“Exactly.”

Keeley ate a piece of cheese. “Do you think I need a castle?”

“What now?”

“That’s why Straton raided that town. So he could have a base of operations for his army. I don’t have a base of operations. I can’t wander the land picking up troops as I go along.”

“That’s how the Daughters of the Steppes do it.”

“The what?”

“Never mind.” He took a breath. “Are you planning to raid a town to take it over?”

“Of course not! I’d never do that.”

“Exactly. So why are we even discussing this? Now?”

“Yes, yes. You’re right. I’ll just relax and eat.”

“Good.”

Keeley sipped the ale Caid had poured for her earlier. “Think I’ll have to buy my army?” When Caid stared at her, she added, “I can’t expect the dwarves to do all the fighting for me. I’ll be leading humans, so I’ll need humans to fight for my cause.”

“I don’t disagree,” Caid said slowly, speaking around the food he had in his mouth. “I’m just not sure why you’re worrying about that now.”

“Excellent point,” she agreed. “I just need to relax.”

“Yes. Relax.”

“Take the night off!”

“Take the night off.”

Keeley leaned back against the tree and ate more of the food Caid had provided.

“Maybe,” she began, “we should see the barbarians before we head back to the dwarves. What do you—”

“You really can’t relax, can you?” Caid demanded, gawking at her.

“I have a lot on my mind,” she argued.

“You’re going to make yourself sick. My grandfather had what a healer called a hole in his stomach. She said it was from all the worry he had. It was like he was being eaten from the inside out. You don’t want that, do you?”

“No! Why would you tell me that story? Now I’m going to worry that I’m going to get a hole in my stomach.”

“You need to find ways to distract yourself.”

“But I don’t have a forge.”

“What?” Caid asked on a laugh.

“That’s how I relax. I go to my forge and work. But, at the moment, I don’t have that.” She leaned forward, tried to look through the trees. “Unless there’s a forge around here that you know about?”

“Keeley . . . I don’t even know how to respond to that.”

“I thought you knew this area.”

“Keeley.”

“Fine. Forget it.” She leaned back but one of them must have moved because she was now half on Caid’s shoulder and left side. “Is your kilt magickal?”

The ale Caid had been drinking suddenly sprayed across the ground. “What?”

“Is it magickal? It turns into a bridle when you shift to centaur.”

“I am centaur. I shift to human. And yes, there is a bit of spell-enhancement involved in the making of our kilts.”

“Interesting.”

“Is it?”

“It is. I work with leather, but I never thought about enhancing it with spells to make it better.”

“Not sure you can. We have witches and mages who work with our armorer.”

“Oh. I see. I don’t have magick skills.” She snapped her fingers. “But Gemma does!”

“She’s a War Monk. Her skills are limited and she’s only to use them in battle.”

Keeley frowned. “How do you know all that?”

“I looked into being a War Monk when I was younger.”

“Oh.”

“But the thought of human men telling me what to do set my teeth on edge, so . . . you know . . .”

“As a human woman, I have to admit, I feel the same way.”

* * *

Cross-legged beside him, Keeley picked up the bottom of his kilt and felt the material. “This is really excellent workmanship.”

“Thank you.”

“Did you make this?”

“No.”

“That’s disappointing.”

“Not for me.”

Instead of verbally responding, Keeley just looked up at him and briefly flicked her hands into the air and sucked her tongue against her teeth, letting him know she was now disappointed with his response.

The slight physical move and expression on her face made Caid laugh. Keeley always made him laugh. Always made him . . . comfortable. There weren’t many who did. He did fine around his family but strangers bothered him. He hated chatting. Hated idiotic conversations about nothing, but not as much as he hated conversations about what some random being thought was important. Honestly, Caid was most happy when he was by himself, in an open field with horses. Not centaurs, but actual horses, because they didn’t bore him with constant conversation either.

Keeley was the only being he could think of whose conversation didn’t make him homicidal. Even when she was panicking, pacing and prattling on, he didn’t want to get away from her. Instead, he wanted to help. To calm her down. Even if calming her down meant letting her prattle on and on until she’d worn herself out.

It was a price he was willing to pay. For her.

Keeley finished examining his kilt, released it, and put her hands in her lap. She looked at him then.

“What?” she asked when she saw his face.

He didn’t know what to say to her. Didn’t even know how to begin. So he said nothing. Silence had always been his friend; he’d assume the same thing now. It was safer.

Safer to keep his mouth shut. Safer not to say what he was thinking and feeling. Safer not to push too hard and lose everything.

But he should have remembered . . . Keeley never played it safe. She never did anything that anyone expected. That’s what would make her such a powerful queen one day.

One moment she was gazing at him, and the next . . .

Her lips touched his. Soft. Gentle. Hesitant. No doubt she hadn’t forgotten his earlier reaction to an innocent request. She was probably worried he’d push her away this time too; assume she was just another human female wanting to “try out” a centaur. But he knew now that wasn’t Keeley. She didn’t see any being as something that was simply for her own entertainment. An object to be used. If Keeley was kissing him, it was because she truly desired him. Caid.

Wanting to show her that the interest was mutual, he slid a hand behind her neck. Tugged her in closer; pressed his lips harder.

It happened all at once then. Their mutual desire exploded. It was all so fluid, Caid didn’t even know when it happened. Sitting next to each other; calmly chatting. Then they were on their knees and facing each other. Hands on each other. Caid with his hands dug into Keeley’s hair; Keeley with her hands on his shoulders and neck.

They seemed to open their mouths at the same time and their tongues touched, played. Their breaths mingled and Keeley groaned. Caid felt it as much as heard it. It went up his spine, spread to his shoulders, down his arms, and out his fingertips.

Keeley abruptly pulled out of their kiss.

“What?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” She looked to her left. “Go,” she ordered . . . the air? Who was she talking to?

Then he saw them. They appeared from behind the other trees that surrounded them, their flame eyes watching Keeley and Caid. As they all trotted off, the leader moved the slowest, his glare for Caid and Caid alone.

Once the wolves had left them, Keeley leaned back and pulled her chainmail shirt up and over her head, tossing it aside. Caid did the same and once he cleared his chainmail away from his face, he saw that Keeley already had her breast bindings off.

She leaned in again, sliding her arms around his neck. Caid gripped her waist, pulled her in close so her breasts were flush against his chest. They kissed again, this time even more urgently.

Knowing that Keeley wanted him as much as he wanted her made Caid unbelievably hard, his cock pressing against her, the kilt barely keeping them apart.

He moved in closer and they somehow slipped, Keeley falling back; Caid going with her. When they landed, they were both laughing, but they still held each other tight. In fact, the laughter only made it better. More relaxed. More perfect, if that were possible.

“We need to get you a kilt,” Caid complained as he tried to pull down her leggings with one hand while still holding her with the other. “This is taking too long.”

Keeley silently agreed by moving his hand away and pulling her legs into her chest. She lifted her hips and brought the leggings down as far as her arm could reach. Then she tried to push them off the rest of the way by moving her feet and legs.

Caid grabbed the chainmail and tugged it off one foot. But he didn’t get it the rest of the way because Keeley was already pulling him back on top of her.

They were kissing again and he didn’t even know when it happened. It was just so natural, it all seemed to flow seamlessly.

So when Caid entered her, his cock pressing into her, Keeley was ready for him. Her hips lifted and her muscles pulled him in deep.

Her pussy was hot and wet and her groans against his ear nearly too much for him.

One leg wrapped around his waist, but the other was weighed down by the chainmail still hanging from her foot. That chainmail scratched the back of his leg, teasing him.

Her hands gripped his back; nails digging into his flesh, urging him on.

Caid rocked into her, his lips pressed against the side of her neck. He dug his hands into her hair and just enjoyed the feel of her. The sounds she made. The way she made him feel.

Keeley’s entire body tightened around him, gripping him. Unwilling to release him. A climax shuddering through her that was so strong it took him with her when her pussy clenched onto his cock and squeezed everything out of him.

His own climax wiped his mind clean and had him shaking and panting, staring down at the human woman he’d just lost his heart to.

* * *