We can trade and hope for the best. We have nothing to lose.
Trying to run from the pain, but it finds me still.
At the bottom of the barrel, nowhere to go but downhill.
Nothing matters anymore. Take me away from here.
Show me the other side of life, the place that you hold dear.
I want to be happy. Promise us we can be.
I’ll take care of you, and you’ll take care of me.
Those starry eyes that pierce my darkness and crack my soul.
I’m never going to breathe again until you save me and make me whole.
Where can I go?
I’m all alone, all alone.
But you can save us.
You can take me home.”
Matthias finished the song as tears fell down Adalia’s cheeks, dripping onto her chest, darkening the silk as they fell. His voice was unlike anything she had ever heard before. Yes, she’d heard him sing, but not like this, not with so much feeling and emotion.
The prince smiled at her softly. “Thank you for bringing me home.”
It was all Adalia needed to pull the veslo from his hands and place it on the ground beside them before shuffling further up to sit across his hips. Undoing the silk belt around her waist, she let the robe fall open, revealing the lacey nightgown.
Matthias sucked in his breath as he viewed the way the lace sat delicately against her warm skin. Wrapping his arms aroundher waist, Matthias pulled her into his body. Adalia cupped his face and lowered her head, capturing his mouth with her own. The prince moaned against her mouth, tasting like the wine they’d been drinking as he opened for her, his tongue slowly dancing with hers. Their breathing became as one, a symphony of inhale and exhale, as their mouths explored one another’s.
Adalia drank him in. His muscular frame, his exploring touch—the way he held her as if she was the most precious thing in his universe.
Pulling her lips from his, Adalia allowed her head to fall back, exposing her throat to Matthias’s curiosity, he grazed his teeth along her skin, sucking and biting a trail down her neck to her collarbones, drawing her closer as he did so. A warmth built low in her stomach and she rocked her hips forwards as she responded to the friction of her body against his. Matthias quietly hissed at her movement, his eyes growing dark as he trailed them over her face.
The desire intensified, and Adalia couldn’t wait any longer. She needed him.
Smiling at her now husband, Adalia stood and held out a hand as she retreated backwards towards the bedroom. “I believe you once threatened to show me what that mouth and those hands of yours can do.”
Matthias grinned wickedly and rose from his seated position. “Are you giving me permission, little dove?”
“Yes, I am, beast,” she said, her voice as soft as the silk she wore.
Turning, Adalia walked through the doors that lead from the balcony into the bedroom.
Matthias followed willingly.
The ambience of the room was perfect in temperature—the floor candles flooding the space with a golden glow.
“Wait . . . let me,” the prince spoke softly as Adalia reached to remove her robe.
Letting her hands fall to her sides, she allowed him to slip the fabric off her shoulders—it puddled on the floor at her feet like melted ice cream. His calloused hands brushed against her skin, and she fluttered her eyes against the sensation.
Slipping his fingers under the thin straps of her silk nightgown, he watched as it joined the robe on the floor. Leaving her body entirely exposed in only a pair of barely there white knickers. Adalia blushed under the prince’s gaze as he greedily devoured her with his eyes.
“Oh, how I love you,” Matthias whispered.
