“I started killing at nine. Clevsin enjoyed his games, and I showed talent at them. Few of my victims deserved it.”
“I know,” she said. “But will you now tell me why you trusted me enough to try and crown me as Tetrarch last year, but didn’t mention this?”
His face was utterly remote. “You’d leave.” He said it as if it was only right that she did.
Her heart squeezed. “Never,” she returned his declaration. “I’m familiar with what people do for survival even if I was lucky enough to avoid the worst of it. You wouldn’t have escaped that manor if you had enjoyed what happened there.” She closed her eyes on a shaky sigh. “Do you doubt my judgment?”
“No.”
“Then, trust me when I say it.” Rearing back on her knees when he reached for her, she said it starkly, hungrily, and with all the faith she’d always had in him, “I love you, Kadra.”
Registering the stunned shattering of the void in his gaze, she stood and leaned over his seated form. “I would have loved you then, if I had known you.”
A rush of air left him. Disbelief. Relief.
Reaching between them, she undid the tie of his robe, letting hers slip down one shoulder. “And I’ll love you even if you fear to give me your burdens.”
She let her robe part and pool to the ground, baring herself to him. Longing and hunger drummed through her, echoed in the hungry flush sweeping his cheekbones. It deepened when she knelt between his muscular thighs. “Now, call me yours.”
Lips parted, pupils blown, he was a man undone. Tar-black eyes caressed her, painting her with gooseflesh. She moved an inch forward, gripping the thick stalk of his cock, her breath frozen at its zenith in pure anticipation. Breathing hard, they stared at each other.
“Mine.” His voice was low and deliberate, sinking into her bloodstream. Love and hunger, wine and lightning.
Her throat drew tight. “Now, don’t stop saying it.” She drew him into her mouth, glorying in his harsh groan, in the way his hips thrust to meet her mouth halfway. His fingers tangled almost desperately in her hair, pulling her in and down his length. She gripped his thighs, eagerly taking him deep to the music of his rough sounds of pleasure.
He slid and withdrew, murmuring hoarse words of affection, letting her lave him with her tongue. She burned with need, transfixed at his eyes, the broad expanse of his hair-dusted chest, the rich timbre of his voice.As potent as a god. She worshipped at his feet, hollowing her cheeks and relishing his filthy praise.
“Fuck, my beauty. Take a little more,” he ordered, his jaw like iron.
Senseless with arousal, she obeyed until he pried her loose with a groan, parting her swollen lips with his thumb. Locking an arm around her waist, he snatched her off the ground and settled her onto his lap.They moved as one, her thighs involuntarily straddling him, their bodies slipping against each other with need. His mouth cut off her gasp of pleasure.
Hands buried in her hair, he dragged her lips against his own, pupils bleeding into the black of his eyes. He took her roughly most days, knowing that she loved it, but tonight, he was near feral, palming her breasts, her ass, rocking her over his cock and leaving them both slick.
Her skin was fever hot as he pushed two fingers into her mouth and went heavy-lidded when she sucked on them. He kept them inside, drawing her breasts into his mouth as she needily tasted his skin. Hunger gripped her, drilled through her core when he removed his fingers and replaced them with his tongue. She writhed against him, returning his open-mouthed kisses, biting his neck, grazing her teeth over his chin, pushing down the shoulders of his robes. His teeth clenched, abs rippling when she drew her nails down them, curling them into his chest hair.
Lust-inked eyes trailed over her nude body. She moaned when he slid a finger inside her. “Ten fucking hells, you’re soaked.”
Another bitten-off epithet, and her head hit the bed. His tongue trailed down her abdomen, then parted her to lick deep, growling his approval when she gripped his hair and shamelessly used his mouth. He pressed her hips down, voracious, lost. She could see herself in the vanity, mouth swollen, eyes glazed with pleasure, praising him, desperate for him. Throughout it all, he watched her with such love, this fearsome man of hers.
Her pulse clamored through her veins, desperate for more. His mouth never stopped devouring, stubble scraping along her inner thighs with every flex of his jaw. All thought vanished as ecstasy boiled up in her core. Tremors sizzled down her legs, meeting in the middle, and she flew, screaming his name, while he nuzzled her through the aftershocks.
At least, until he flipped her onto her stomach, drew her knees in and made her sit on his face. Minutes and orgasms blurred until she slumpedface-first onto the bed, begging for him. He withdrew to push her to all-fours. His cock strained against his stomach. Biting off a curse, he stroked himself hard, teeth gritted.
She met his gaze over her shoulders. His eyes held a brazier’s heat. “Give me everything.”
His muscles bunched, shuddered. Then, everything left of his control vanished. Blanketing her with a curse, he fit his cock to her entrance and drove in, muffling her scream. He found the tender skin between her neck and shoulder and pulled it between his teeth, marking her as he drove ferociously, desperately.
A dark hum against her skin when she clenched around his girth. He interlocked their hands, shuttling further into her. She tossed her head back against his muscular shoulder, surrendering to the onslaught with pleas and whimpers, adoring his low groans of pleasure.
“Beautiful woman, letting me take you this hard.” Turning her head to face him, he took a drag of her mouth, his teeth clinging to her bottom lip, pressing her upper half down into the bed and giving her his weight. “You love this.Fuck, so do I.”
She couldn’t speak beyond moans, sensation holding her captive, so she simply arched her back. He sucked another mark into her shoulder, one hand coming under her stomach to stroke her as he thrust, thick and demanding. A cataclysmic claiming.
She half sobbed into the mattress at the repeated fullness, the slap of his body against hers, the desperate praise in her ears, the way he kept vowing that he belonged to her. His drives came at a vicious, hungry pace.
She was burning up, relishing his harsh grunts, the possession in his gaze. He moved in a frenzy, like a man fighting for sanity. “Fuck, fuck.I adore you.” Half declaration, half plea, the words left as a visceral, seething hiss. The dazed love in his eyes, the utter loss of control on his cruely hewn features, it was too much. She screamed his name, her body trembling, clenching around his until she was gasping for air, insensate. Her orgasm came on in fiery waves.
He hunched forward, wrapping his arms around her to thrust through her ecstasy. A slurred stream of filth and adoration left him as he stiffened. “FUCK,” he spat. “Sarai—” Her name ended in a clenched groan as his body shuddered behind hers, flesh jerking between her legs. He pressed her into the bed for a few deep,deepthrusts, flooding her with come.
