Chapter 14

NICOLETTE

^~Oh, boy, you’re an alien. Your foreign touch. It’s supernatural. Extraterrestrial.~^

Lucien lifted me onto a magnificent horse. It was massive and looked strong. Much stronger than the horses from Earth.

He hopped on behind me and I felt his bulge against the small of my back.

~Poor guy~, I thought as my mind flashed to last night. To what we did. To what ~he~ did to me.

Despite myself, I blushed and was suddenly grateful I was seated in front of him.

Lucien turned the horse away from the camp, and we waved goodbye to the performers. He said something to their leader, then shouted to the horse, kicking it gently to encourage it to leave its home.

The sun was just fully visible over the eastern horizon, and it looked similar to Earth’s except that it had a bluish halo around it. And it was insanely bright, shining into my eyes like a spotlight, as if it knew what had happened last night and was calling attention to it.

As if it was saying, “Wake up, girl. Time to face the reality that you were eaten out by a god last night. And we all saw it.”

I saw it all too. And I remembered every detail of the night. My intoxication, my dance, my bet with Lucien, and my mind-breaking orgasm.

Sure, I’d been tipsy, but still of clear mind. I’d wanted him to touch me. To kiss me. To taste me. And I was ready to let him fuck me.

But he hadn’t. After giving me the biggest orgasm of my life, he’d told me to sleep.

“I’ll grant that to you only this time,” he’d said after getting up from between my legs, his chin wet with my juices.

His tongue darting out to lick under his lip had been the last thing I saw. What a sexy sight before sleep. I blushed again.

Of course I couldn’t tell him I remembered it all. It’d be better to make him believe he had won our bet than for him to know how godlike he was with his mouth. ~Like he needs that ego boost.~

I tried to stop thinking about last night and looked to the landscape for distraction.

It was breathtakingly beautiful here, hilly and snowy. It reminded me of a trip I took to Alaska. Except, of course, for the colors.

Every color of the rainbow was represented in the landscape. In the thousands of fully blossomed flowers, the wheat-like fields, and the grass- and tree-covered hills.

All of them had that slight blue tint, and all were covered with ice and snow in different stages of melt.

It looked like the plants didn’t know it was winter. Though I wouldn’t have known either because I wasn’t cold. At all.

I looked down at my hands and wondered why that was. The traveling clothes the leader’s wife had given me were quite heavy, but I think it had more to do with the man behind me. His chest against my back provided a welcomed warmth.

I snuggled back against him, and I felt his manhood again. And again I blushed.

Then I felt his chest rumble, and he brought his arms closer to my sides.

I thought about how natural this felt. Me in his arms. It felt like we had a special connection. Like I hadn’t just met him a few days ago. Maybe I hadn’t.

~Maybe you knew him in a past life~. I smiled at the thought that we could somehow be destined for each other.

We rode in comfortable silence until I began to grow uncomfortable. I was happy to not be walking, but I wasn’t used to riding a horse for so long.

“How long to the capital?” I asked, shifting in the saddle. I felt him rise again against my back.

Lucien pointed to a hill up ahead. “You will see. Just wait.” He kicked his ankles into the horse’s sides, and it galloped to the top of the hill.

I wasn’t prepared for what I saw.

The backside of the hill lead gently down into a large and shallow bowl-shaped valley. Far ahead, in the middle, was a plateau that rose to the height of the hill we were on, which looked to be part of the rim of the bowl.

On top of the plateau was the most surreal crystalline castle I could have ever imagined. Light bounced off it and made it sparkle, and I wondered if it ever blinded people.

Surrounding the plateau and going halfway up the sides of the crater were tens of thousands of what looked like boulders covered by snow. Giant snowballs. A field of clouds.

As I looked longer, I began to see movement by the nearest edge. It was a person! Then I got it. They weren’t snowballs at all—they were buildings! This was a massive igloo city!

I leaned fully against him and took in the sight. I was speechless. For about a second. Then excitement took over.

“Can we stay in one of those igloos? Oo-oo, no, can we stay in the castle?” I spun around to face him.

“Sure, why not.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I suppose I can pay the queen and her brother a visit. Since I am here.”

He tried to play it cool and keep his face stern, but when I squealed at his response, he gave in and smiled with me.

I turned back around and looked at it again. In just a few hours I would be inside that castle. It was truly surreal. Then a thought occurred to me.

“Wait, won’t you need to have made an appointment to see the queen? Won’t she be busy?” I asked, still looking ahead.

To my surprise, he wrapped his arms around me, pressing me closer to him. “Desime, did you forget already?” he whispered in my ear.

Goosebumps erupted on my arms and I shivered. Was he testing me to see if I remembered last night? I scanned my memories for what I could have forgotten. But there was nothing.

He let me suffer in panic for a few seconds before speaking again. “Royal treatment is all you will get when you are with me.”

“Oh, yeah. I remember ~that~.” I chuckled nervously, happy to have dodged a bullet. “Of course, what was I thinking? You’re a king, you can go anywhere and do anything.” I tried to keep my voice calm.

“Do you remember anything else from last night? Our bet, perhaps?” His arms squeezed a bit tighter.

“Bet? I don’t remember a bet. Actually, I don’t remember much after the butterfly dance. I think their liquor is too strong for me. I should’ve been paying more attention to what I was drinking. Did I embarrass myself? Did I embarrass you?”

I rattled off the words in one breath, cringing at how dumb it must have sounded. And how obviously it was a lie.

He leaned close to my ear again. “No embarrassment at all. But then that means…” He nipped the tip of my earlobe and I jumped. “I win, Nicolette.”

He removed his arms and went back to holding the reins.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “And what exactly do you win?”

He released a deep laugh, then nudged the horse forward with a light kick of his heels. “I want the royal treatment,” he said.

I snapped my head back to face him, confused at what he meant.

He looked at me with a devilish smile. “And this time, I want ~you~ to give it to ~me~.”

I couldn’t turn my head away fast enough for him to not see by blush. Hell, I bet the back of my neck even blushed.

I remained silent for the rest of our journey, and Lucien did too.

Every step closer to the castle, closer to the next bed we would stay in, sent a flash of electricity through my body.

I wondered what he meant by ~royal treatment~. And I couldn’t wait to find out.