Chapter 33
ARIEL
O nce I could no longer hear my heartbeat pounding in my ears, I took a deep breath and pushed off the wall to leave the safety of the bathroom I’d hidden inside. It was time to put an end to this charade. My fingers grazed the hilt of the blade beneath my layered skirt as I steadied myself for what needed to be done.
Mustering all the strength and self-assuredness I could, I pulled open the door, but a shadow swallowed up the exit as a large silhouette filled the gap. Even shrouded in darkness, I recognized him. Hemming stood before me, body tense and undoubtedly filled with anger at what he’d just witnessed.
And I could not afford for him to be there.
I stepped toward him, his name on my lips, but before I could speak, his cool hand clamped over my mouth and he pushed me back into the depths of the tiny room until my back hit the stone wall. He kicked the door, leaving us in near darkness, save for the sliver of light that spilled in through the tiny crack that remained. Frustration built inside me until his body pressed against mine.
My body went still—except for my ragged breathing.
“Tell me what happened?” he asked in a low voice as he pulled his hand away.
“I just had to get away from him,” I said, trying not to shudder. “I told him I needed to freshen up before we could…” I was grateful for the darkness, because I would not be able to stand the look I knew was in Hemming’s eyes. How much he loathed what I had to do. And how much it terrified him. His lack of response did nothing to assuage my concern. “I know I need to do this, Hemming—and I will—but every time he touches me, my skin crawls and my stomach roils and all I want to do is get away from him as fast as possible and erase the memory of his hands on my body by any means necessary. I even tried imagining it was you...”
A low growl echoed through the room, and I looked up to find his face so close to mine that, even in the darkness, I could see something dark and dangerous swimming in the depths of his pale grey eyes. “I know this is not the time, but I cannot bear this anymore,” he said in my ear. His voice was low and gravelly and strained, and as he shifted his body, I felt his arousal hard against my hip.
My breath caught in my throat. “Can’t bear what?”
His fingertip trailed along my collarbone to the base of my throat as he stared at my lips. “Watching him touch you—watching him undress you with his eyes while you smile—and pretending that I don’t want to do those same things. That I haven’t wanted to for as long as I can remember.” My heart rammed against my ribcage. “Do you like how I touch you?” His eyebrow quirked, and the darkness in his stare deepened in the most delicious way. “How I make you feel?”
“Yes,” I replied, my voice breathy as the word escaped.
His other hand stroked lightly along my bare side, leaving a trail of fire in its wake. A single finger traced the low waist of my skirt, dipping just below the silken fabric. “Do you want me to touch you?”
I swallowed hard, and his palm flexed against my throat. “Yes…” Another rumble escaped his chest, the vibration of it reverberating through my body in the most seductive way, and I nearly came undone right then. I knew that we were being reckless—that this was a dangerous game to play—but every part of me craved him in a way that defied reason.
And when he pulled me closer still and I felt his desire pressing against me, all reason fled.
“Where? Here?” he asked as his wandering hand grazed the sensitive skin just below my breast.
I barely exhaled my response. “ Yes …”
“What about here ?” he asked as his palm pressed flat against my belly and drifted lower over my skirt. The pressure between my legs built to an uncomfortable level as his touch grew closer and closer. But his taunting hand deviated left, headed for the scandalous slit in my dress instead of where I silently begged to be touched.
The keening sound I let loose in response brought a wicked smile to his face.
“I’ve been wondering something since you walked into the ball this evening,” he said as his fingers trailed up my thigh beneath the dark blue fabric.
“What’s that?” I whispered.
His soft lips brushed against my ear again, and fire surged between my legs. “What you’re wearing beneath this spectacle.” He pulled away just enough for me to see the hunger in his stare. It only ignited my desire further.
I pressed forward against the hand on my throat, emboldened by the heady feeling coursing through my body.
“ Nothing .”
The hand on my thigh stilled. “Tell me you’ve dreamed of this moment,” he said, the rasp in his voice illustrating just how hard he was fighting to hold on. “That you’ve fantasized about my lips exploring every inch of your skin. My hands all over you—inside of you. That you’ve touched yourself and called my name as you unraveled just thinking about it…”
His hand slipped a little higher beneath my skirt, and my chest heaved as my heart raced in anticipation.
“So many times…even when I shouldn’t have. Even when I thought you wanted to kill me.”
That damned hand stilled again, and I wriggled under the weight of his touch, trying to force him to where I wanted him to be— needed him to be.
“But I never wanted to kill you,” he reminded me as his head dipped low enough to skim his lips along my neck to the swell of my breast squeezing out from the tight leather bodice. His teeth grazed the tender flesh on display, and he nipped hard enough to make me suck in a breath. “I wanted to do this instead.”
He quickly captured my wrists, then slowly raised my arms above my head and pinned them against the cold stone before returning a hand to my inner thigh. It began stroking lazy circles up that sensitive skin, and in that moment, it was all I could think about.
“Now, little dragon,” he whispered, voice low and husky in my ear, “spread your legs for me.”
Without hesitation, I slid my foot across the marble floor until my feet were hip width apart—as far as they could go with Hemming holding my arms above my head.
My obedience was met with a small growl of approval. “ Good girl ...”
Every inch of my body went taut with anticipation as his fingers slowly began to work their way closer. I arched off the wall as my eyes slammed shut and a strained whimper escaped me. “Hemming….please...”
“Open your eyes.” I forced them open to find his only inches from mine, a pale glow emanating from them. “I want them on me. I want my face to be the only thing you see as your pleasure builds until you can’t hold on any longer. Until it finally breaks. I want my image seared into your memory, now and forever. Do you understand?”
“ Yes ,” I replied, the need in my voice palpable.
“Then I think it’s time to give you what you want.”
Before my brain could process his words, his finger gently brushed between my legs, and I bit my lip to keep from crying out. My thighs twitched and my hips bucked as that finger moved in tiny circles against my sensitive skin, slowly widening its path with every pass until my breaths came in deep, rhythmic pulls. He leaned his hip against me to hold me still as his fingertip stroked over my opening, and it was all I could do to weather the torment he’d awakened deep in my core.
“Tell me what you want,” he said in a dark and demanding tone that nearly sent me over the edge. “I need you to say it, Ariel.”
“I want you inside me. Now .”
Even in the darkened room, I could see the wicked approval in his smile. “That’s my mikros drakos …”
I gasped as he slipped his finger deep inside of me, then withdrew it slowly. The desperate sound I made in response should have made me blush, but I was beyond caring. Nothing mattered but the feel of that finger sliding in and out of me and the warmth building between my legs.
“ Hemming …” I breathed as my body rocked in time with his hand. His grip on my wrists tightened as I struggled against him in a weak attempt to get free. I wanted to touch him. To kiss him. To reach down his pants and grip the length of him so he could feel the way I felt in that moment. But he’d pinned me in place to keep me from doing just that, because this wasn’t just about our pent-up frustration—it was a claiming.
And something about that sent the pressure in my core to the breaking point.
His movements slowed in response to the moan I let loose as I hooked my leg over his. “Not yet,” he said in a tone so low, I barely heard his words over my ragged breathing. “I’m not done with you yet.”
“I can’t…it’s too close.” Against my will, every muscle in my body tightened, and I clamped my thighs together with his hand trapped between. “Hemming!”
His lips crashed against mine, swallowing my cries as my body rocked and convulsed with reckless abandon in response to that sensation—trying to release it and keep it simultaneously. Hemming’s body pressed so close to mine that I could hardly breathe, but I didn’t care. As long as that rush of blood was coursing through me, nothing else would ever matter again.
The moment he pulled away from me, my body ached to follow.
“You should get back before you’re missed,” he said as he slowly withdrew his finger, sending an aftershock through my core, “though I would much rather stay and continue this.” He released my arms, and I pressed against the wall to steady myself on spent legs. His mischievous smile returned. “Or maybe it’s best that we can’t. I’m not sure you’d survive it.”
“I can survive anything,” I said, a little too breathlessly to be convincing, “even you.”
Heat quickly replaced the amusement in his eyes. He closed the short distance between us, then slowly slid the finger that had just been inside of me into his mouth. With a low growl, he sucked it clean, eyes gleaming as he loomed over me.
Every muscle in my core clenched with renewed need.
“I guess we’ll see about that soon enough,” he said as he turned to open the door. “And Ariel? If he tries to touch you like that while you’re on the balcony, kill him right there. I’ll handle the rest.”
I watched as he stepped into the firelit hallway and disappeared, leaving me panting, wet, and praying for the moment I could kill Vesstan, break the curse, free my father, and escape this strange island.