The grin that dragged his lips up was carnal and wicked. “Everything in this Citadel is mine,carella.” I lost sight of that grin as his lips descended back to my flesh. “Everything.”
I didn’t have the chance to unpack his implication because the wet heat of his mouth was around that sensitive bud, assaulting me with new sensations. I threw my hips against his, tension coiling into something that might explode.
Skies,Ineededit to explode.
“I have you,” he murmured against my skin. His hand, now freed, loosened my trousers. Then it slid beneath.
All the way to where Iburned.
He paused, lifted his head, and waited.
It was foreign, being touched there.But initial startlement was almost immediately overcome with my body’s need for more.
This was Harthon. He had me. And I trusted him completely.
“Okay,” I breathed.
The most delicious touch, the most perfect pressure, began, as he continued to worship my breasts, each heartbeat more addictive than the last. Time became a blur of pleasure. Cries escaped my mouth, dancing through the air, and a coil formed where his hand played, getting tighter, and tighter, andtighter—
I shattered with a cry, one I half-stifled in my throat. Harthon stayed with me, easing me down from the breath-stealing high, until I was limp against the bed. His hand slid out from beneath my trousers, and he braced his body above mine.
“Do not swallow your pleasure. Not with me,” he said softly.
Warmth bloomed on my cheeks. I couldn’t believe I’d made those sounds. “It would have been loud.”
“And we are the only two rooms in this hall,” he countered. “I want to hear what I do to you.”
“I think it’s rather obvious what you just did to me.”
His eyes lightened at that, and he swept a lock of hair from my cheek. His body was a blanket above me, swathing me in heat. There was still that length straining through his trousers, resting along my thigh.
“What about your pleasure?”
He’d given to me, but he hadn’t taken for himself. He was clearly still waiting for his own release. And as I sat there in a sated haze, I wanted to know what it was like to give him that, to see this force of a man pleasured.
“There is so much I have already taken from you.” His tone was thick with regret. A knuckle coasted down my cheek. “Tonight was mine to only give.”
He’dliterallytaken me weeks ago. Stolen me from my home. Forced me into this duty. But it was a misleading simplification.
“I want to give you more,” I told him.
“In time.”
If what I felt on my thigh was any indication, “You seem to need it now.”
He smiled softly, and it was beautiful on him, this man who was always so fierce. “Rest assured, pleasuring you has brought megreatenjoyment,carella.I have everything I need.” He shifted to the side and pulled my back into his front. “And if you choose to continue arguing, just know that as Princeps of this Territory, I command you to not give me more tonight.”
“And as themagvis,who’s far more powerful than you, I can do what I wish.”
I didn’t mean it, though. He’d made his decision, and now that he was cocooning me in his heat, sleep beckoned. I wondered if he’d still be there when I woke.
Thoughts of the coming hours brought another question to mind. “Are we still leaving the day after tomorrow?”
“The seas are favorable, but they don’t stay that way for long. I can give us four more days here, rather than one.”
Merelda hadjustgotten here. This expedition might take weeks. The idea of leaving her so soon was painful.
But there was a duty to uphold. Every day we delayed was a day more people suffered and died. We needed those resources.
