“As it was to be forced to dance with him.” I replied, making him chuckle. He spun me out, only to bring me back in, pressing my chest against his as his hands quickly found my hips. He made an effort to map every spot Casaan had touched, banishing the feeling of his revolting caresses and overwriting him completely from my body.
“I find myself both jealously coveting you and yet frustrated beyond belief with the circumstances we find ourselves in,” he said quietly, even as his fingers burned into my skin through layers of cloth.
“I wish I’d led a different life,” I told him sadly. “When I was a child, I told my father I wished to marry you, you know?”
He pulled back to look at me, his eyebrows raised in surprise, but I could see the pleasure brimming in his eyes as he chuckled. “I wasn’t sure you’d even remember that. Your father had mentioned it to me, but I didn’t think…”
He trailed off, before meeting my eyes once more, the light in them dimming and swirling with confusion. “Does that wish still live on? Even all these years later?”
“It does,” I breathed, tears pricking my eyes as I nodded with a trembling smile. “I can’t erase the past, but I can promise you a future. As long as I can finally get the vengeance my family deserves and put them to rest at last.”
“Yes, about that.” He grew seriously very quickly. “Meet me in my rooms after the ball. We need to plan quickly and quietly. We don’t have much time.”
“No, we don’t.” I agreed darkly, shadows forming in my eyes at the thought of what was to come.
Azurill’s expression softened slightly, and his hand left my hip to clasp my cheek, “I promise you, I will ensure they get what they deserve.”
“No, Az.” I shook my head adamantly. “I will.”
His heated look in response stayed with me through the rest of the ball. Since he couldn’t play favorites in public, we spent the rest of the night on opposite sides of the hall, only our eyes meeting again through the remaining hours. When it was finally over, I paced my rooms until a quiet knock sounded, and I opened it to find Alfrikr waiting.
He took me to Azurill’s rooms and let me inside, and I stopped short in surprise when I realized that no one else was present. I thought that he’d surely have his council present to discuss what to do about Ruby Court. But instead, I found only Azurill, his jacket stripped off, leaving him in a silver button-down and a teal vest that matched his pants.
“Jacinth,” he greeted, smiling slightly. It was a highly encouraging sign.
“Azurill,” I returned, sauntering over to the drink tray by the sofa that had two glasses and a bottle of champagne set on it. I poured myself a glass as I continued, “So, does this mean you forgive me?”
Silence followed my question, and I set my drink down, about to turn to look at him, when a rush of air blew past me and my back suddenly hit the wall. He grabbed my wrists, holding them in one of his large, slender hands and pinning them to the wall above my head.
His other hand came around my waist, pressing our lower bodies together even as my upper body remained flat against the wall. I looked up into his eyes, his blue-green orbs refracting over and over like the most brilliant diamond. My breath caught as he leaned in, until all it would take was the slightest movement to take his lips with mine.
“Forgive you?” He gave an amused rumble, the vibration echoing through my body. “Not quite yet.”
“And what will,” I began breathily, undulating my body pointedly against his, “Push you over the edge?”
I bit my lip, wishing my dress wasn’t in the way so I could press myself to him more fully, when I gasped in shock—the gods or Azurill orwhoeverhaving apparently my prayer. Azurill ripped my surely very expensive butdefinitely very beautiful dress straight down the middle, the two pieces falling to the floor and sending rubies flying in all direction. I felt myself growing wet at the show of strength, and pressed my now bare thighs together to try to relieve the ache.
I was left in nothing but my measly underthings and my long, pinkish-red gloves. Azurill licked his lips as he watched me panting in anticipation against the wall. There was nothing to hold me back now. I could give into him with zero guilt, and the freedom I felt in that was arevelation.
Azurill stepped back toward me, his hands finding the bare skin of my shoulders as he began to run his hands slowly down my body. His palms encompassed so much of me at once, and the feel of his hands cupping my breasts, running over my stomach, pinching my hips… I was sure I’d never been this worked up just from someone touching me above the waist before. My lower half wasn’t even involved yet and I was about to turn into a puddle.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” Azurill whispered in a rough voice, “Linnea.”
A ragged gasp tore from my throat, my heart surely about to rip out of my chest and fly away. My watering eyes met his, liquid pools of teal that shone with a light I had never seen before—a light that shone straight through to therealme.
“Az.” I struggled to voice my words, the emotion choking me. “Please.”
His lips caught mine, and as his tongue caressed my own, his fingers were busy ripping away my panties, a rush of cool air hitting my now exposed and overheated flesh. When he pulled his mouth away, I whined in protest until he began kissing down my body. Nipping and licking along the column of my throat and making me groan in delight, biting and sucking at my nipples in turn, and making me moan as the feeling shot straight to my clit.
He hit his knees, grabbing my thighs and hoisting me up until both legs rested over his shoulders, the wall doing the rest of the work to keep me upright. My gasp was lost in the moan that followed as Azurill dove into me with all the enthusiasm he’d been keeping leashed.
His tongue wastootalented, licking up, around, and then down before swirling along my clit in repeated tight circles. My hand reached down to clutch at his hair, yanking on it and screaming out as he suddenly sucked my clit into his mouth, his teeth lightly scraping over it and making my voice hit a pitch I didn’t even know was possible.
His other hand remained busy, teasing along my entrance before thrusting two fingers inside me. The sound was obscene in the very best way, myarousal having been built up after all the teasing. It allowed him to easily slide another finger in, those long, slender digits reaching up within me and hitting a spot that had twinkling diamonds flashing in my vision.
My hips bucked up into his mouth, his rumbling laugh adding an exquisite vibration just as his lips closed around my clit and his fingers thrust in deep and hard, forcing my orgasm from me without warning.
“Azurill!” I couldn’t help screaming as my climax wracked through me, my entire body shaking as my nails gouged into the wall while the other hand used my grip on his hair to ride out my orgasm, forcing his face deeper as I undulated against him.
