TWENTY-SEVEN
I made it to the top of the tower stairs before realizing he wasn’t running.
A hunter who’d cornered his prey, his steps were slow and sure. Each one made my heart jump higher as I fumbled with the brass handle and pushed open the door.
As soon as his shadow filled the doorway, I asked, “What did you do to me, Atakan?”
“We made a blood-binding deal.” He closed the door. “Now, remove the gown.”
Intentionally, I retreated toward the bed. “Remove your pants.”
He kicked off his boots, then leaned against the door. He simply waited, oozing control although his erection bulged his tight black pants.
I stood before the bed. With the exception of my chest rising and rising, neither of us moved.
The meager light from the sconces on either side of the bed cast half of his divine features in shadow, the other half in a stark glow that illuminated the changing hue of his eyes.
Energy gathered as if a storm crept into the bedchamber, and when I lifted the gown over my body, letting it fall through my fingers to the floor, it cracked.
Atakan was on me before I could see him move. Over me before I could reclaim the breath robbed from my lungs.
He pulled me up the bed with ease while I fought the urge to snatch his face and kiss every cruel inch of it. A low sound rumbled within his chest, drawing my eyes to the glimpse of it through his loosened tunic ties.
I wanted that sound against my mouth. Wanted it drowning out the ringing pulse in my ears as he took me. My legs curled around his back. His eyes met mine, a warning within.
Smiling, I ignored him. He’d done this to me. Now, he could damned well fix me.
I pushed my feet against his ass.
Of course, he was far stronger than me. But he allowed it, and lowered his body between my thighs. He rolled his hips into me and hissed. “Fuck.”
Though he was fully clothed, the press of him against my core engulfed me in torrential flames.
The need to rut, to have him fill me, was so acute that I couldn’t help it—I pleaded, “I don’t know what tricks you’ve pulled this time, but I need you.” Desperate, I groaned, “Right now.”
“Say that again, and I’ll give you what you need.”
I fisted his tunic, drawing us nose to nose, and nipped his upper lip. “I fucking need you.”
His tunic ripped as he quickly rose to tear it off before shoving down his pants. They made it over his ass only, and then he was pushing into my body.
My back arched.
We both groaned in relief as he breached my opening. Then slowly, his entire cock invaded me. He collapsed over top of me, face buried in my neck.
Breath escaped us in wild bursts as we just lay there, delirious and relieved.
“Prince.” I twined my legs around him again. The question came airless—choked. “What in the skies have you done?”
“You did this.” He grunted, then trembled when my fingernails dug into his smooth back. “And there’s no changing it. Believe me, I’ve tried.”
He didn’t give me the chance to ask what he’d meant. To speak at all.
And I was beyond caring when he rocked his hips. Every lazy thrust created an overflow of sensation. Pleasure careened through me. Too fast. Bubbling over.
Rapidly and violently, I came undone, fingers scraping down the back of his arms.
Snarling softly, Atakan pushed onto his forearms. Blazing green eyes watched me twist beneath him. Arch into him. Then he tipped his head back and groaned. Veins corded in his neck and along his upper arms as he stilled and shook and emptied inside me.
But whatever spell had trapped us wasn’t broken yet.
I could have wept as the prince began anew.
He pushed his hand over my stomach, between my breasts. “These fucking tits.” Eyes stuck to them, he leaned over me and deepened his thrusts until they rose toward his mouth with my curling back.
His teeth stole my nipple. Biting and pulling, he rumbled his approval when my fingers sank into his soft hair.
He drew away as his thrusts gained speed, his teeth bared. Over and over, his muscles straining and his nostrils flaring, he pounded into me relentlessly until climax claimed us again.
I’d have thought it a wild dream if it weren’t for the overwhelming pleasure that seemed to never end.
We refused to let it.
After removing his pants, Atakan lifted me onto my shaking hands and knees, my hair gathered in his fist. Looming behind me, he tugged until he could lick my jaw while he fucked me so deeply, his arm banded around my waist to hold me up.
But when our next climax struck, we both fell. He ended up on his side, leaving me tangled beneath him.
Crawling free, just enough to turn over, I wrapped my hand around his wet and half-erect cock. It hardened fully, and not a ruptured breath later, he climbed between my legs.
He leaned on an elbow to watch as I urged him back inside my body. When his gaze met mine, something passed through the changing hues of his eyes. He lowered, and I thought he might finally kiss me.
“I can’t stand it,” he said, voice hoarse. “Can’t stand how fucking good you feel.” Forearms braced beside my head, he bit my lower lip, then lapped at it so tenderly, I climaxed again. He shivered with me, licking my mouth while I mewled and writhed into every slow thrust. “Can’t stand how making you come feels like the only victory I’ll ever need.”
I hadn’t enough sense to be irritated by those words.
He’d created an ache that only he could quell, and by the skies, all I wanted was more. More aching and more satiating. More of the sounds of our coupling and heavy breathing and thunderous heartbeats.
Pain mingled with infinite pleasure when his teeth sank into my throat, and he drew blood. Yet I tilted my head to give him better access.
Only for him to stop fucking me.
I was about to beg him to move or push him to his back to take what I needed, but he captured my face in his hands.
He held me trapped as his blood-covered tongue dragged over the center of my throat to my chin. He nipped it, tilting it down, then licked my upper lip. My lower lip was next—my entire mouth painted in my blood by his tongue.
My fingers clasped his face to push him away, to return more air to my lungs. Instead, they roamed the skull-sharp crests of his cheeks, prodded the exact spot where his dimple hid.
Atakan froze, and I expected he’d put an end to my exploration as I traced the perfect bow of his lips.
He didn’t. But he bit my finger, earning a smile that quickly fell when he slowly moved. He withdrew his cock from my body, then struck deep and precise.
My fingers slid from his face.
He growled, disapproval furrowing his brows.
So I put them back but moved one hand down his neck to touch his Adam’s apple. It bobbed when he swallowed, and when his pace increased, I felt his rumbled groan vibrate against my fingers. Then, pulling him closer, against my mouth and tongue.
He nudged me away, ordering, “Let me see.” As if thinking I would defy him, he took my cheek to hold me still as rapture swept through me in another mind-emptying rush. “I need to see what I’ve reduced you to.”
His fingers crept to my mouth, then inside it.
Feral delight shone in his eyes. Twin emerald jewels. They held me hostage as he pounded into me. As he pried my mouth open with his fingers and growled into it, “Mine.”
He sucked my tongue between his teeth before I could question what he’d said.
I wouldn’t have been able to anyway.
Yet again, I came undone, all breath and thought and strength drained from me. The room twirled as if I were on the cusp of vanishing, fire-touched darkness flickering.
Fingers squeezed my chin. “Breathe for me, dread.” Atakan exhaled into my mouth. His pace turned frenzied, the bed frame protesting. “Only for me.” Then he tensed.
A strangled and gasped sound left him. It entered my mouth as he jerked into me. He kept it open and covered by his, my body trapped beneath his, and stole each breath until I wasn’t sure why I needed them. Why I needed anything more than this.
Than this horrid and addictive creature.
As he trembled and twitched, I drowned beneath him. I was brought back to the surface by the ridges of muscle under my roaming fingers at his back, the way each touch made him tremble more.
Then cold washed over me, and I blinked up at the dark canopy of the bed. Had I the energy, I feared I would have mewled in dismay when he left me. But he didn’t entirely.
On his stomach between them, fingers gripping my flesh, he opened my thighs wide.
He looked up at me, at the blood on my swollen lips that trailed toward my breasts, then back between my legs. “Never have I seen a better sight.”
He turned me onto my stomach. Strong hands kneaded my ass. Bruising fingers squeezed it, and I moaned. He released one cheek. Teeth sank into it at the same time two fingers slid inside me from behind.
Gasping into the twisted bedding, I began to shake.
His teeth left my ass, but his fingers didn’t. “Push up onto your hands.” He dug those fingers into my flesh, keeping me from rising onto all fours. “I’m going to fist my cock, and you’re going to stay right there, seated on my fingers until you make yourself come.”
I moved my hips until his fingers were rubbing against perilously swollen tissue. Unable to rise too high, I rocked over them. I circled my hips and tilted back and forth.
He curled them and stroked exactly where I needed. Over and over, he petted me like a good little pet until I was rendered useless, awaiting the crest of release and breathing noisily through gnashed teeth.
A knock pounded on the door. Urgent.
“Ignore it,” Atakan whispered. “And don’t make a fucking sound.”
I needed more. “I want you,” I whispered, rocking faster, getting so close yet not nearly satisfied. “Atakan, please.”
He cursed and removed his fingers.
Before I could turn my head, he’d lifted my hips and impaled me from behind once again.
He kept me from falling forward by snaking his arm over my chest to cover my mouth. His own warmed my shoulder blade. Teeth pinched my skin hard enough to draw more blood. Leisurely, he lapped at the droplets while he circled his hips.
I clenched, muscle seizing.
He failed to trap his groan, and his attempt created a low rumble that pushed me over the precipice.
My knees weakened.
He held me against him. His fingers grasped my face and his arm braced around my breasts. It caused his cock to slip from my body. He jerked, spilling his seed onto the bed between my thighs as he smothered my cries with his mouth.
But whoever knocked earlier had returned.
The fingers at my cheek and chin loosened when another knock came. Followed by another and another.
Atakan licked the roof of my mouth and my cheek before his hooded eyes absorbed my dazed state. Then he eased me down onto the bed.
Reality was too slow to return.
As it did with the sound of Atakan pulling on his pants, I blinked at the soiled bedding. Feathers floated from a torn pillow, and scratches decorated the prince’s broad back.
The faerie in me purred at the sight of them, disgustingly pleased, and my suspicions became an alarming and undeniable knowing.
“Atakan.” My voice croaked. “Tell me what really happened.”
He halted before the door.
Without looking at me, he dragged his hand through his hair, pushing it back over his head as he exhaled roughly. “We mated.”