

Those predator’s pupils somehow grew even bigger. “Oh, no, never, agae. Never that. Only, should you wish to have more than one supplicant worship you, I, a dutiful mate, could be generous with you.”

Oh. The pointed tips of her ears flushed to think about taking two lovers to bed. Honestly, she couldn’t quite wrap her mind around just Attalus.

Leaning close, he whispered in her sensitive ear, “But perhaps not yet. Perhaps for a while, I’ll be selfish with you.”

Leita stood on her toes, lifting her face to his. His eyes widened before dropping to her mouth. When he bent to kiss her, though, she dug her fingers into his side, going right for a kidney.

Attalus yelped and folded sideways, staggering away from her merciless claws.

As she walked away snickering, Attalus called after her, “You’re masterful at gentle foreplay, I see.”

His favorite seemed to be distracting her from her morning meditations. Although she made little progress on her own anyway, it was easy to blame him and his questions for sidetracking her again and again.

Leita sensed his approach before she heard it; the way his swishing tail displaced air and the force of his presence moving through the world. The soft snap of a blanket unfurling followed, and she listened as he hunkered down beside her on the growing grass.

“You don’t have to sit out here with me, you know.”

“On the contrary,” he said as he noisily made himself comfortable, “we lizards love sunbathing. It warms the blood and makes our scales shine.”

She couldn’t help it—she cracked open an eye to glance at him.

Leita sighed. “All right, but you don’t have to sunbathe entirely naked, either. That’s certainly a choice.”

“Indeed, and the right one. It’s bad for the scales to smother them under fabric too long.”

She reached down to pinch his nose. “You have an answer for everything.”

“Just trying to make con—”

Pressing her finger to his lips, she added, “And you talk too much.”

If she thought he’d take her words as reprimand, she was again mistaken. A grin teased his lips, and she snatched her finger back before it could get licked or nipped.

Leita faced forward again, trying to regain her equilibrium. Really, she couldn’t be blamed at all for not making any progress. Not with his scales glittering so brightly in her periphery should she dare to open her eyes. Not with his scent wafting around her, little hints of fire and spice.

She was disappointed in herself, but she eventually couldn’t help asking, “Why is it you sit with me?”

“Can’t I want to get to know my own mate?” he replied. She felt how he tried to subtly scooch closer to her on his back but refused to open her eyes. “Besides, you’re so rarely still. This is a grand opportunity only a fool would miss.”

So she was easy prey like this. Noted.

“You mean to bring me onside,” she reasoned. Not unwise of him, he was truly in a difficult position, but his situation called into question everything he said and did for her. He might not want her, he might only want her protection. And, by virtue of who she was now, the protection of her land and people.

“Yes, but…” He sighed mightily, and she listened, absolutely not intently, as he rolled to his side, no doubt to face her. He’d probably have his head on his palm, shoulders propped up on a bent elbow. Something about his long form laid supine and sinuous like that…no, she definitely couldn’t afford to look. “Tell me, if I’d come to you in Fallorian, as an envoy on official state business, perhaps, would you have been able to trust me more easily?”

Leita frowned, even with her eyes closed. “I…” She didn’t know. That was really the only other way they might’ve met, Attalus sent as a representative of his brother’s court to treat with the new Fae Queen.

“I might’ve had ulterior motives if so. At least this way, you know where my loyalties lie.”

That was optimistic, hyperbolic even. Leita wasn’t confident enough to say his loyalties didn’t lie squarely with himself.