The Leopard King Read Online Free PDF Page B

drink all day.

  4.  
    P ru studied the length of twine that bound them, wrist to wrist, then shook her head with a faint sigh. How am I supposed to sleep like this? Though she had three feet of slack, she was on the wrong side of the mattress, but he’d insisted on putting himself between her and the door. Now he lay facing away from her, the curve of his back like a wall between them. As if that wasn’t enough, he’d also rolled up a blanket and used it to divide the space.
    Judging by his breathing, he wasn’t asleep yet. He’d actually laughed a couple of times during their game of Follow the Queen, surprising the shit out of her. Maybe if she wore him down enough, he’d change his mind about the stupid terms he’d set. Pru understood that it was an impossible bar for her to vault over, but she still had five days before the Eldritch and the Golgoth representatives arrived. Raff and Beren wouldn’t be pleased over cooling their heels, so she hoped Slay’s stalling tactics had improved.
    Since her brain wouldn’t stop ticking over, Pru found it impossible to sleep. The bolster also pissed her off, as if she couldn’t be trusted not to molest Dom in the night. In furtive motions, she slowly unspooled it and drew it on top of the rest of the covers. Eventually, the extra warmth made her sleepy, but she couldn’t figure out how to roll over without getting tangled in the string, and she usually slept on her left side.
    “Why are you sighing?” Dom asked, sounding exasperated.
    “I can’t get comfortable.”
    “Then go back to the hold. Your own bed is waiting.”
    “Like you’d let me leave. What if I do something dangerous on the way home?”
    He glared at her over his shoulder. “You don’t ever want me to sleep again, do you?”
    Pru couldn’t restrain a quiet laugh. “I’d apologize, but—”
    “You’re not sorry.”
    It felt strange to lie here talking to Dom as drowsiness tiptoed closer. He was asking something about Ash Valley when she passed out. Later, she woke to find him curled around her, his chin against the top of her head. Spooning. We’re spooning. Pru stared at the lean arm curved across her waist, the fingers splayed low on her abdomen.
    I’d give a lot to be like this with Slay, just once.
    But while he was open to having fun, he never stuck around afterward. Anything more is a bad idea, he’d always said. Because of how the mate bond formed, she guessed. Sufficient sex could jumpstart it, or a couple could choose each other, then the emotional connection developed over time. Slay couldn’t know that she’d always considered herself his, whether he chose to keep her or not. So it was beyond fucking ironic that Dom would be the first person to snuggle with her so intimately, his heart drumming a lullaby against her back.
    But she didn’t think it was his closeness or his heat that had roused her. Something else… but though she strained her ears, she didn’t catch any alarming sounds. Her sense of smell wasn’t sharp enough to detect trouble, either. I’m probably imagining things. Yet she couldn’t get back to sleep. Dom was strumming her belly slowly now, like she was an instrument he could play. Despite her best intentions, his gentle touch sent a shiver through her.
    It’s fine. He doesn’t know what he’s doing.
    When he eased his hand lower, Pru caught it and held it still. These were the two arms that he’d tied together, so she was literally bound to him. It wouldn’t be hard to untie the knot and slip away, but she lacked the energy to attempt shifting again so soon. Each failure drained her and left her feeling like shit. Not to mention, she hadn’t been joking when she said she had tried damn near everything else.
    Burn scars marched up her inner thighs, ten years old and faded, a testimonial to a lifetime of quiet desperation. Pain did nothing, so maybe she had never been sufficiently frightened. Passion didn’t work either, as Slay once made her