The Broken Kingdoms of Osvolta (Kingdoms of Osvolta #1)

71. No Need to Beg

Chapter seventy-one

No Need to Beg

T he only sounds were the clinking echoes of silverware; the faint crackle of candlelight and the aching groan of the ship’s wooden hull as it moved through the water. With the absence of conversation, Solveig’s mind wandered back to how it had felt to stand on the rail of the ship, staring out at the vast horizon. Nothing but a line of rope tethering her to the vessel. She remembered the power of the wind as it had whipped around her, ruffling her clothes and hair, threatening to push her off her perch with a wayward gust.

The Valdrych had been sailing smoothly since their departure from Trivellian, so when a rogue wave hit from the south; it blindsided her, causing her to lose her balance. She’d tried to regain her footing as her body pitched, not toward liquid death, but the unforgiving wooden planks of the ship’s deck.

She braced herself for the smack and scrape of wooden boards, dreading the splinters she would have to dig free of her skin. When she fell upon powerful arms instead. One around her back and the other at the bend of her knees, drawing her toward a warm chest. True to his word, Emmerich had been there. Even when all the injuries she would have sustained were mere scratches.

She reached for the bottle of wine between them when Emmerich’s gaze met hers. He swallowed a bite of lusciously soft, pink-toned beef, his face cast in flickering shadows from the candlelight.

“I’d forgo a third glass of wine if I were you,” he stated, mischief in his gaze.

“Why is that?” Solveig leaned back on her plush velvet-covered chair, arms folded across her chest, drawing the prince’s gaze lower.

When Emmerich didn’t respond, she laughed. “Eyes up, Prince.” A smirk lifted one side of her mouth, and the prince found he wanted to kiss that smirk right off her damned beautiful face. He couldn’t get the image of her, stood upon the railing of his ship, out of his mind. It was a siren song straight to his heart. She was at home on his ship, as though she was born to be there, by his side.

“Emmerich?” at the sound of his name on her lips, his attention snapped back to her with a soft groan. What he wouldn’t give to hear her say his name as he kissed her senseless. Laying her down on the bed in his quarters. Moving as one with the swaying of the waves as he rocked within her, and she took everything he gave as they raced toward their shared release.

“Emmerich?” she called again; her eyes were quizzical. “Where is your head at this evening?”

“Believe me,” he muttered, taking a large swig of his drink, pulling at the collar of his shirt, as though his skin were overheating from his own damn imagination. “You don’t want to know.”

“Something tells me that’s not entirely true.”

“Don’t rush to make promises your mind isn’t ready to hold to.”

“How do you know what I’m ready for?”

Emmerich eyed her across the table, hands clenched beneath it. “If you were truly ready, we wouldn’t be having this discussion at all.”

Solveig grew silent at that, and he quirked a brow in return. “You aren’t ready, and that’s fine. You’ll find I can be patient…” He dropped his gaze to glide slowly across her body before rising to meet her eyes. “When I want something bad enough.”

Silence yawned between them before Solveig doused it entirely. “Why should I skip the third glass of wine?” she backtracked, desperate to move away from the lingering attraction that simmered between them.

“We’ll be dropping anchor early tomorrow and you’ll need a clear head for what I have planned.”

“Dropping anchor where? Elithiend?” Her eyes lit at the prospect of seeing the mysterious kingdom.

“Easy there.” Emmerich smirked. “We’ll technically be in Elithiend, but it’s a more neutral territory. Tempest Cove.”

Solveig sank back in her chair, her disappointment obvious at his words. “Alas, dear Princess, as you made clear on my arrival in Farrenhold, a foreign royal requires a direct invitation to enter another kingdom. I may be the future king, but my father still rules and that isn’t a power he has handed off to me. We’re lucky he granted permission for us to stop at Tempest at all.”

“You said you’d show me all the corners of Osvolta that I longed to see.”

“That I did,” Emmerich shrugged. “I just didn’t specify when.”

“Why the cove?” she speared a piece of beef with her fork. “All our records say it’s a barren wasteland.”

“That’s true. Its excess tidal activity makes it uninhabitable. But it also makes the perfect Hydromancer training ground.”

Solveig’s face paled at his words.

He placed his elbows on the table, leaning closer. “I’m curious to see how far your magic can actually go.”

“It’s a waste of time.” Solveig rushed, shaking her head.

“I think we both know that’s not true.” he wiped his hands on a napkin as he stood, stalking like a predator. “I’ve watched you drain a body of every drop of fluid. That is no easy feat.”

“You’re—” Emmerich brought a finger to her lips, halting her words in their tracks, tracing the shape of her full, blush coloured mouth. Her lips parting slightly as chills covered her body. He leaned in close, and Solveig closed her eyes, anticipating his lips closing over hers again. This time she knew she wouldn’t fight him, that she would claim him as thoroughly as he had claimed her with their last kiss.

The prince’s eyes shone as he studied her flushed complexion, the slight movement at the base of her neck with her rapid heartbeat. “Eat up and sleep well, Princess. You’re going to need all your strength tomorrow.” He pressed a soft kiss on the hollow beneath her ear; her scent washing over him, far more intoxicating than even the sweetest wine in his stores. Solveig moaned in protest as he pulled away, her eyes shooting open in time to see his back as he exited the room without a backward glance.

The sensation of his closeness, of his lips grazing her skin, was a memory far too difficult to escape. Even as she lay in the warm comfort of his bed, sleep evaded her. His scent lingered all around her, so strong it was as though he were sleeping right beside her. It would be easy to go to him. To lead him up the stairs to share the bed with her. But would that be all they would do? Was she ready for what sharing a bed with the prince could mean?

She glanced to the cabinets across the room where a bunch of white roses, thorns trimmed, lay taunting her. Identical to the rose he’d bestowed her with the morning of the Harvest Festival. Sighing, she threw the sheets off, storming from the room and out on to the open deck above. The cool breeze clearing her senses with its briny scent as moonlight shone down from the heavens. She came to a stop against the rail, staring out into the endless inky black of the ocean. Alone with her thoughts, she listened to the soothing sound of the waves crashing and rolling against the side of the ship. Her eyes falling closed as the sound eased her racing mind.

Before long, footsteps sounded behind her, setting her pulse racing as the prince came up to stand beside her, the air between them charged with confusion and want.

“Can’t sleep?” she whispered first.

“Once you get used to sleeping in a bed, it’s hard to go back to the bunks,” he muttered wryly. “You?”

“My mind is all tangled up over someone it shouldn’t be, and it doesn’t help when his scent is wrapped all around me.”

“Guess we’re both out of luck then,” Emmerich smirked, nudging her shoulder playfully.

“Perhaps,” she muttered, “or…”

“Or?”

Solveig turned to face him fully then, taking a deep breath. “Or you could come back to your bed with me,” she whispered.

“Solveig.” Her name ripped from his throat; hands clenched on the rail. “Are you sure?” He swallowed as she nodded. “I need to hear you say it. I won’t do anything where you’re concerned unless you voice exactly what you want from me.”

The full moon cast them in silvery light as Solveig stared at him in thoughtful silence, gripping the rail tight as she dragged in a long salt-tinged breath.

“Emmerich, I want you to come and sleep in your own damn bed with me, so that I may finally get some rest ” Her voice rang with a false bravado betrayed by the nervous shifting of her eyes.

“Fine,” he chuckled, “there was no need to beg.”

Solveig swatted his arm playfully, but he only grabbed it before she could pull away, rubbing his thumb lightly over the back of her hand.

“Come.” He inclined his head. “If it’s sleep you want, that’s what you’ll get.”

Hand in hand, the prince led the princess back down to the captain’s quarters. He slipped off his boots and belt, and she shrugged off her shawl and slippers before they climbed beneath the still warm sheets together.

Emmerich pulled Solveig tight against his chest, and she could feel his heartbeat against her back.

His face drifted to her neck breathing in her scent, soft lips whispering across her skin as he spoke. “Next time we do this, I want to help.”

“Help with what?” she laughed, burying her face in the pillows to hide her blush.

“Ever since the night of the ball,” he whispered, fingertips skimming her thigh before stopping dead centre, his palm flush to her skin. “I’ve dreamed of being the one who gets to remove that holster from your thigh.” He pressed another kiss to her nape, his fingers tapping her thigh gently as Solveig’s breath caught in her throat, feeling her skin flush.

“I want to be the one who gets to strip your armour away, mentally and physically. Even if that’s all we do.” He paused, hand drifting away from her thigh and she twisted to look at him.

“I want you to want me, Solveig.” The words ripped from his throat, eyes falling shut.

She brought a hand to his jaw, drifting her thumb across his plush lower lip, remembering how it felt pressed to hers, “I..” she began, but stopped, words failing her. So she did the only thing she could think of to reassure him. Pushing herself up to press a kiss light as air, over his mouth.

“I’m here with you.” she whispered at last. Bringing their foreheads together.

“Sleep.” Emmerich breathed, “I’ll still be with you tomorrow.”

They settled back into the bed, their hearts calming together. And with the added comfort and warmth of being wrapped in each other against the steady sway of the ship, they drifted off to sleep in quiet tandem. Consequences be damned.