Chapter 34
T he moment he starts moving, my stomach tries to climb up into my chest, and every nerve ending in my body feels like it’s been set alight.
Rather than lay me atop the bed as I expect, he sits on the edge, settling me in his lap, one arm still around my back and holding me tight to him.
He grabs my chin, turning my face toward his.
His rapid breaths tease my senses as he runs his thumb down my lips, stopping at the shallow ledge of my chin.
“It’s dangerous for a king,” he says, “to love anything, to want anything, more than the good of his people.”
Love. My breath hitches.
His hooded gaze and the literal glow of emotion hold me in thrall. “You may yet be my undoing, but I’ve never desired someone more.”
Then his lips press against mine again, gentler than before but no less passionate. I wind my arms around his neck, holding on to him as he guides my back onto the bed and follows me down, covering my body with his.
His tongue flicks against the seam of my lips, and I open without question, eager to deepen the connection between us.
His hands trail up my sides. Desperately, I long for my clothes to be gone, to feel his hands against my skin.
He palms one breast, thumb grazing over my nipple through my clothes.
I buck my hips against his, earning a low groan of pleasure.
“Damned bandages,” he moans, breaking our kiss before scowling at his hand.
He bounds off the bed in a hurry.
“Elias?”
But his mouth is busy, teeth ripping at the bandage. “I want to feel you. Every curve, every divot, every sensitive spot. I want to discover them all.”
Those words fill my mind with images of him doing just that, and I nearly combust.
“I don’t mind a little blood,” I say.
A grunt of assent fills the air before he unwraps one hand in a hurry then the other. Elias shoves his hands in the pitcher of water he keeps in his room, dries them on a spare towel, and stalks back to the bed.
No new blood appears to well and fall from his wounds, and even if it did, it wouldn’t stop me from wanting those hands all over me. While he worked, I unlaced my boots and cast them off. Now I pull my shirt over my head and toss it away. Then the bra.
Elias stands transfixed at the end of the bed, his gaze darting to my breasts, down the slight curve of my stomach, and then back up again.
I have no hair to hide myself with, though the ravenous look in his eyes has me torn between that modesty and the burning desire to bare myself further.
He’s completely still, save for his white tail twitching eagerly behind him.
Of all the things, he brings his fingers to his mouth, chewing aggressively on his nails and watching me all the while.
“What are you doing?” This is not how I expected things to go.
He spits before wiggling his fingers in front of me. “Making sure these do not harm you.”
Oh God. My core clenches with need. He just bit off the jagged parts of his ruined nails, for me, so he could touch me without fear. I’ve never gone from weirded out to majorly turned on quite so fast.
I undo the ties on my pants in a hurry and then reach for the waistband.
“Stop,” he says.
I freeze. He plants one knee on the edge of the bed near my feet.
“I want the pleasure of removing the rest.” Spoken like a king who will not be denied.
The Unseelie King crawls up the length of my body. Another bloody cut mars his shoulder. He’s speckled with dust and dirt lingering from the collapse. But I’ve never found him more attractive. It only adds to his wild, feral look, which right now is incredibly enticing.
When our faces are level with one another, he cups my cheek. “Mine.”
He claims my lips before licking a path down the column of my neck. The slight coarseness of his tongue elicits wave after wave of feelings.
I know what’s coming, but I still moan as his lips close over my nipple.
His tongue is a maddening instrument of torture as it teases one pebbled bud to the point of aching before he releases it to lavish the other.
My hands wind through his long hair at the back of his head, holding on to him like an anchor in the storm he’s brewing.
I stroke my thumb along the edge of one furry ear, marveling at the different feel of it.
He shudders against me, releasing my breast with a pop and a deep groan from low in his throat.
The feral gleam in his eyes nearly makes me come all on its own, only worsening when he says, “Don’t make me come before I’m inside you.”
“I want you.”
A kiss against my belly button. “You’ll have me.”
“Now,” I whimper, grabbing a handful of his hair but careful to avoid his ears.
Elias chuckles against my skin, his lips on my lower abdomen as he slides the waistband of my pants down. He abandons his kisses to rise on his knees once more. This time, he hooks his fingers under both my pants and underthings, pulling them down as I help to shimmy out of them.
His chest expands on a deep breath before another shiver overtakes his form.
“You smell like an impossible dream.” He runs his fingertips from my knees down my thigh, eliciting a rush of gooseflesh along my skin.
“I never let myself hope too much, but I wanted this. I wanted you. Almost from the first moment we met. Even when you called me a monster.”
I spread my legs, giving him a clear view of my center.
He curses, running a hand down his mouth as he stares with blatant need.
“My monster,” I remind him.
“All yours.” He moves to kneel between my legs, his pants tented from the strain of his arousal.
I bite my bottom lip in eager anticipation as he palms my core. I buck against his hand. The feel of him touching me there sends little jolts of lightning racing under my skin.
“Fuck.” One freshly trimmed finger slides through my seam, caressing the sensitive flesh. “So wet for me.”
“Yes,” I pant. “Please, Elias.” I rock against his hand again, and this time, that finger slips inside me.
He groans in pleasure, eyes closing as he grips my thigh with his other hand, the pressure almost punishing. A second finger joins the first, and he pumps them slowly in and out of me.
“Elias,” I whine.
He opens his eyes, but his face turns hard and determined.
He doesn’t stop, doesn’t speak, just keeps fucking me slowly with his fingers.
And, oh, does he know how to use them. No wonder he took the time to stop and bite away his nails.
All rational thought flees. It’s just me gripping the sheets, head thrashing, and his fingers working my body into a fevered frenzy.
“Please.” I writhe, rocking to meet his every thrust. “I’m going to come. I can’t—” hold back.
I bite my lip, so close to utterly breaking. Still, his jaw is set, posture rigid, but his eyes…the glow spilling out of them is as bright as I’ve ever seen.
“Let me watch you come undone.” A third finger joins the other two, stretching me, hitting that spot deep inside.
I cry out as I shatter, clenching tight around his fingers. My thighs grip his arm as he draws out the waves of my release.
“Elias,” I sob.
And then he’s there, his body over mine, caressing my face, kissing my lips, and bringing me back to him.
“Beautiful,” he whispers against my skin. “Mesmerizing.” He kisses my neck. “Mine.”
“Yes. Yours.”
His body rumbles with something caught between a groan of pleasure and a purr.
Suddenly, I’m rolled onto my front, heated skin pressed against the cool sheets. I’ve barely registered the change when I feel Elias behind me, grabbing my hips and lifting my backside into the air.
“Elias?”
His touch vanishes. There’s a hasty rustle of fabric.
Then he’s back, one palm planted on my hip.
His knee nudges one leg wide. His warmth leaps to my sensitive skin, and I let out a gasp as I feel the head of his cock nudge my folds.
I try to twist, to look back at him, but that hand slides from my hips and up my back, pressing me down into the sheets.
The thick head of his cock is back, slicking through my wetness, readying himself.
No, this isn’t right. I want him, but— “Elias,” I plead. “Wait.”
His touch vanishes in an instant. A draft of air slips into his wake and tickles my skin.
I push up from the bed and manage to twist around while sitting up.
Elias has plastered himself against the far wall, eyes wide, breathing heavily. One fist is balled in front of his mouth. It’s the same horrified expression as the morning I woke him.
Oh shit.
“Elias. No, it’s fine.” I shimmy off the bed and race across the room to him.
With his back against the wall, there’s nowhere to go, but he manages to find a way to inch back from me anyhow. “You asked me to stop. Your voice was panicked.”
I close my hand over his balled fist and bring it down before cupping his cheek in my palm. “I’m sorry. I just didn’t know that’s how we were going to do it.”
“You have nothing to apologize for.” He leans into my touch, but otherwise does not move to embrace me, his body still glued to the wall. “I misunderstood. I thought when you said you wanted me, you meant that you wanted me to fuck you.”
“I do,” I reply.
His brow furrows. “Did I hurt you? Is that why you—”
“No,” I say quickly. “No, not at all. I want you, Elias. And I want you to fuck me.” Though saying it allowed is still terribly embarrassing. “But I want to be able to see you. Face to face.”
Understanding rolls over him like a wave, his drawn features smoothing out, his body relaxing from his stiff position against the wall.
Finally, he grabs my hips, drawing me to him. “That’s not the Unseelie way.”
I lean into his touch, stroking my hand down the planes of his muscular chest. “It’s my way. Please. At least this time.” I blink up at him. “I want to see you, just like you wanted to see me.”
“If that’s what you want, then that’s what you shall have.” Elias slides his hands down before hoisting me up off the ground.