Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-six
Azurill
Any mention of Pearl Court and what happened there was pretty much guaranteed to put me in a dark mood. When Jacinth, of all people, brought it up, with her hauntingly familiar hair and eyes, it was nearly too much.
The lady managed to invoke so many emotions in me that I had no idea what to do with.
Watching Alwyn subtly flirt with her had made me want to ring his neck, even if she didn’t reciprocate.
His sapphire eyes and boyish hair had managed to lure many a maiden to his bed and he wanted to put those skills to good use when it came to helping me find the right wife.
It was his own way of testing their loyalty to me.
Watching him flirt with Amatista didn’t bother me at all, but with he turned his charms on Jacinth, I found myself imagining different ways to kill him. Some part of me clearly viewed her as mine, and since I still didn’t know what she was involved in, that was definitely concerning.
The only other competitor I really had as a backup if this blew up in my face was Sania, at least so far. Watching Alwyn flirting with her, I felt a twinge of annoyance, but nothing like when he aimed those deep-blue eyes of his at Jacinth.
And now here she sat, asking me about the biggest regret of my life. A dark mark on my reign that could never be erased.
I had no idea how to answer her, not when I refused to speak of that night ever again. So, I remained quiet, hoping she would turn the conversation in another direction.
“I should probably get this little one to bed,” Jacinth eventually murmured, watching Fiala with a quirk of her lips.
She was so beautiful that it was sometimes difficult to look at her. Watching her with Fiala was like watching a future I ached for, even if I knew the likelihood of it happening was small. I was supposed to be finding out what she was hiding, but all I could think about was the kiss we’d shared.
That night was etched in my memory in vivid detail, and I found myself desiring nothing more than to repeat it.
“Let me help you,” I told her, lifting Fiala so I could carry her back, her head resting on my shoulder as her messy, violet hair cascaded down her back.
I offered my free hand to help Jacinth up and then moved it to her lower back to guide her back to her rooms. It was too easy to imagine a future like this. Especially as we got to her rooms and laid Fiala down in her bed.
As my hand skated across Jacinth’s back, moving to tuck Fiala in, I heard her breath catch. I turned around to face her, and the look on her face was haunted, as if she’d seen a ghost.
“Are you alright, Mini-Dite?” I asked softly, but with enough humor, that she could brush it off if she wanted, or feel free to explain.
She laughed through her nose, looking up at me with eyes made of liquid pearl. My hand found its way to her cheek, her eyelashes fluttering closed as my fingers sank into her cotton candy-pink curls. I leaned in, brushing my nose across her cheek, gratified when she leaned into it.
Our lips were so close, the breath escaping through her lips teased mine. It was a tantalizing torture as she moved her face the slightest bit to the side, leaving me to find the corner of her mouth instead.
“Veri,” she panted, and my lips twitched.
Very-Full-of-Himself, but she was the only one I wanted full of me.
As she moved to escape me, I pulled her back sharply, her gasp of shock caught in my mouth as I crashed my lips to hers.
The moan she let out was one of both pleasure and torment, and I couldn’t agree more.
Whatever game lay between us, whatever untruths circulated, neither of us could deny the chemistry that pulled us together.
My tongue chased hers with a ferocity I’d never experienced before, desperate to taste and touch her in any way I could.
My hands slid down her curves to her ass, grabbing her and lifting her up.
I walked her out of the room, far away from little eyes and ears.
Our mouths barely separated as she wrapped her legs around me, her hands clutching my head to keep me in place.
As if I wanted to be anywhere else.
I took us to the sofa, my body following hers down until I was pressing her into it. My cock was so hard it could cut the diamonds I was known for, and I couldn’t help but thrust against the wet heat I knew was waiting beyond the underthings keeping her from me.
Her moan was music to my ears as she thrust back against me, and my hands flowed down her curves to where her dress was rucked up around her waist, finding her bare legs and running my palms down her thighs, then pushing them further apart so I would have no resistance to the paradise awaiting me.
“Azurill,” Jacinth moaned, throwing her head back as I thrust against her hard, kissing my way down her neck, nipping at the perfect, pale skin on offer, wanting nothing more than to mark it up and leave some trace of myself on her.
“Fuck,” she panted, and I looked up from her neck, smirking at her.
“Such language for a lady,” I teased, before nipping at her cleavage, drawing a breathy gasp from her plump lips.
“You like it.” She accused, fondly, if I wasn’t mistaken. My smile widened, and I looked into those glowing pearls looking down at me.
“Guilty.” I grabbed hold of her bodice with my teeth, dragging it down and exposing a gorgeous breast I needed to become intimately acquainted with.
I sucked her nipple into my mouth, and she clutched my head as she moaned once more, squirming against me and rubbing against my cock until I groaned from the exquisite torture.
“We—” She began, before stopping to let out a sharp gasp as I nipped at her, leaving her nipple sharp and swollen and beautiful.
“We shouldn’t.” She whispered, but her face told another story, and her leg curled around mine, pulling me tighter against her.
“We shouldn’t,” I agreed, nodding slightly. “But I can’t seem to help myself when it comes to you,” I admitted in defeat.
I’d slept with enough women to know the difference between simple lust and something else, and the attraction I felt now was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. It was just…more. On all fronts.
I didn’t just want to fuck her until she couldn’t walk, though I certainly did want that.
I wanted to talk to her for hours, until our voices grew hoarse and we knew everything there was to know about the other.
I wanted to unravel her secrets until her loyalty was completely assured.
I wanted to see another child in her arms, down the line.
I wanted more than I could rightfully claim at the moment, but I burned for it with an untamable desire, nonetheless.
Her eyes told me many things, but chief among them was that her desire for me was just as aching and desperate as mine own for her.
But they also revealed her conflict. I’d been playing these courtly games for years, and whatever game was afoot, I could tell she was starting to doubt her place in it.
Whatever Lord Carnelian had her doing, whatever lies she told—
“No matter what exists between us when it comes to truth and lies, Mini-Dite,” I said slowly, keeping eye contact as I hovered above her, “Tell me this is true.”
Her eyes clouded with worry, but she watched me with the seriousness my words demanded.
“You want this as badly as I do. For what exists between us to be real.” I laid it out there, watching her eyes widen before they softened, growing wet with unshed tears.
“Goddess help me,” she whispered, closing her eyes. When her lashes fluttered shut, a couple of rogue tears escaped, and I leaned down to kiss them off her cheeks. Her eyes opened once more, arresting me with their intensity. “Truth.”
My eyes flared in triumph at the confirmation, and I took her lips once more, running my tongue across her bottom lip until she let me back in, her tongue dancing with mine with the same grace she always danced with.
A loud knock sounded at the door, and I groaned into Jacinth’s mouth as we rocked against one another. I didn’t want to pull away, and hoped whoever it was would take the hint and leave.
Unfortunately, the knocking merely got louder until Alfrikr’s muffled voice came through the door. “Your Majesty.”
“What?” I snapped, glaring at the door and making Jacinth giggle beneath me.
I narrowed my eyes at her playfully, thrusting against her and making her giggle rapidly dissolve into a moan.
I smirked down at her, and she glared back at me, lifting her hips and circling them against my cock until I groaned, my head collapsing into her neck.
“Your Majesty, you have a meeting to attend.” Alfrikr cleared his throat pointedly.
“Fuck.” I swore at the reminder, panting against Jacinth’s skin.
“Sounds like you have to go,” she said lightly, but her frown was clear.
“You really think I’d just leave you like this?
” I murmured, my fingers trailing across her thighs until they reached the apex, her breath catching as they slid under her panties and found the wet paradise awaiting them.
I’m not sure who let out a louder noise of pleasure as my fingers circled her clit, two of them trailing up and down before circling her opening.
I thrust my fingers in quickly, even as Alfrikr knocked again.
“One minute!” I called back as my thumb circled her clit in time with the thrusting of my fingers, driving them into her hard and fast to ensure I got her off before I left. What kind of man would leave such a woman wet and wanting, after all?
“Az,” she moaned, hips rotating against my fingers as I drove her to the brink. “Fuck,” she grunted, her mouth pulling mine in for a rough, demanding kiss, the fire in it all-consuming, until I forgot about Alfrikr entirely and nothing mattered except her pleasure.
I could feel her walls fluttering, and crooked my fingers slightly, pressing against the wall inside her, and was rewarded with her tightening up before she released, her loud moans swallowed by my mouth as her orgasm crashed through her, coating my fingers.
I brought her down slowly, while her panting against my lips was rewarded with small kisses supped from her lips and light strokes of my fingers as she finished trembling around me.
Her hand came up to my cheek, and she brushed a kiss so soft and beautiful across my lips that I had to close my eyes against the breadth of feeling in it.
Of course, Alfrikr had to destroy the peace of the moment, banging obnoxiously against the door. There was no way he was clueless about what had just happened here, so I was going to have to smash his face in during training tomorrow in retaliation.
After sucking her divine nectar from my fingers, refusing to waste a drop, I lifted Jacinth and brought her to the bedroom.
I thought, not for the first time, that the red of Ruby Court didn’t truly suit her.
But with a last kiss, I finally dragged myself away from her and opened the door to the hall to glare Alfrikr down.
He glared right back, completely undaunted by my annoyance. “You have a meeting with the others to discuss plans for tomorrow. Get going.”
“What a way to talk to your king.” I joked, making him roll his eyes before pointing down the hall for me to leave.
I made my way down the corridor, only to stop short when I spied Sania walking towards me.
The sway of her hips was exaggerated by the gown she wore, which sucked her waist in tightly and left her breasts heaving over the top.
I found myself oddly unaffected by the sight, still wishing I could turn back around and spend the rest of the night between Jacinth’s thighs.
“Your Majesty.” She smiled brightly, but I could see the tension around her eyes. “I was hoping to see more of you today at the playground.”
“I apologize, Lady Sania.” I tried to smile charmingly, despite having the taste of Jacinth still on my lips. “I plan to spend a bit of time with each of you over the next couple of days while you’re with the children.”
The tension around her eyes softened, as did her smile.
She sauntered closer to me, and I fought the urge to back away so she wouldn’t smell another woman on me.
It would just be tacky to rub her face in it, potentially literally if the way she was looking at me was any indication of her intentions.
“I’m happy to hear that.” She placed a hand on my chest and looked up at me with twinkling orange eyes. “I feel like I can never get enough time with you.”
“A tragedy I’ll see about rectifying immediately, my Lady,” I promised with a smirk. “Unfortunately, I do have a meeting I need to get to, but I’ll be sure to stop by tomorrow.”
“You better.” She smiled saucily, running a finger from my chest up to my neck as she leaned in to whisper in my ear, “I’ll be waiting for you.”
She backed away slowly before slipping around me, leaving me with the odd feeling that she somehow knew what I’d been up to. She hadn’t been so direct before, and it felt like she was purposefully upping her game. As if she were feeling threatened.
I shook my head at myself. There was no way she could’ve known. Still, the thought wouldn’t leave me, even as I sat through our planning meeting and Arianell’s lecture about showing favoritism.
She wasn’t exactly wrong either. I needed to focus on giving equal attention to each lady in the competition. Even if I was dreading spending time with a few of them.