“Let’s get one thing straight, Torin,” I whispered, my lips even with his chin. His usual scruff had progressed into a full beard, the hue of it a myriad of browns and blondes glinting in the low light. “I am no longerQueen d’Refanas you so desire to throw in my face. There is no ring, there was no relationship, and, even if there was, let me remind you thatyouabandonedme.I had to do what was necessary to save myself and my family,” I hissed, squeezing tighter as each word reawakened a deep-seated hurt.
“No onecontrols me but me. No one gives me orders. If you want me to stand beside you, then you will treat me as your equal ineverything. Your secrets, your inner thoughts, your history, your very soul, aremine,Torin d’Eshu. I will be no one’s second choice, no one’s damsel in distress, and certainly no one’s pawn.” I yanked on his cock, drawing it toward me and eliciting a groan from deep within Torin’s chest.
His eyes fluttered closed as one palm came up to cup my cheek, his calloused thumb stroking delicately over my soft skin.
“Do. You. Understand?” I ground out, wanting his confirmation before I fell completely under his spell once more.
“Oh, Ellowyn. It’s you who doesn’t understand,” he rasped, his full lips brushing lightly against my forehead with each word. My body relaxed into his as if pulled by some invisible force.
“What don’t I understand?” I grumbled, fighting to maintain the hold on my righteous anger.
“You will never be my equal.” My blood ran cold with his statement, and I loosened my hold on his dick to push away from him, but a strong arm banded around my back to pull me flush into his chest. This time, without my hand separating us, I felt every hard inch of him pressed against me.
“You will never be my equal because you were never beneath me in the first place. You were, and always have been, my salvation, my goddess, my pinnacle. I’d worship at your feet and offer sacrifices on your altar just for you to see your worth, for you to understand how, at the end of it all, it is always you.” He pulled away incrementally to stare into my eyes. “So Iwillburn the world to ash, if just to see you rule over the pieces left. You are so beyond my equal, you are my everything.”
I searched his eyes for the truth, nearly choking over the earnestness and vulnerability in his expression.
“Thentreat me that way. No more hiding things from me. No more making plans without me. Because I swear to you, I will leave. I willnottolerate that anymore. Not from you, not from anyone.”
His gaze held mine, golden eyes open and vulnerable as he nodded his head.
“Good,” I whispered, withdrawing from his embrace and making my way to the armoireagain. “Now, we need to discuss?—”
“We don’t need to discuss anything,” Torin growled, his arms banding across my breasts and lower belly as he pulled me back against his hard chest, grinding his erection into my bare ass. “I heard you, now you need to hearme. If you could see past your anger, if you took a step back, you would realize that everything I’ve done since I met you, I didforyou, toprotectyou.”
“I don’t need protecting!” I practically screamed as Torin walked us over to the lone side table in the room. Roughly, he pushed my chest on top of the table, my damp skin squeaking against the polished wood. I went pliantly, knowing that at any point I could let my magic loose to free myself from the confines of his grasp.
But I didn’t.
As frustrated with him as I was, I needed to feel his hands on my body and hiscock inside me, filling me. Needed his touch to dissipate this dark cloud that hovered above me.
“Maybe not,” he admitted, one hand pressed between my shoulder blades, pinning me in place, while the other quickly worked to undo his pants, the rasp of strings against leather mingling with our panting breaths in the silent space. “But whether you like it or not, you are mine to protect. Mine to love. Mine to fuck.”
His pants fell to the ground with a near-silent thump, and I groaned as his hot, hard flesh pressed against my bare ass. I was already wet, the adrenaline from our argument arousing me in a way I’d never expected.
Torin paused with the crown of his cock just breaching my entrance, and I writhed, desperately trying to push myself back enough to coax him inside. Unfortunately, his palm held my body tight to the table, the edges of it dug into my exposed breasts and tightened nipples, and I found myself unable to move any more than what he allowed.
“No,” he growled, his grip unforgiving. “I told you weremineto fuck, and that is exactly what I am going to do.”
Chapter Twelve
Torin
My body quaked with barely concealed restraint. The muscles in my forearm and hand flexed as I held Ellowyn against the table, her soft, pale skin flushed with arousal. She shivered, goosebumps pricking her flesh, the longer I held her in wait.
I gritted my teeth against the flood of lust that pumped through my veins, begging me to seat myself fully inside her wet and wanting cunt.
But I held firm, keeping the head of my cock just at her entrance, testing both of our resolves.
“Torin,” Ellowyn whined as she writhed in my clutches, desperately trying to push back and seat herself fully on my erection.
Gone was the woman who just minutes ago verbally thrashed me to within an inch of my life. In her place was a wanton creature who needed to be reminded that, while I belonged to her and would bow to her every whim, she also belonged to me.
This relationship was a give and a take—an equal partnership.
Seemed webothneeded reminding of that.
My restraint slackened as I gave into the temptation of the heaven in her warm depths. With a groan, I snapped my hips forward, seating myself fully in her spasming pussy. Ellowyn released a breathy whimper, all of the tension and fight bleeding from her muscles at the feeling of me buried deep inside.
