Chapter 17
Seventeen
KYRON
Ididn’t mean for us to end up like this: Raelle pressed between me and a ladder, and me taking all my rage out on her in a brutal kiss.
We were supposed to have a civilized conversation, work out our differences, and come to a compromise.
I’d spent all evening compiling my thoughts and sorting through the intense emotions to find even a seed of reason.
I was prepared for the battle ahead, but I felt my composure slip the second I laid eyes on the nightgown clinging to her curves.
Every carefully crafted argument became jumbled in my head.
My words were louder than intended, and I demolished the space we needed to talk things through.
Frustration mixed with lust fueled my every move, and it was a volatile combination. And now, I can’t stop.
My fingers release her hair and glide down the smooth skin along her neck.
I angle her head back further and my tongue slides against hers.
She tastes like sweet mint, and I can’t get enough.
I want to crawl inside her body, to consume her space, to feel her everywhere.
Her hips press forward, and the satin of her nightgown has her sliding across my cock.
My palm moves to the front of her throat, holding her in place. She sucks in a breath, breaking our kiss. I watch my thumb stroke the front of her neck, marveling at her soft skin and say, “You come in here acting as if you can stand the thought of my hands on someone else, Raelle.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes to be with you,” she says, her chest heaving as she tries to catch her breath.
I’ve memorized her body—the freckle under her right breast, the scar under her chin.
I can find her pulse without thought, and I know the spot to kiss that makes the sweetest whimpers leave her lips.
How could she ever accept it if I learned the secrets of someone else’s body, to place my hands and mouth on them? The thought sickens me.
I tear my gaze from my hand and meet her eyes. “You will do anything?” I ask, cocking an eyebrow.
“Yes.”
The hum of indifference that comes from me is a mask to hide my disappointment. That’s not what I want from her. I’m not after her reckless, blind love. We need hard lines, boundaries we will not cross, rules that keep what we share sacred.
I run two fingers over her bottom lip, enthralled by the way the plump, pink skin gives under my touch. “And what would you do during those nights that I’m with my wife?”
“It would be hard. I wouldn’t like it, but—” My fingers dip into her mouth, pressing on her tongue to hold in her lie. I don’t want to hear how she’ll deal for the sake of the kingdom, how she will not put up a fight for me when someone else stakes a claim.
“Suck.” She follows my order, hollowing her cheeks.
I lean in, pressing my body to hers while working my fingers in and out of her mouth.
My lips graze her ear, and my voice drops to a deep rumble as I say, “This is what I’d ask her to ask her to do to my cock.
I’d fuck my wife’s mouth with my eyes closed, pretending it’s you.
That’s what I’d need if I’m to create an heir with someone else. ”
Raelle groans in disapproval, and my body responds, grinding my pelvis against her soft stomach.
I ease my fingers from her mouth and drag them up the inside of her exposed leg.
When I reach her apex, I find the tops of her thighs wet with her arousal.
She is so responsive to my touch, so easy to please.
My fingertip slides along the seam of her, teasing her until her hips rock against my hand.
“What if my wife doesn’t get turned on by pleasing me?
It’s only fair that I try to meet that need for her, too.
I am nothing but a gentleman after all,” I say, pressing against her clit.
“Would it bother you knowing I’m touching her like this, working her close to her release so she could take me deep?
” Emphasizing my point, I sink a finger into her slick, warm center.
“You’re not playing fair, Kyron. I can’t think straight when you’re touching me like this,” she says with a moan as my thumb draws circles over her sensitive clit.
“You set the rules, princess. I’m simply out to beat you at your own game. Stop deflecting and answer the question. Would it bother you to know I was touching someone else like this?”
“Yes.”
I ease a second finger inside of her. My anger slips as I marvel in the feel of her and pick up the pace. “Why? Why does the thought of me with someone else get to you?”
Her cheeks burn red, and her teeth gnash together as she says, “Because you’re mine.”
I fuck her harder, wishing it was my cock moving in and out of her. The sound of us connecting over and over again fills the room with lewd noises. I can’t get enough of it. The way her body accepts me and enjoys my invasion is my one addiction.
“I’m yours?” I question with a growl. “Then why are you willing to settle for fractions of me? Why are you allowing an uncontrollable force to dictate your future with me? Why are you giving up so fucking easily?”
Raelle’s hips move in sync with my hand, pressing down, searching for the pressure she needs to lose herself. But I deny her. I won’t give in. She will not come until I have answers, and she discovers how wrong she is.
She groans in frustration and says, “I’m scared.”
“Of what?” I ask.
“Of making things worse. Of gambling with lives. Of having you completely ripped away from me. Of severing our bond. I don’t want to be too selfish and ruin all the good I still have.”
I take a step back, withdrawing my fingers from her.
I hold up the glistening digits and watch her essence slide down my skin.
“I need you to be selfish when it comes to me, Raelle. Those outside of this room can have the king, the general, the friend, but they don’t get all of me.
The lover, the husband, my demons—there’s not a part of me that isn’t yours.
I’ve given myself to you fully. That you’re willing to ration me out and settle for pieces of me guts me.
” I slide my fingers in my mouth and let her taste consume me.
All of her.
I selfishly take every single piece of her. And my heart fractured the moment she settled for less of me.
“I don’t understand,” she says, pushing away from the ladder and straightening her nightgown. “You would have shared those parts of me with Leif.”
I chuckle and shake my head. “No, I wouldn’t have.
I was strategizing from the moment we kissed.
You would have never slept with him. If you carried a child, it would be mine.
Leif could claim them as his to the kingdom, but your heir would be ours.
That plan doesn’t work so well in reverse.
Another person can’t claim your child. As far as the wife thing goes, a marriage bond is not as strong as a parah bond.
I was content with that notion until I learned I could have more.
I want it all, and I’m begging you not to give away the parts of me that I trusted to only you. ”
“Shit,” she says. The tears welling in her brown eyes tell me that my words have hit their mark.
She paces the room while running her fingers through the hair flowing over her shoulders. I stand back and give her some space to gather her thoughts.
“I didn’t take any of that into account. I just saw the problem and ran to find a way to fix it,” she says, shaking her head like she’s trying to rattle it into functioning properly.
I cross my arms and lean against my desk. “I know. I’ve been in that position before.”
She stops moving and faces me with concern written all over her beautiful face. “I’m so sorry I hurt you. Tell me what I can do to make this right.”
I hold my arms out to my sides, opening myself to her. “Come, take what’s yours. Be selfish with me and trust me when I say I’ll be selfish with you, too.”
“Be selfish with you,” she quietly repeats.
“Yes, extremely selfish.”
Raelle’s eyes darken with desire and her slender fingers move to her robe’s sash. The satin slips from her shoulders and drifts to her feet, leaving her wrapped in fine lace and form-hugging satin. Her eyes dart to the chair behind my desk and she says, “Sit.”
As I follow her order, I reach behind my neck and grab my shirt, pulling it over my head.
Lowering to my chair, I keep my gaze on her as she steps closer.
She stops between my legs and brushes her palm down the side of my face.
The innocent touch is enough to have my cock straining in my pants again.
“I’m really sorry,” she says, her voice soft with sincerity.
I don’t fight the cocky smirk that tilts one side of my mouth up. “Prove it.”
She bends to her knees and places her palms on my thighs.
They glide over the smooth leather of my pants until her fingertips tease the tie in the front.
She tugs the bow loose and looks up at me as she frees my cock.
Her hand wraps around me, and my eyes flutter shut.
Months. I’ve gone months without her touch.
It could have been years by the way my body responds to her.
I grow so hard in her hold that a groan of pleasure and pain slips from my mouth.
Plenty of nights have been spent with my cock in my hand, but nothing compares to this—her soft palm, her hold on me.
I grip the arms of my chair as her hand moves in long, fluid strokes.
The urge to lose myself is so intense that I stop breathing, battling to keep it at bay.
I’m not ready for this to end, not when it has just started.
“Do you feel how remorseful I am?” she asks, her breath flowing over the damp tip of my cock.
I slide my fingers through her hair and gather it at the back of her head. Pressing down, I move her face closer. “Open for me,” I demand.
Her tongue darts out and sweeps up the underside of my shaft.