Page 56 of The Queen's Line

"How many ears do you have?" I asked, grinning back at Scrapper.

He eyed the gold and waggled his eyebrows. "Might be enough to listen to the guards and our neighboring court. Might not be."

I scoffed and picked a short stack of gold coins, pinching them between my fingers and letting Scrapper count.

"Well," he said with a great and labored sigh. "It'll be thin and exhausting work, but I'll manage."

I laughed at last and shook my head. "Go and help yourself to whatever cook's done with Griffin's catch, and I'll hear no more about it."

Scrapper took his new gold and turned away from me with the tip of an imaginary hat. "Will she stay good, you think? Or go rotten like the others?" It was an aimless question and he was already on his way out, but the answer was on the tip of my tongue, pinched between my teeth.

She may save us, if we can rescue her crown for her.She'll stay good.

But that seemed an awfully optimistic idea, and I shook it out of my head before it could take root.

19

Bryony

The Hunger took hold of me for the next few days, and the excuse of curiosity and experimentation with the magic made it too tempting to resist.

"Shhh…" Cosmo stilled at my back, and my fingers scratched against the glass of the window he had me pressed to. "Shh, someone's coming."

"I was coming," I whispered back, and Cosmo shook against my back with a soft laugh.

We were in the entrance of the palace, tucked in an alcove behind a curtain, and I could hear the soft boots of a passing guard treading slowly by as Cosmo and I held our breath. He was practically throbbing inside me, and when I closed my eyes and relaxed into the feeling, my lips fell open at the slow and steady sensation. Cosmo didn't wait for the steps to move fully out of hearing, but his next nudges were short, deep thrusts that made me squeak and press my mouth shut again.

"Focus on the chandelier next," Cosmo whispered.

The chandelier in the hall behind us was dull, chipped, and missing some of its dripping crystals. I wasn't sure what the Hunger was really capable of, but that was the whole point of learning, wasn't it?

I swallowed a strangled moan as Cosmo picked up his pace, his hands under my skirt pushing me into a deeper arch until every thrust dragged against my front walls.

Perhaps magic wasn't theonlything we were experimenting with for the day.

My sweaty palms squeaked against the glass, nails trying to dig and grab on to the smooth surface.

"I'm going to—Oh, god, Cosmo there's a guard on the stairs," I gasped, my eyes widening as I watched the guard who had passed us stepping slowly down the grand and broken front steps of the palace. If he turned around, he'd be sure to see me pressed up against the window like this, even if he couldn't make out any explicit details.

"Quickly then," Cosmo said, laughing. "And quietly."

He reached around, toying with my clit, and I keened, watching the guard's head turn just enough for me to make out that it was Cresswell Stark. Then I came, forgetting to be quiet at all as heat and magic rushed through me. The glass of the window rattled and I slammed my eyes shut, not caring who might see or hear us as I let out a soft cry and tried to focus on the hall behind us rather than the glass in front of me, when all I really wanted to think of was the thrust and strike of Cosmo inside me.

Never stop. Never stop.

Cosmo groaned, sagging forward, and I whimpered as he came in a wet rush that leaked out between us as he pinned me to the window. Glass chinked behind the curtain, and Cosmo dragged me away from the window. Our feet stumbled together as he leaned back against the alcove wall and propped me up against his chest, flicking back the curtain for us to look up.

I gasped, eyes widening. It was not the chandelier of minutes ago, carefully carved crystal bars and delicate drops. Now it was a flurry of petal thin blossoms, swirling in a whirlwind, catching candle flames in the hearts of their blooms.

"I didn't mean to do that," I breathed.

Cosmo hummed and tipped my head to the side, sucking on my pulse until I squirmed. "Owen will have lunch for us in the greenhouse. We can see what kind of work you can do there if you'd like."

* * *

My thighs burnedand my head was tossed back, knees aching against the cracked tile floor of the greenhouse as I rode Owen's cock with an anxious fervor.

"Oh please, please, I'm so close," I whined.