Desiree sighed. “You are your mother’s daughter.”
“Thank you,” Stella said sweetly.
“Not a compliment,” the goddess said.
Stella glared at Desiree, but the goddess just waved a dismissive hand and started toward the hallway. “Fine. Suit yourselves. If you are so content to waste your potential, I cannot make you see that which you’re blind to. I’m off to find better company.” She turned to face Teddy, her eyes glowing in a subtle threat. “Keep her alive.”
Teddy waited for the goddess’s footsteps to retreat down the hall, the echo of her silk slippers growing fainter until a door closed and he and Stella were finally alone.
“You really think I’m cruel and petty,Minyha?” Teddy asked.
She sighed and crossed the room to pick at some wax that had spilled onto the altar. “I think you decided to hate me for years over some imagined slight of your sister, and perpetuated our prank war so you could keep me at a distance. Easier to see me as a charmed fairy princess instead of a real person.” She met his gaze. “Minyha. It means magic?”
Teddy smirked. There was no way she knew Old Novumi. “It means you should be better studied in languages if you’re going to be queen of Olney.”
Her anger hit him in the chest.Good. He was angry, too.
“I saved you from having to kill that man last night. The least you should be is grateful.”
“Grateful?” she spat. “I didn’t need you to step in and play savior, Theodore. I am quite capable of saving myself. I know you’re used to Grace, but some women just want the chance to fight for themselves.”
Teddy crossed the room to stand right in front of her, pointing to her neck. “He was strangling you. Gods help me. You are fucking maddening.”
She stepped closer, her nose mere inches from his. “And you are a spoiled prince with a savior complex and?—”
He thrust his hand into her hair, yanked her head back, and kissed her. It was a reflex in response to the sudden pulsing need to rid himself of this energy. Their connection set his teeth on edge and electrified every nerve in his body with wanting.
He waited for her to shove him away, but Stella tugged him closer and that was all the invitation he needed. He walked her backward, shoving aside the candelabras so he could press her against the marble wall without setting her indecent dress on fire. The candles crashed to the floor, and all the flames on their side of the room snuffed out, filling the air with fragrant rose-scented smoke.
Teddy tore the pins out of Stella’s hair violently and yanked her head back for better access. He slid his hand down her neck, his thumb resting over her pulse. He’d thought about his hands on her throat before, but for the sake of strangling her, not for the thrill of seeing how her heart raced as he kissed her.
He was starving for an outlet, and it seemed Stella was too. All the stress and grief of the past few days came out at once.
She bit his bottom lip and bunched her hands in his tunic. There was no tentativeness about it. Everything in the kiss was hungry and incendiary, just like her magic. Teddy shifted to cup the back of her head, his other arm curling around her waist.
She ground against his thigh. Fuck, that was hot. He wanted her to get off, wanted to see her get herself off using him, wanted to hear the sounds he brought out of her by his mere presence. Being prince and wielding storms had never made him feel as powerful as this.
He’d always had power he didn’t want—influence at court, rule of a kingdom, rule of storms—but this wildness was something he wanted the ability to coax out or tame at will.
Stella gasped into his mouth, her tongue tangling with his. She tasted sweet and tart like cherries.
He wrapped her hair around his fist, tilting her head back, and nipped at her jaw. She arched into him, her soft breasts pressing against his chest. He kissed along the length of her jaw and ran his nose down her neck, breathing in the sweet floral scent of her skin. Gods, it was intoxicating. He didn’t just want to taste her; he wanted to consume her, to see what would happen if he slid his hand up her dress. He dragged his teeth over the spot where her neck met her shoulder, and she cursed.
She dug her nails into the back of his head, urging him on, and rubbed herself harder against his thigh.
Teddy felt like he was going to combust. His skin was hot and tingling, his whole body lit from within by some supernatural fever stoked by her touch. He kissed his way back up her neck until he finally met her lips.
He pressed her back against the wall, his hips rolling to meet her rhythm. His cock was painfully hard, straining against his pants.
Stella shuddered and sighed, tipping her head back.
Gods, he wanted to lay her on the altar stairs and spread her thighs and make her come so hard she’d feel it for days. He wanted to wipe that smug smile off of her face for good. She was so certain she knew him. But she had no idea how happily he’d ruin her for any other man.
Teddy jerked away, equally disturbed and elated at that thought.
A shockwave raced through him, like a hundred little sparks lighting at once behind his sternum and spreading through his limbs. Goosebumps rose on his skin, but the sensation wasn’t unwelcome. The glowing feeling in his chest grew downward like roots and upward like branches. The sensation was pleasant and too much, and he wanted more.
Stella stared at him, her green eyes bright in the candlelight, pupils blown wide. Her face and neck were flushed and every place he’d kissed was bright red. A gentle thrum of satisfaction pulsed through him. It was like he’d left his signature behind on her skin.
