Slowly, his fingers drifted up to the apex of my thighs, ghosting over the spot where I needed him most.
I whimpered.
“Lyra,” he murmured, bringing his thumb down to brush that sensitive bundle of nerves and sending fresh shockwaves of pleasure rippling through me. “Say it. Again.”
My whole body tingled at his command, and I was glad he couldn’t see how much I enjoyed his bossiness.
“Imagine that,” Kaden taunted. “The most fearsome huntress in the Quarter is afraid to share her feelings.”
I opened my mouth to tell him that I wasn’t afraid, but his fingers had returned to that aching bundle of nerves, and I was rendered speechless.
“Perhaps it’s only fair that I tell you howIfeel,” he mused. “Beautiful, violent, brave little huntress.”
His hand moved between my legs, sliding two fingers inside me. I gasped at the welcome invasion, my body going boneless as he found that spot just behind my navel that made my legs tremble.
“You are the most astounding female I have ever known.” He slid his fingers out slowly before ramming them back in. “You have given me something to live for besides the fate of my kingdom, and I don’t care what that infernal god says . . .” Kaden thrust his fingers in harder. “You are worth more to me than any throne, Lyra. Any crown. Any title.”
I sucked in a gasp, my pleasure coiling tighter and tighter. He couldn’t mean everything he’d just said. It was all too much. And yet, I gobbled his words up greedily.
“And maybe this makes me a selfish, deplorable bastard, but I would see the whole continent burn if it meant I got to spend one more night with you.”
Then he twirled his fingers inside me, and I shattered into a thousand jagged pieces. Wave after wave of exquisite pleasure barreled through me, and I squeezed my eyes shut. “I love you,” I croaked, my voice cracking on the words as I fought to maintain my composure.
For once, Kaden didn’t try to wring out my pleasure. He turned me around to face him, sloshing water over the rim of the tub.
His hand came up to cup my face, those silver-gray eyes wide with awe. “Say it again.”
“I love you,” I choked, hardly able to form the words around the heady fog of my orgasm.
A feral noise ripped from his throat as he gripped the backs of my thighs. In one rough motion, Kaden yanked me forward and thrust between my legs.
I gasped as my mate filled me completely, his cock pulsing against my walls. He was so deep, and when he started to move, my pleasure began to build anew.
Digging my fingers into his shoulders, I rode him hard, swallowing down a sob as I chased the next torrent of ecstasy. Sweat beaded on my chest, my breasts bouncing with every thrust. Kaden’s hands gripped me with bruising pressure, and I welcomed the sensation.
Water spilled onto the floor as I rocked against him, capturing his mouth with mine to deliver a punishing kiss.
Kaden groaned into my mouth, each of us swallowing down one another’s breaths as we came together in a rush of madness. I clenched around him as he roared his release, my heated skin tingling against the chill of the room.
When I pulled back to look at him, the prince’s eyes were hooded, and his mouth was stretched in a sated male grin.
“You love me,” he declared, dipping his head to press a tender kiss to my shoulder.
“Yes,” I whispered, brushing my thumb across his stubble as I tried to memorize the look in his swirling gray eyes.
There was no point in denying it. To admit that I loved him was a small thing compared to the terrifying reality I could no longer ignore.
I didn’t just love the demon prince. I belonged to him, body and soul.
Chapter
Thirty
LYRA
Iawoke the next morning tangled up with Kaden, a plan fully formed in my mind. Carefully disentangling myself from the prince’s long limbs, I slipped out of bed, dressed in my fighting leathers, and left him asleep in our quarters.
Moving silently through the fortress, I took the now familiar path across the narrow footbridge that separated the soldiers’ barracks from the princess’s private rooms.
