“Yes, I wanted to return to the surface. But now…this place feels like home. You feel like home.” There was nothing for me at the surface. No family. No friends. Just a tyrant who’d stabbed me in the back while looking me in the eye. I wanted to reclaim my throne in my family’s name and cut Vulgaris’s throat, but I could never do that anyway. I didn’t have the power or the ability or the physical strength.
Morco continued to stare me down, his eyes still vicious.
It was a level of intensity he’d never shown me, its greatest potency. I saw a man who wanted me but refrained, not to protect me, but to protect himself. A man who made me feel beautiful with just a stare. A man who recognized strengths that I thought were weaknesses. He made my heart flutter…but also made it relax. “I choose you.”
His eyes didn’t move. Neither did his body. He accepted that answer in a weighted silence, in a suffocating tension. But then he took a step forward, a heavy boot against the floorboard, and like a predator that descended on its prey, he came for me with a hunger he’d never shown before.
My heart leaped into my throat. My palms collected a sudden sweat. The vibration of my heartbeat was visible on the surface of my shirt. I swallowed as I felt him move into me, as I felt him dig his hand into my hair and grip the strands with the most enthusiasm he’d ever shown. His mouth sealed over mine, and he kissed me hard.
I gripped his shoulder with one hand, the other cupping his cheek, feeling him devour my lips like they were a feast for the taking.
He backed me up to the bed and yanked my shirt over my head unceremoniously. He hadn’t understood my bra the first time I’d taken it off, but he quickly figured it out the second time, snapping it free before he gripped both of my tits with his big hands and squeezed.
Oh wow.
He moved his mouth to my neck, and he kissed me as he backed me even farther into the bed, his hand hard on my ass. Hetugged down my pants and panties before he tipped me back onto the sheets. My legs went into the air, and he stood with one knee on the bed as he yanked off my boots then pulled my bottoms the rest of the way off.
With those dark eyes on mine, he parted my thighs then looked at me folded underneath him, watched me breathe, my heart beating at a sprint. He gripped the area over my ribs as if to measure me. He moved his thumbs over my belly, and one swiped at my belly button.
He really looked like he wanted to eat me.
He let my legs rest against him as he yanked his shirt over his head, showing the powerful slab of stone of his chest, thick shoulders wider than a mountain range. He had a hard stomach with grooves between his muscles. It was hot skin on thick muscle over hard bone. A prime cut of man meat.
He loosened his pants and kicked off his boots. When he pulled them off, he took the shorts too, and then he showed me his length as he continued to stand above me, one knee on the bed, looking like one of the soldier statues I’d seen in the kingdom.
But this one was far more beautiful.
I knew what would happen from the books I’d read, knew where his thickness would enter, but the adrenaline still rushed through me because this was real, not a book that was eventually removed from the library by those who didn’t approve of the content. I’d had to go into the village to get more, to go to a bookstore that sold independent titles that weren’t delivered to the castle.
He scooted me up the bed until my head was on a pillow, and he moved over me like a heavy rain cloud ready to pour. Heslid both of his arms behind my knees and pinned them back, angling my hips farther back than they’d ever been, parting my thighs so he could easily fit against me.
His hands tightened into fists as they dug into the sheets. His warm length pressed against my sex like a kiss. Instead of guiding himself inside and entering the softness between my petals, he dipped his head and kissed me.
But it wasn’t the hard and possessive kiss from before. This time, it was gentle, contained his breath, soft but purposeful. He turned his head one way and kissed me for a while, and when he stopped to turn the other way, he gently brushed his nose against mine, our eyes locked for a brief instant before he kissed me again.
I gripped the bulging muscle of his biceps, heat that was hotter than a fire, and then I clutched at his shoulders, which were even thicker. Lost in the softness of his kiss, I relaxed underneath him. A burn throbbed in my body, the heat made me melt like the wax of a candle, and the desire I felt for him was greater than it’d ever been. I’d wanted him to make love to me before, but now, it felt different.
It felt different because he was finally there with me.
In the moment, heart-to-heart, our souls were anxious to touch. He kissed me like my mouth was a paradise for his lips and tongue. He breathed with me, the fire cracking from the hearth, the scent of his sweat making me ache even more.
He was the one to end the kiss. The one to take the logs from the flame. He looked down at me with dark eyes that seemed lighter than the sky. He pulled his arm away from the back of my kneeand pointed his length at my entrance. He pushed slightly, his length opening my inner petals, and gave another gentle push.
I sucked in a breath when I felt him try to squeeze inside me.
He returned his hand to my other knee, and he continued his slow intrusion, his eyes watching mine as he inched farther within me.
My nails clawed at him as he went deeper. My chest tightened with every breath. I felt the slickness between my legs, but there was still resistance. He felt ten times too big for me, but he continued to make his way farther and farther, my breaths rising more the closer he came to my core.
When I felt like I couldn’t take any more, he came to a stop. His dark eyes were focused and intense, like this slow introduction made him burn white-hot. He watched me as he gave me a chance to accept his length.
He didn’t ask if I was okay. Didn’t ask if I wanted to stop.
Good.
He started to rock into me gentle and slow, giving me his length before he took it away again, his core tight and his muscles flexed. He moaned several times like he enjoyed it right away.
It took me a second to absorb the sensation, how good it made me feel, how inaccurately those books had described a pleasure so immense I couldn’t find the words. Every time he came close and rubbed my nub, it felt even better. The first time was supposed to hurt, and while it was hard to take in something so large, I wouldn’t describe it as painful. It all felt so good.
