Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
W hen we finally return to Draven’s rooms, it feels as if I have a thrashing lightning storm raging inside my body. There is too much outrage. Too much anger. Too much frustration. Too fragile hope. It’s just… too much.
“Are you okay?”
Whirling around, I find Draven standing only a step away. His golden eyes gleam in the faelights as he studies my face intently, as if trying to read the answer to his question there.
“What do you think?” I retort.
He doesn’t get annoyed by my curt reply. Instead, he just reaches out and removes the iron collar from my throat.
A sigh of relief escapes my lips as that cold feeling disappears from my throat, and magic and strength flood back into my body. I run a hand over my throat while Draven sets the collar down on the low table by the couches next to us.
That storm of emotions tears through my soul again.
Anger crackles inside me. I just spent an hour on my knees next to Draven’s chair, watching Isera and Alistair be humiliated by the Icehearts. And before that, I crawled across the floor and licked his boots in front of the entire banquet hall.
It all hits me too hard and too deep and I just… snap.
Twisting towards Draven, I give him a hard shove. “How could you let them do that to me?”
Since he was still half bent over from placing the collar on the table, the shove actually makes him stagger to the side. He blinks, looking genuinely surprised, as he straightens and turns to face me.
I shove him in the chest again. “How could you do this to me?”
This time, since he’s standing upright, the shove does absolutely nothing to push him back. Which just infuriates me even more. I slam my palms against his armored breastplate in frustration while my voice rises to a shout.
“You made me kneel and crawl and lick your fucking boots!”
In a flash, his hands wrap around my wrists, stopping them before I can try to shove him back again. But there is no anger on his features. Only resignation.
“You know why I had to do that.” His eyes are serious as he holds my gaze. “Why we had to do that.”
“I don’t care! It was the most humiliating thing I have ever had to do.”
He clenches his jaw as I yank and struggle like a feral animal against his grip on my wrists. With a sigh, he suddenly takes a step forward. And since he’s still keeping my wrists in a firm grip, it forces me to move back. A snarl rips from my throat, and I struggle even harder.
“Stop fighting,” he presses out while still trying to keep a grip on me. “You?—”
“Stop fighting?” I scream back at him. “I will not?—”
He pushes me up against the wall, which surprises me enough that I cut my sentence off halfway through. I hadn’t realized that we had moved so far.
Draven moves my hands away from his breastplate and instead pins them against the cool ice wall on either side of my head while he presses closer to me and braces his knee against the wall between my legs. My heart pounds in my chest as I stare up at him.
“This armor is made of dragon scales.” He locks commanding eyes on me. “You’re going to shatter the bones in your hands before you ever make a dent in it. So yes, stop fighting. Rin Tanaka is with her own clan, in their home, which is halfway across the continent. So if you break your hands, there is no one here who can heal you.”
My chest heaves as I glare back at him. But as much as I hate to admit it, he does have a point.
Forcing out a long breath, I try to bank the burning fury inside me. It only partially works. I flex my fingers and then drag in another deep breath.
Draven still doesn’t release me. He keeps pinning my hands to the wall. And his knee remains braced against the wall between my legs as well. Because of how close he’s standing, the position of it makes me almost ride his thigh. The feeling of his body pressed against mine like this makes a surge of burning desire course through me. Which is incredibly frustrating when I’m trying to be angry at the infuriating bastard.
“Do you have any idea how humiliating that was for me?” I demand, trying to ignore the fire in my veins.
“I know.” He clenches his jaw for a second, as if he is fighting the same fury and outrage as I am. “But it still doesn’t change the fact that we had to do it. For your own safety.”
“Easy for you to say. When was the last time you knelt in front of someone?”
“Over two hundred years ago. When I swore my allegiance to the Icehearts.”
“Exactly. You don’t kneel for anything or anyone, so how could you possibly know how I felt?” Yanking against his grip again, I swallow down a flash of lingering humiliation as I press out, “They laughed at me. The courtiers in the room, they laughed at me.”
“I know,” he repeats, the words coming out more like a growl. He flexes his hands around my wrists and clenches his jaw again before fixing me with a stare full of deadly promises. “I marked each and every one of their faces, and I swear to you, I will make them all crawl before the week is over.”
My heart flips and my mouth drops open a little. He would actually do that? He would hunt down and humiliate members of this court just because they laughed at me?
“I know you hate me because I made you do that,” he says, his intense eyes still locked on me. “So how is this for revenge?”
I frown in confusion, but before I can reply, he releases my wrists and straightens. My heart slams against my ribs as he just stands there, watching me, for a second.
Then a gasp escapes me when Draven lowers himself to his knees.
“You’re right,” he says, tilting his head back so that he meets my gaze. “I kneel for nothing and no one.” His golden eyes burn like flames, searing right through my soul. “But for you… For you, I would kneel.”
I drag in an unsteady breath. My mind is spinning and my heart is beating like a battle drum in my chest. Draven Ryat, the Shadow of Death, leader of the feared Black Dragon Clan and the Commander of the Dread Legion, is on his knees before me.
“And as for making you lick my boots,” he continues, a sly smile now playing over his lips. “Allow me to settle that score as well.”
My heart skips several beats, and then pounds twice as hard to make up for it, when Draven slides his hands up my legs, pushing the flowing silver skirt of my dress upwards. Lightning crackles through my veins as his hands roam across my bare legs and up towards my hips.
I gasp as he curls his fingers over the top of my panties.
With his eyes still locked firmly on mine, he begins sliding my panties down my thighs.
The feeling of that soft, thin fabric brushing against my heated skin makes a moan build inside my throat. I throw my head back and suck in a shuddering breath. Draven guides my panties down over the thickest part of my thighs. Then he releases them. They slide right down my legs and hit the floor.
Draven takes my ankles in a firm grip and lifts my legs one at a time, making me step out of the discarded garment. The feeling of his commanding hands around my ankles makes another surge of burning desire course through me. Dragging in a deep breath, I tilt my head back down to meet his gaze again.
Still on his knees, he holds my gaze with gleaming eyes for a second. Then he slides his hands back up my left leg. With a firm grip, he lifts my leg and drapes it over his shoulder. My pulse is thrumming in my ears. This close, and with my leg up like this, I can almost feel his warm breath against my now completely exposed pussy.
There is a devilish smile on his mouth when he looks at me as he adjusts his position and then leans forward.
A gasp rips from my throat as he flicks my clit with his tongue.
Throwing my head back, I brace it against the cool ice wall behind me and press my mouth shut to stop a moan from escaping my lips.
Draven draws his tongue along my pussy with a slow luxurious stroke and then swirls it around my clit.
A jolt shoots through my spine, and I squirm against the wall.
While still teasing my clit with his tongue, he slides his hands up to my hips. With a firm grip, he traps me in place as he continues his sweet torture. I suck in a shuddering breath as he rolls my clit between his lips before sliding his tongue back down my pussy.
I squirm against the wall again as he teases my entrance with his tongue. He just tightens his grip on my hips, keeping me mercilessly trapped.
Pleasure pulses inside me as he swirls his tongue around my clit again with expert precision. While dragging in desperate breaths, I blindly reach out and slide my hands through Draven’s smooth black hair. Curling my fingers in his silken strands, I grip his hair hard.
A deep groan comes from his chest. It vibrates against my already throbbing clit and makes pleasure crackle through my veins. A moan spills from my lips.
Draven lets out a dark chuckle, full of wicked satisfaction, which vibrates even more against my sensitive clit.
Squirming furiously against the wall, I try to remember how to breathe as Draven takes my clit between his lips again.
I gasp as he nips at it.
His fingers dig into my hips as he holds me firmly in place while he moves down to my entrance and slides his tongue over it. A whimper escapes me.
He pushes his tongue inside me.
Lightning crackles through my veins. My entire body is thrumming with pent-up tension. I drag in unsteady breaths as Draven fucks me with his tongue. Gripping his hair hard, I moan as I tumble closer to an orgasm.
Draven angles his head and slides his tongue over my clit again.
Another whimper drips from my lips.
He lets out another smug chuckle that vibrates against my already pulsing clit.
The pent-up tension inside me is so intense that I feel like I’m going to scream if I don’t get release soon.
Draven torments my clit with commanding strokes. I clench my hands harder in his hair. He slides his tongue over my clit again. And then flicks it.
Pleasure crashes through me.
Gasping up into the ceiling, I almost collapse to the floor as release pulses through my body with enough force to make my legs shake. Draven tightens his grip on my hips, holding me up and keeping me on my feet, while he continues teasing my clit with his tongue to intensify the orgasm.
Incoherent moans spill from my lips, and black spots dance before my eyes. My legs are shaking so much that I wouldn’t be able to stand if it weren’t for Draven’s hands on my hips.
When the last of the orgasm has faded, my chest is heaving so much that all I can do is to just lean against the wall behind me and stare up into the ceiling. My heart is pounding against my ribs.
“Oh, fuck,” I gasp out between heavy breaths.
Draven kisses the inside of my thigh before releasing my hips and guiding my left leg back to the floor.
It takes conscious effort to unclench my fingers and slide them back out of his hair. I throw one hand out and brace it against the wall to help me keep my balance as I tilt my head back down.
Draven is still on his knees before me. His eyes glitter in the faelight as he flashes me a devilish smile. “How was that for revenge?”
A breathless laugh bubbles from my throat, and I shake my head at him while trying to fight the smile that’s spreading across my own mouth.
He raises his eyebrows, that wicked satisfaction still on his features. “What?”
I slide my free hand along his jaw. To my utter astonishment, it makes a shudder roll through his body. The sight of it makes my heart do a backflip in my chest.
A wicked grin spreads across my mouth. “I was just thinking how good you look on your knees before my feet.”
Dark desire and forbidden promises glint in his eyes as he slowly stands up so that he’s towering over me instead. He slides one hand around my throat, pinning me to the wall, and draws the other up my thigh. My breath hitches as his hand stops right in front of my pussy.
“Don’t get cocky, little rebel.” He flashes me a sly smirk. “You and I both know that I can have you begging for my cock with just a few strategic strokes of my fingers.”
“A few strokes?” I taunt while raising my eyebrows. “Now who’s getting cocky?”
I gasp as he flicks my still sensitive clit with his fingers.
That devilish smile on his lips grows wider. “You were saying?”
Reaching up towards the hand he keeps around my throat, I wrap my own hand around his wrist and lock eyes full of challenge on him. “I’m saying that maybe you should stop running your mouth and prove it instead.”
A dark chuckle rumbles from his throat. Leaning closer, he slants his mouth over mine and whispers straight against my lips, “Gladly. When I’m done with you, your wet little cunt will?—”
Loud pounding comes from the door.
It startles me so much that, for a second, I can’t even figure out what is happening. Then the sound comes again, and I realize that someone is knocking frantically on the door.
“Commander,” a man calls from the other side while continuing to pound on the door. “Commander.”
Draven keeps his hands on my throat and my pussy, but his gaze darkens as he turns his head to glare at the door. And when he shouts back to the person on the other side of the door, his voice is dripping with threats.
“Someone had better be dead, or I’m going to rip your fucking throat out for disturbing me over nothing!”
The knocking stops immediately, and the man outside the door falls silent.
Draven tilts his head to the side in a half nod, as if satisfied that his threat worked. But right before he can turn back to me, the man outside speaks up again.
“But Commander,” he calls, sounding worried and apologetic. “Someone is dead.”
Draven continues scowling at the door for another second. Then he seems to understand what’s going on, because he heaves a deep breath and turns back to me. Closing his eyes, he leans his forehead against mine for a second.
“Next time, little rebel,” he whispers in promise.
Then he releases me and stalks over to the door.
After yanking my panties back on and smoothing down my dress skirt, I quickly shift my hair so that it’s covering my throat and hiding the fact that I’m not wearing a collar. Draven glances back at me when he reaches the door and, apparently satisfied with my hair solution, then shoves the door open.
A male shifter in messenger clothes leaps back to avoid getting hit by the door. He wrings his hands and gives Draven another apologetic look.
“What is it?” Draven demands.
“The Red Hand has killed again.”