Page 71 of Consort's Glory
After days of non-stop,increasingly unpleasant surprises, Margot thought she was unshockable.
The sight of Theodore Solbourne, Sovereign, kneeling between her thighs on the checkered floor of an old soap factory locker room forced her to reevaluate.
He’s going to marry me.
The thought circled her mind like a lazy buzzard, just out of reach. There were no ifs or buts. Theodore intended to marry her. He wasn’t going to siphon off her magic. He wasn’t going to hide her away. She could feel his lust, his determination, thrumming through their bond.
Theodore took up space in the back of her mind as arrogantly as he did in real life — as if he was always meant to be there, smug and deliciously, terrifyingly focused on her.
It should have bothered her that he wasn’t asking, but Margot was a practical woman. There was no choice. There was no asking, because that would give the illusion that she could say no; that there was even the chance she would.
She wouldn’t.
Because this thing he was offering her, this predator skimming his clawed hands up the insides of her thighs, was beyond price. It was beyond dreams. It was beyond imagining.
He was offering her a world where she no longer had to hide.
I’ll be his consort,she thought, heart racing. I’ll be untouchable.
With the might of the Solbourne family behind her, who would dare use her blood against her? Who would lay a hand on the elvish mother she didn’t know? Who?
She had hoped to never have to hide from her bondmate, but this was beyond anything she could dare to dream up. A life where she didn’t have to dunk herself in Noscent three times a day? No more skin-stripping showers? No more terror at being sniffed too much, of being looked at too closely?
The rest of what he told her would need to be digested, of course. She would need to think about what this pull meant for her, and what it would really mean to marry the sovereign of the EVP, but that would be—
Theodore dipped his head to press a searing, open-mouthed kiss to her inner thigh.
“I can feel your mind working,” he murmured against her skin. His lips were hot, his tongue wet as he paused to lick a stripe up to the gusset of her panties. “Stop. We’ll figure it all out later. Right now, focus on me.”
“I am focused on you,” she replied unsteadily. “You’ve got your head between my legs.”
Theodore shot her a sharp — literally, considering the four little razors that were elvish incisors — grin that brought out his boyish dimples. His eyes, chips of obsidian in the darkness, were heavy-lidded with a look of desire that made her pulse throb between her legs.
“Yes,” he agreed, amiable and totally unflustered as he pressed two fingers against the damp gusset of her panties. The sharp spike of pleasure from that simple, firm touch made her whole body jerk. “I am going to live here for a while. I am going to fuck you with my fingers and my mouth until you can’t breathe, and then we’re going to go somewhere with a real bed and I’m going to do it again.”
Margot’s chest seized. Was he allowed to talk like that? Who talked like that? He made it sound like he was planning a picnic, not telling her he was going to…
Arousal made her skin flush. Starved for contact she might have been, but Margot never considered herself a sexual being. Stealing kisses from her orcish neighbor behind the woodshed was exciting in a forbidden sort of way, but this…
“I’ve never done—” She forced herself to swallow before trying again. “I’ve never done anything like this before.”
Theodore didn’t stop his slow exploration of her, nor did he stop pushing her sleep shirt up her torso, revealing her breasts to the cold, damp air. Goosebumps prickled her skin.
Rocking his fingers against her core, he bent his neck to press a reverent kiss just below her belly button. “Neither have I. We might both be shit at it for a while, but enthusiasm has to count for something.”
Margot only dimly processed his confession. It was impossible to focus on what he was saying when he was touching her.
It never feels like that when I do it, she thought, unable to stifle a whimper when he used the tips of his claws to gently scrape her nipple. They were blades. Why did they feel so very good on her skin?
“Fuck.” Theodore removed his hand from between her legs and Margot rocked her hips, desperate to bring him back.
“Hold on.” The words were bitten out from between his sharp teeth, hard and tight, before he raised his right hand between them and wiggled his fingers urgently. The hand on her breast tightened its grip. “I’m not taking my other hand off of you, so you’re going to have to take off my glove.”
Margot lifted herself onto her elbows to stare, wide-eyed, at the wickedly dangerous, silver-tipped claws just a handful of inches from her nose. Everything in her rebelled against just how very, very much the sight of them turned her on. That beast in her wanted those claws around her throat almost as much as it wanted his cock in her.
She bit her lip hard as that molten heat spread low, leaving her slick and wanting. Absolute madness.
When she hesitated for too long, he groaned and dragged his mouth along the wet seam of her panties. “Darling,” he rasped, “just take the one off. Don’t make me take both my hands off you so I can touch you properly.”
