Trinity

I could sense almost immediately that it wasn’t Leo in bed with me. It took my brain an extra few seconds to catch up. The feel of his hand on my skin was different. Damp with sweat and none of the callouses I was now familiar with on Leo’s palms. Leo had hair on his chest and the one pressed against my back was bare. Smooth. The cock nestled at the crease of my bottom was definitely not Leo’s. It felt disturbing and… insufficient. It was the voice though, that kicked my brain into gear.

“I saw you today, Trinity, and knew you were going to be mine.”

I was already Leo’s and no one else’s. My eyes popped open but I could barely see the outline of furniture because of the thick drapes. Before I could jump from the bed, he shifted and pulled me onto my back. A leg was thrown over mine, a knee nestled at the juncture of my thighs.

I knew he hovered over me, for his hot breath fanned my skin.

“Who… who are you?” I asked, pushing against his chest. It was too dark to do more than see a silhouette of him. I could tell he had dark hair, his skin was pale. While he wasn’t as large as Leo, he wasn’t small. I cringed at the feeling of his cock pressed against me.

“Do not panic, Princess. I am the Royal Consort. I will not hurt you.” He gave a small laugh. “I know of your Ardor. I am here to help. I will bring you much pleasure.”

Yeah, right. I didn’t care that he was a fricking gigolo and it was his job to hop into bed with every single royal. I didn’t want anything to do with him. While I didn’t fear he would rape me, since I knew from Cassander that consorts had women willing and eager to fall onto their cocks, still, I didn’t like this vulnerability.

“I’m all good on pleasure, so your services aren’t needed,” I countered. “Let me up.”

“You should not have to please yourself,” he practically scolded. “Your hand will not ease the Ardor I have been told plagues you.”

Apparently, this jerk knew nothing about Leo, or that he’d taken very good care of my Ardor. But then, hadn’t that been our plan? Leo was to pretend to be nothing to me. Nothing more than a guard. But how did this consort know about the Ardor at all?

“Look, Mr. Consort, you need to get out of my bed. Now.”

“Shh,” he crooned, his hand sliding over my hair as if pacifying a skittish female. “Relax. I know I am not Cassander, the one you were first promised. But I am eager to serve.”

Fuck. His eagerness was growing more and more obvious against my leg. Yuck. Just. No. “No thank you. I told Cassander the same thing. Now get off me.”

“I am very skilled, Princess. You’ll enjoy my touch. I promise. Lord Jax sent word to me that you are in need.”

“Lord Jax was misinformed.” I tilted away from him and pushed, but he wouldn’t let me move. I was slightly panicked because I’d never had a man I didn’t want on top of me before. And we were naked. He hadn’t touched me anywhere inappropriate. But still, we were naked. In bed. And he was on top of me. He seemed to actually want me to be into it before he did more.

But he wasn’t taking no for an answer and that pissed me off.

I pushed again, but he was strong.

“Princess, it is my job to soothe your Ardor, to bring you satisfaction. Other royal females have been well-pleased.” He lowered his head and pressed a wet kiss to my bare shoulder. I shuddered. Ugh. “Let me fill you up and ease your need. You can take my energy. Ride my cock. Be free of the hunger that plagues you.”

Well, if I’d been in the condition I had been when I’d first met Cassander—what seemed like months ago, not a few days—I might have taken him up on the offer. But now I had Leo. And I wasn’t in heat, I was in love.

God, I couldn’t believe he was in bed with me and bragging about his other royal conquests. Just—no. I sighed, remembered a saying Destiny always told me. If you can’t get out of it, get into it.

He was too strong and totally not getting that when a girl said no, she meant no, so I changed tactics. “You’re right.” I tried to relax, although it was pretty difficult when I wanted this guy off me pronto.

“That’s better, Princess. I promise satisfaction.”

“Oh yeah? Let me see what you’re going to use to satisfy me,” I practically purred. Good thing it was too dark for him to see me roll my eyes. My hand slid down his bare chest, over his abs and to his cock. I swallowed, trying not to vomit in my mouth. It was big and hard, but it wasn’t Leo. I couldn’t see it, thank god, but I could feel it.

He hissed at my touch. “It is I who should be touching you. And my hard cock shouldn’t be in your hand, but in your royal pussy.”

I slid my hand lower and cupped his balls. They were swollen and full, as if he’d been saving up just for me. If he thought he had a case of blue balls before, he was about to get a whole new definition of the term.

“A wild one?” he asked.

“A woman who’s not interested,” I countered loudly so he finally got the point, tightening my grip on his balls until they were crushed in my fist.

He curled up as best he could since he was on top of me—and I wasn’t letting go—and roared.

Right then, the door burst open and the room immediately brightened.

The consort hovered over me, his head turned toward the commotion. Now I could see him… and Leo, who stood big and brawny in the doorway. Leo took in the two of us in the bed, his gaze narrowed, his breathing making his broad chest rise and fall. His fists were clenched at his sides. And his cock was a thick telephone pole in his pants.

“What the fuck is going on here?” he shouted. He wasn’t looking at my face, but at my hand on the consort’s balls. No sheet covered us.

The consort’s face—I could see it now—was red and he was in blatant pain. Good. He was a fairly attractive male, dark hair, a few years older than me. I had to assume that since he had a cock that worked, he’d found his mate. Either she was somewhere else in the castle waiting for him to complete his duty, she had dumped his sorry ass, or she was dead. Which, I had no idea. Nor did I care. This consort needed to learn some manners.

I twisted and wiggled to his side—still not letting go. “You need to learn to listen.” My voice was soft, but even I could hear the shiver of rage.

“Please let go!” the consort begged in the high-pitched tone of a thirteen-year-old girl.

Happily, I released him and he fell to his side in a fetal position. I hopped from the bed and Leo came over in two strides, tugged the sheet from the foot of the bed and wrapped it around me. As for the consort?

A gagging sound came from behind me. Followed by heaving as the contents of his stomach hit the bed. Asshole. I doubted he’d be servicing any other royal for a while.

“How dare you touch my mate!” Leo growled.

I put a hand to his chest, the one that I was familiar with and loved to kiss and stroke, even through the uniform shirt. “He was just doing his job.”

“You had your hand on his cock,” he countered through gritted teeth.

I looked up at Leo, saw the anger, the fury there. Dark eyes, flushed skin, tendons in his neck all but bulging, like the veins at his temples. This wasn’t a warrior in battle, but a mate protecting his own.

“He’s the Royal Consort. Lord Jax sent word to him that I was suffering from Aleran Ardor.” It wasn’t much of an excuse, but maybe it would keep Leo from killing the stupid fool. He was decades younger than Cassander had been. Perhaps even younger than me. If I’d been nineteen or twenty when my Ardor hit, I’d probably prefer him to an older man like Cassander. But being young didn’t excuse not listening to the woman he was in bed with. He wouldn’t live to the ripe old age of forty if he didn’t change his ways.

“Like that makes a difference to me,” Leo countered. “You had your hand on his cock,” he repeated.

“Yes, I am well aware of that, and I really want to wash them now. Do you actually believe I’d be interested in someone else?” I asked. I stepped forward and leaned into my mate, breathed him in, because he was mine and I could. His arm came around me and he took a step away from the bed, pulling me with him.

Leo was breathing hard and eyeing the consort as if trying to figure out how to murder him. Whether it would be a quick neck snap or a dangle off the balcony before tossing him.

“You had your hand—”

“Stop saying that. He wouldn’t let me up, so I had to make him think I was interested so I could get a hold of his balls. And not in a pleasant way.”

“He didn’t let you up?” Leo growled, his entire body tensing to beat the man to death.

“I can take care of myself,” I countered.

He looked at me as if that were debatable, but then the consort dry-heaved and I smirked.

“I grabbed him in self-defense. Leo, after I cup your balls, do you look like that?” I pointed to the consort, who I now felt slightly sorry for. Just slightly.

He actually looked a little green beneath the profuse sweating. One hand cupped his injured balls as he curled up even tighter into himself. The vomit before him only added to his obvious misery.

The corner of Leo’s mouth tipped up, but that was it.

“Why was he in your bed to begin with?” he asked.

I shrugged, tugging the sheet closer about me. “I told you. He said Lord Jax contacted him about my Ardor. As the royal consort, I guess he wanted to help. It’s his job, I assume, to satisfy the royal women.”

“Are you telling me because he came to your bed, you think he was simply doing his job, mate? No male can look at you and not want you.” He pushed me behind him and took a step toward the bed. “Touch her again and I’ll kill you, consort. Your bullshit excuse is not going to work with me.”

I rolled my eyes. “Leo, I took care of him all on my own. See?”

He stared at the guy, although he didn’t look the least bit sympathetic.

“How did you get in here, consort?” Leo called.

The younger man didn’t answer, only lifted his arm and pointed. We turned to look at a door which was slightly open in one wall. Neither of us had noticed the hidden door before. There was no handle or any indication that it was there. Leo stormed over to it, pushed it inward and stuck his head into the dark space.

“Secret passage,” he said when he came back to me, hooking me into his side. “How many are there?”

“All over,” the consort groaned. “So I can service the females at their convenience.”

That explained a lot. Leo had been guarding my bedroom door, all the while there were other ways to access me. So much for keeping me safe. The assassin could have slipped in at any time and finished me off if he knew of the secret passageways’ existence, which was certainly possible. I shivered at that thought.

“This is why I didn’t want to pretend to be just a guard. Things like this happen and you are unprotected. Mate, you were naked with a male on top of you.”

“I do see your point of view,” I offered, knowing he was right in this. “Perhaps it’s time to adjust the plan.”

“The plan changed when that fucker climbed in your bed.” Leo eyed me heatedly as he pointed at the moaning consort.

I nodded. “All right, mate.” At my agreement, some of the tension faded from my mate’s shoulders and I realized just how difficult it had been for him to pretend I was nothing more than a job to him. To stand at my side while I pretended he meant nothing to me. But he’d done it because I’d asked him to. Because he’d trusted my judgment.

Maybe it was time for me to trust his. Maybe I should tell him about the plan. About what my sisters and I had agreed upon. Either he was mine, or he wasn’t. And every cell in my body said he was. Mine. Mine. Mine. It was like a chant on a microscopic level.

“Do any of the secret passages lead to the guard quarters?” Leo asked the consort.

All he could do was nod, then throw up some more.

I cringed. Now I did feel sorry for him. What if I’d neutered him?

Then again, he should have listened.

“Know this, consort” Leo began, his voice loud and very clear. “Share this with all who will listen. Princess Trinity is my mate. The only cock she’ll touch, the only balls she’ll fondle, are mine. Having yours practically ripped off will be nothing compared to what I’ll do if someone even breathes near her again.”

The guy fell back onto the pillows and just lifted his hand by way of response.

Leo took my hand and tugged me toward the hidden doorway, then pulled me into the darkness.

This time, surrounded once again in pitch black, I knew I was with the one person I could trust, the one person I wanted close to me while I was naked.