why words that sound so very wrong feel so very right. But for now, my body obeys his order. I slide up over his chest, until I’m hovering above his scarred yet beautiful face. I pause to admire his chiseled jaw, the arrogantly perfect bone structure, the slash of bold brows.
“Ride me hard,” is all he says, before grabbing my ass and slamming me down on his hungry mouth.
My hips undulate, rocking my clit over his tongue, but this time I won’t take my pleasure alone. Reaching behind, I arch my back and grab his stiff cock in my hand. The tip is slick with precum and that helps my palm glide all the way to the root. He feels amazing and I increase the speed and pressure until he’s growling into my pussy.
Fair’s fair. If he’s my undoing, I am his. Together we might be a disaster, but we can build something beautiful with our bodies.
He jerks and I am so ready to feel his hot release, but that’s not what happens. Instead, he lifts me off him and swoops me down, gliding me over the length of his cock, thrusting against me even as he doesn’t penetrate. If I’d come hard before, it was nothing on these sensations. My pussy walls clench as he pumps his cock against me, driving his ass hard so that I’m bouncing. My breasts bob with the force of his sheer masculine virility.
“Fuck,” he grinds out. “Jesus. Fuck. Shit.”
I gasp, breath hitched, my throat so raw I couldn’t make another noise, even if I wanted. Why am I not stopping, coming off this peak? Surely the ecstasy must ebb, but it’s only growing.
Then he moves his fingers into the crease of my ass; I’m so wet that it’s even reached there.
He presses against my hole and I can’t believe what’s happening. I can’t believe that I am actually bucking into his touch, urging him on. When his finger is fully embedded into my backside, he takes his free hand and shoves it between my parted lips.
“Suck it,” he moans, and I do, reveling in the taste of his skin.
He’s filled every place that I have to be filled except the one that counts most. Then I’m on my back and he’s pressing my breasts together, around his hard cock, working himself in the crease.
“Princess, I’m going to come on you. I need to mark you, do you understand? I have to do this.”
I nod. For in some primal way, I do understand. Because I want to mark him, too.
I rake my nails along his spine and he comes in a thick hot spurt all over my chest. It’s a royal mess, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Afterward, we retreat to the small bathroom and slide into the steaming shower. For as depraved and ruthless as he was in the bed, now he couldn’t be kinder and more gentle. He takes the bar of soap and drops to his knees, taking his time, cleaning my legs and my aching sex. Then he rises, sudsing my stomach and then my breasts. It’s with some regret that I watch his semen rinse away. I feel like an addict, and Damien is my drug. I want all of him, every way he has to offer. And if he can never truly give me his heart, perhaps this overpowering physical connection will be enough.
And I’d believe the thought if not for the small, stubborn voice in my heart whispering But will it?
“A penny for your thoughts,” he says as he massages shampoo into my scalp.
“I’d expect a prince of Edenvale to be able to afford a bit more than that,” I tease.
His chuckle is low and husky. “This prince would ransom his kingdom to spend another hour with you the way we just were.”
“You’ve been with many women,” I say, hesitantly.
“Not like that.”
“Your first love, Victoria. You were with her like this?” I say the words casually even as they seem to paper-cut my very soul.
“Why do you ask?” His gaze locks to mine as he rinses my hair.
“You loved her. She was your woman. You had sex with her. For Victoria you weren’t some Backdoor Baron. You were Damien. I guess... I’m curious.”
“You know what they say about curiosity,” he mutters.
“It killed the cat?”
“I’m just saying, be careful what you wish for. You’re my lawful, wedded wife. If you are in truth asking to know about Victoria, I will tell you the story. But fair warning, some things, once heard, can never be taken back.”
My next breath is shaky, but my back remains unbowed. “Tell me. Tell me everything.”
Damien
SINCE HER DEATH, I have spoken to no one of my affair with Victoria. Yet I cannot seem to say no to the would-be Nightgardin queen—my wife.
“When it happened,” I start, “my father would hear nothing from me other than the admission that it was true—that I had not only caused the death of another, but that I had planned to steal her away from my brother.”
We lie naked in one of the tiny beds, I on my back and Juliet along my side, her soft breasts pressed against my healing ribs. This way I do not have to see her expression as I reveal the worst of myself.
“Because of jealousy?” she asks, caressing the skin on my chest with the featherlight touch of her fingers.
“No,” I say with mild force. “It wasn’t that at all. Yes, I was envious of Nikolai. He had everything. It was all just handed to him—the looks, the charm, the women. He could have had anyone he wanted. Anyone. But when my father married Victoria’s mother, Adele, and the two came to live at the palace? He suddenly had eyes for no one other than her.”
Juliet clears her throat, and her soothing touch ceases. “But—she was your stepsister.”
I nod. “That was no matter. Once Adele saw that the prince—the heir, no less—had taken a liking to her daughter, it took her no time to convince Father of the match. After all, if Adele was queen, what better way to strengthen the Edenvale bloodlines but to have a second generation match as well?”
I twirl a long damp strand of Juliet’s hair around my finger, but it does nothing to distract me. I know that I am here with her, in this strange place I still cannot believe exists. Yet at the same time I’m taken back six years to when I thought anything was possible. Now, of course, I know what a fool I was.
“Queen Adele,” Juliet says softly. “She is the one who imprisoned Kate and tried to force your brother to marry that baroness from Rosegate.”
“Yes. The family believes it wasn’t just her attempt at revenge on Nikolai—whom she blames for not keeping Victoria safe. Father, my brothers and X all believe it is somehow connected to your country’s attempt at infiltrating the palace.”
I feel her muscles constrict at the accusation.
“I’m sorry,” I tell her, and she relaxes against me. “I did not mean to—”
“Just
