EXTRACT FOR
The Dragon's Assassin Wife
(Daisy Rose)

Once they made it through the gates, she had thrown a teasing smile in his direction and took off with the expectation that he would be on her tail.



It did not take long for him to react the way she had anticipated, though she had miscalculated how quickly it would take him to capture her. Around them, the guards bowed as they ran past, the backs of their necks exposed to the king and queen who were behaving like teenagers.



She should have also considered the location where she should be doing this. Somewhere softer would have been much preferable, especially when he lunged and tackled her to the floor. Right before her head could make contact with hard tile, he pulled them around. They rolled until he was on the bottom, her straddling his chest.



Then, just as quickly, he flipped them back around.



She made a noise of complaint when her back met the cold tile. "Your majesty!" she cried out, her tone appropriately scandalized. She pushed against his chest and tried to buck him off. She liked to believe that she was close to succeeding until he seized her wrists and pinned them on the floor with one hand over her head. His other hand stilled her hips with a grip hard enough to hurt.



The two of them stayed there, breaths heavy and chest heaving. She in particularly, was not pleased about what just happened. "Your majesty," she scolded. "Your family rules forbid running in the castle grounds. How are you so fast? You must have cheated."



He looked annoyed. Strands of hair fell in wisps around his face. "You shouldn't run from me," he rasped.



"You'll catch me, won't you. My big strong husband," she teased. "Look at you, pinning your poor little wife to the ground in a public area. For shame." Honestly, all the time they had spent making love had turned her into a shameless sex fiend. She was goading him, trying to get a reaction out of him. She really shouldn't. He had been so patient and so kind towards her, his patience seemingly endless when it concerned her. She wanted to see if she could make him annoyed with her.



He leaned down until they were almost nose-to-nose. Rage gave his scent edges, the embers on his skin sharper enough to slice. "I should punish you," he said.



"Ah," she nodded sagely. "I can see why I would deserve that," she continued. "I shouldn't run on castle grounds and I should definitely not be running from my own husband, isn't that- ah, wait!"



He ignored her, focused entirely on tearing her gown open. He had ruined so many of her beautiful dresses by now that she should really have gotten used to the sound of clothes tearing, but she couldn't help but grimace at the sheer wastefulness. The dress spread out beneath her like spilled wine.



"Your majesty, you mustn't!" she tried to roll onto her side to make him release her. "What are you doing? Have you gone crazy?"



"Take your punishment," he said, resolutely taking off the rest of her clothes, tearing at the material that refused to cooperate until she was stark naked beneath him. Without warning, he pressed hot fingers directly to the junction of her thighs.