Chapter Six

She tipped her head back to look at him,

nerves drowned in a tide of something she

didn't immediately recognize.

"What a delightful creature you are," he said,

watching her with that heavy-lidded gaze.

"Nothing like I expected."

She shoved him away, then kept pushing him

toward her bedchamber. He let her, never

stumbling as he walked backwards until

his legs met the bed. He fell to the feather

mattress and she climbed on top of him,

pinning his hands above his head. She leaned

forward, her mouth hovering over his. "A truth

for a truth," she said.

Julianus' mouth quirked. "I wanted to take

you in the carriage today after that little stunt

you pulled with your ladies." She raised an

eyebrow, and he just shrugged and pulled a

hand free, drawing a finger down her throat

to the top of her sternum. "That dress did

make an impression, Your Highness," he said,

grinning now. "Your turn."

"I've never been with a man before," she

whispered.

Again, surprise flickered over his face, and

she didn't know if she should feel insulted or not. She was not averse to the idea like her

mother and her ladies-in-waiting said she

should be, she had just never met a man she

wanted to take to her bed. Still, she began to

wonder if there was something about her that

had made him assume otherwise.

"Then why me?" he asked, surprising her in

turn.

Cassia sat up, blushing as she became aware

of his body's response to her. His fingers

played with the slits in her skirt, callused

fingers feather-light on her skin.

Placing a hand on his hard chest, she met his

eyes and said, "Do you want to break me?"

"How would you know if my answer is true or

not?" His hands settled on her waist.

"I'm very good at reading people, Lord

Julianus," she rasped, something fluttering

low in her stomach as his fingers traced down

her waist to the creases of her legs. "And I

don't think you're the kind of man who is a

very good liar."

His grip on her tightened as he turned his

hips. She found herself on her back, looking

up at him when he said, "I prefer my horses

a little wild. They are more likely to survive

battles that way."

That was the sort of answer she'd been

waiting for. All the others had wanted her

tame. She could never afford to be tame.

He located the laces of her dress, quickly

peeling the layer of silk away from her skin,

leaving her definitely exposed to him. He

threw the costume to the side, watching it fall

to the floor. His arms traveled over her body

and he groaned deep in the lower back of his throat.

Fingers shaking a little, she undid the clasps

holding his cloak in place. It slithered to the

floor, and she moved to the silver buttons of

his jacket. In her ear, he whispered, "You're not

frightened?"

He stood up suddenly, shrugging out of his

jacket, which clattered as it fell to the floor.

Then he toed off his boots earlier than climbing

back onto the bed, hovering.

"Do you favor me to be?" She slipped her

fingers underneath his undershirt, exploring hard

ridges of muscle.

Julianus laughed, the low sound sending a

shiver thru her body, his only answer the

soft clinking of his belt being undone. She

pulled his shirt over his head, fingers tracing

the scar on his neck down to the center of

his sternum the place it sharply curved and went

toward his heart.

"The sword of a Brunian warrior. At Orlanti," he

explained, kissing up her throat as his hand

trailed over her thigh. "Fierce, proud man. I

almost hated to kill him." He laughed quietly. "I

do not suspect he felt the same."

"Do you enjoy it?" she asked as his trousers

were additionally discarded. "War?"

Cassia bit her lip. She'd been thinking that

since he'd professed a dislike for each hunting

and executions. Yet there had been a sort of

dark enjoyment on his face as he'd fought-or,

more accurately, played-with Malitech.

Too late she realized possibly now used to be not

the exceptional moment to ask.

Julianus stilled for a moment, eyes turning

thoughtful. "There is...simplicity on the

battlefield that you cannot locate elsewhere,"

he subsequently answered, raising up on his hands

and knees, pinning her to the bed. "Well," he

corrected, "almost no the place else."

She couldn't give up herself from glancing down,

partially with curiosity and in part with lust.

Julianus noticed and grinned, sliding a hand

under her back. Cassia's throat went dry, but

she didn't want to stop.

Julianus said, "I do now not experience war. I am simply

good at it."

Those had been the closing phrases spoken between

the two as he protected her body with his.

There was once pain at first, however Julianus was kind

until Cassia dug her fingernails into his back

and arched into him. Then it used to be all shared

breath and tangled limbs. The calluses on his

hands, put there with the aid of brutal hours with a sword,

scratched at her skin, sending shivers through her body.

Pleasure burst through her, inspiringa small,

ragged yelp that she mufled against his

shoulder. Julianus saved moving, his breath

playing over her mouth as he looked down at

her. Cassia let her instincts take over, moving

with him.

Her back arched as he started out to shudder,

something low in her stomach drawing tighter

with every moment. Her hands scrambled

along his back, encouraging him till Julianus

let out a smooth gasp. Cassia choked down

an accompanying yelp, now not daring to risk

someone hearing her.

When they had been each spent, he rolled off

of her to lay beside her in the now tangled

sheets. After a moment, Julianus asked,

"That vial. It was some thing to forestall you

becoming with child?"

"Yes she rasped. She had long past to an

alchemist as quickly as she turned twenty and

her father had started out throwing guys at her,

just in case.

None had taken her fancy till Julianus.

I concept so" he murmured.

She nodded, eyes closing as she savored

what had simply happened. The mattress shifted

and Julianus pressed a kiss to her stomach,

just below her sternum.

"What are you doing?" she asked, eyes

opening to see him hovering over her again.

He didn't answer, alternatively simply persevering with to

kiss and lick down her stomach, leaving a

trail hotter than her already flushed skin. She

shuddered as he pressed his mouth to the

sensitive vicinity just under her navel, and he

looked up with a wicked grin.

"Since we have already determined to be

conspicuously missing from tonight's

festivities," he said. "We may as well really

enjoy ourselves earlier than the following day comes,

along with its consequences."

Cassia couldn't assist however agree, gasping in

shock as Julianus ducked his head.

She was blissful to spend the night wrapped up

in a man who used to be little extra than a stranger

if that supposed she did not have to suppose of the

boy's head falling, or the hatred in the rebel's

eyes.

Julianus endured lengthy into the night, happy

to provide her a way to operate a much

needed insurrection of Cassia's own.

Cassia was woken through tooth tugging gently

at her earlobe. She opened her eyes to find

grey, early morning light seeping through the

west-facing window.

"I have to go," he whispered.

She nodded, already lacking the warmth and

strength of his body. Julianus hesitated, then

stroked a finger down the inside of her thigh,

making her bounce a little. He rolled over the top

of her, pressing himself up onto his elbows so

he wasn't crushing her.

Cassia positioned a hand on the side of his face

and he kissed her, tongue sliding in opposition to her

own. His leg nudged hers and she nodded,

breaking the kiss and pressing her hands

into the robust muscle groups of his back. Her lips

parted as he thrust forward, looking at the

muscles in his chest and shoulders flex under

his golden-brown skin.

His movements had been more difficult this time, faster.

They left her gasping and shaking much too

soon. And when it was once over, she watched

through languid eyes as he got dressed, the

silk of her sheets cool the place they draped over

her body.

When he was clothed, he sat on the mattress next

to her. Eyes that have been almost black looked at

her gravely. "What is it you desire to use me for,

Your Highness?"

Cassia pursed her lips thoughtfully, running

a finger from the inside of his wrist to the

crease of his elbow. Julianus did now not seem

perturbed with the aid of the thought that she used to be the use of him

-he simply desired to recognize why.

She did not see the harm in telling him.

"My father desires me to fall in love, or some thing close to it." She sneered at no one in

particular. "What he needs is for me to discover a

husband in the hope that I will become more

interested in bearing kids than in bearing

the crown. If he had his way, he'd order me to

marry and step aside for Malitech. Thankfully

the gods have seen match to grace me with laws

that prevent that. However, it does no longer stop

him from attempting to pressure the situation. I do

not want that, but some men are discouraged

more easily than others."

"Ah," Julianus said softly, understanding

lighting his dark eyes.

"Not many men favor a sullied girl as their

bride, even if they are the Heir," she said with

a small smile. "I hope you don't thought if word

gets around?"

"That I bedded the Heir?" He raised an

eyebrow. "Or that she bedded me," he said

with a grin as she hissed. "Not at all."

Relief swept via her as she sat up. She

wrapped the sheet round her, staring at him.

"Your father wanted you here, did not he?"

She knew she'd already requested him this, but

the thought that they had been possibly cut from the

same fabric was once too fascinating for her to

leave exact alone.

Julianus' face right away darkened, but all he

did was nod.