Chapter 80
Valen
“Fuck,” I cursed as Belle gasped in pleasure. She was so tight and wet, I felt like I’d been reborn. It had been half a century since I’d found true satisfaction in a woman, and even then, everything I’d had paled in comparison to her. To this.
This woman made me want to be a better man. Hell, she gave me hope that I could be a better man. I wanted to give her everything: power, her freedom, the world, and yet it would still not be enough.
Could I ever be enough for her? It was a dizzying hope, one I couldn’t let myself have.
I gripped the bookshelf, one hand cupping her ass as I drove deep into her, chasing the desire I’d so long forgotten. She was slick around my cock, bucking against me, claiming me with an eagerness I never expected.
“I don’t know how much longer I’ll last,” I gritted out between thrusts.
“Me neither,” she panted, cheeks flushed, her lips parted as she rode my cock like a goddess. She was so damned beautiful.
My little vixen clenched around me, her head tipping back as her pleasure broke. The sight of her coming undid me.
I roared as something erupted through me in convulsions that racked my body and left me spent. Each pulse of my cursed heart left me dizzy and breathless. I pressed my forehead to hers, our exhales filling the absence of words.
She curled her arms around my neck and gave me a lazy smile. “I’ve never felt that before.”
Before.
The word sank its teeth in. I wasn’t one to judge a woman’s choices about chastity. I suspected that Belle had been with a man or two, and that was her choice, but even so, I wanted to track each one of them down and murder them. Would I do that? Probably not. Would I fantasize about doing it?
Most certainly.
I’d always been a jealous bastard, but with her I’d become unhinged, and with my dragon closer to the surface than it ever was, it was becoming more difficult to tame the beast inside me.
I pressed a kiss to her cheekbone. “I haven’t felt such pleasure since I was cursed. It’s never been like this.”
Belle quirked her slightly swollen lips. “I find that hard to believe with all the women at your disposal.”
There was laughter on her face, and beneath it, the sharp edge of a knife.
My princess was jealous. Fuck yes. I wanted her to be.
My cock stirred, and I grinned, kissing her, biting at her lip. “I’ve been with plenty of women, princess, but you are nothing like other women. You’re like no one on earth. You’re captivating. Maddening. And everything I want.”
She smiled, her lavender eyes dipping down. “You have me.”
The words sent a jolt of desire through me as powerful as the release she’d just given me.
“Though,” she said, sliding down my hips, “I could personally do with less of the temperamental, hot-headed king, if that was an option.”
“Is that so?” I slid my pants over my hips before I found myself trying to slip inside her again. “And here I thought it was my temper and arrogance that drew you to me.”
She fixed her skirts and scooped up the books that we’d knocked off the shelf, returning them to their rightful places. “No, Your Highness. It was your beasts that drew me to you, which, by the way, I am still furious about.”
I cocked one eyebrow at her as I stalked toward her. “Are you really?”
She leaned against the table and fisted my shirt, pulling me between her parted thighs. “Utterly furious.”
“Perhaps I should’ve left you to fend for yourself in the woods.”
“You’re doing yourself no favors.” She narrowed her eyes at me, but there was a slight curve to her lips.
She was a temptress like I’d never imagined. I couldn’t resist her, not with her sitting there, legs spread just enough to tease me. I’d meant to give her rest, to make sure she was ready for me when I took her again.
Instead, I slipped my hands under her dress and shoved her skirts up her thighs, my fingers grazing her warm, smooth flesh. “How ever did you fall for a beast like me?”
Her heart was racing, skin pebbling under my touch. I wanted to bury myself inside her, and judging by her scent, she wanted that, too—ready or not.
She pressed a hand against my chest, meeting my eyes. “Honestly?”
“I’m dying to know.”
I was dying to sheath myself between her legs.
I licked the pale skin just below her jawline, the steady rush of her blood a siren’s song.
I’d never take what wasn’t offered to me freely, but damned if it wasn’t at the forefront of my mind every second of every day.
My cock throbbed at the thought of her life force on my tongue, pumping through my veins.
“It was your kindness,” she said.
A bitter laugh rumbled low in my throat. “Or perhaps my integrity.”
I had little of either.
“You have a good heart, Valen, even if you cannot see that. Your people, your court, the beasts—you protect them all. You’ve given a place and hope to those that had none.”
She was deluding herself. No one thought of me as kind, but I wasn’t about to argue the matter.
Her hands had returned to the waistband of my pants, fumbling as she yanked them down. She glanced back at the cluttered table, then with a decisive swipe of her arm, she swept everything crashing to the floor.
I eyed the fallen books and papers with a hint of both surprise and amusement. “That’s not like you.”
She looked up at me with hooded eyes that glinted with mischief. “For some reason, I feel like being a wicked little vixen.”
Fuck. This woman was everything. How had I imagined a life without her?
“Well, in that case.” With one swift motion, I flipped her around and bent her belly first over the table, kicking her legs wide as I positioned myself with her center. “I’m going to take you like one.”
My wicked little vixen got what she wanted.
“Please, yes,” she whimpered.
I thrust into her, consumed by her slick heat.
So. Fucking. Good.
This time there was no gentleness to our lovemaking, only the need to chase this raw sensation that felt like fate.
I fucked her with abandon, the library an echo chamber for my groans, her panting, and the sound of skin slapping against skin as our bodies collided together in my fantasy come to life.
She gripped the table and arched her back, demanding more. I could do better.
Pulling out, I gripped her waist and dragged her to her knees on the library floor, folding her arms under her so her hips were lifted, her back arched.
Her glistening heat was enough to almost tip me over the edge.
She glanced back at me, breathless, and nodded—and the second I sank inside her, she moaned with pleasure.
With one hand splayed across her lower back, guiding my thrusts, I reached the other around and circled her clit with my finger as I angled myself upward, hitting that hidden spot.
She gasped, her mouth opening as a shiver trembled through her.
My only regret was that neither of us would last much longer.
Her gasps grew faster, her whimpers louder, as her flesh shuddered and tightened around my cock, drawing out my own release in a blinding wave that left me shaking. She screamed my name as her pleasure broke, her body convulsing as the aftershocks rippled through her.
After she’d returned to this world, I slid out of her and lifted her onto my lap, pressing a kiss to her lips.
She smiled at me languidly, her body spent as exhaustion threatened to claim her.
“I can’t lose you, Valen.”
Reality came crashing back, as frigid and as brutal as an avalanche.
I was a man, doomed. How many more moments like this would we have?
Refusing to let the curse taint the purest moment I’d ever experienced, I forced a smile and traced the curve of her jaw. “You won’t lose me, princess. I’m not going anywhere.”
It was a promise I had no right to make, but the selfish bastard in me would rather give her false hope than to see her hurt.
Perhaps false hope was what we both needed. Perhaps it was all we had left.