Chapter 34 #2
Kaden opened his eyes, and the feral gleam in his gaze stole the air from my lungs. “Stop talking about my sister and let me taste you.”
But I held him firmly in my grasp, teasing him with my tongue once again.
He moaned.
“Tell me,” I growled. “How long have you been planning to give up your throne?”
“I . . . considered it when I realized what you were to me,” he ground out.
“My mate whom I could not wed at the Quartz Palace.” I swirled my tongue around the ridge of him, and Kaden’s abdominals rippled with restraint.
“But when Gninou told me I could not have the crown and you . . .” He pressed his lips together, casting a pleading look toward the heavens. “I chose you.”
At those words, an uncontainable swell of emotion erupted in my chest. Love and astonishment. Fury and indignation. And pure, searing terror.
“Taking the throne of Anvalyn is all you’ve ever wanted.”
Kaden shook his head, dark eyelashes fluttering. When he looked down and met my gaze, his eyes were two pools of molten silver. “Only until I met you, little huntress.”
My mouth fell open, and I was so stunned that I didn’t object as he pulled me into his lap.
“I choose you,” he murmured, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “I will always choose you.”
Tears stung my eyes as he lifted me up, and my legs fell open on either side of his hips. Slowly, so slowly, he guided me down onto his cock, holding my gaze the entire time.
I sucked in a breath at the sensation — at the feeling of him stretching me. I opened for my mate, welcoming him into my body even as my distrustful heart thrashed at his words.
I’d been on my own for so long, getting close to no one. Trusting no one. And yet Kaden had somehow slipped through my careful defenses. Or perhaps I’d thrust my gates wide open.
Kaden began to move inside me, his hips making deliciously slow upward thrusts that left me gasping for air. Dropping my head into the crook of his neck, I gripped his shoulders for dear life as I took him deeper.
“You are worth more to me than any crown, Lyra,” he whispered, threading his fingers through my hair. “I would rather see my kingdom burn than spend another day without you.”
I opened my mouth, but no words came out. I was too engrossed in the sensation of our bodies moving together, the tips of my breasts caressing his skin as he filled me more with every thrust.
And so I sent my feelings down the bond — pouring out the things I could not say but that I desperately wanted him to know.
That he was a fool.
That I loved him.
That my heart belonged to him. And probably my soul, if I was being honest.
Kaden trembled as I spilled my emotions into him, for once not caring that I was showing too much. Giving too much. Feeling too much.
I love you, he whispered down our mental pathway, gripping my hips and lifting me up just so he could slam me back down. I gasped as he hit the very end of my channel, and for a moment, I wondered if he could feel exactly what he did to me.
A low chuckle rumbling down the bond told me all I wanted to know.
A roiling pressure had begun to build deep in my core, and I rolled my hips into Kaden, seeking the friction I so desperately needed.
The fire crackled in the hearth, the only sound apart from our lovemaking. I lost myself in the scent of charred cedar and night that mixed with the musk of our arousal.
Reaching between us, Kaden swirled his fingers over the most sensitive part of me, and I stifled my cry by sinking my teeth into the meat of his shoulder.
His low chuckle ghosted over my skin like summer rain as he began to move his fingers in torturous circles, all the while plunging into me with his cock.
I cried out as I came around him, digging my nails into his skin as I rode wave after wave of my pleasure.
Then we were moving — Kaden gripping the backs of my thighs as he flipped me onto the thick fur rug and thrust into me again.
My lips parted at the sight of him bathed in shadow and the muted glow of the flames.
Kaden was a god made flesh, his silky black hair cutting across the sharp lines of his face and drawing out the silver in his eyes.
His full lips were swollen from our kisses, his dark, membranous wings splayed out behind him.
But it was his expression that had me at a loss for words. Pure love and desperate need. Need to bury himself so deep within me that we could never be parted again.
My bottom lip quivered as my hands ghosted over his tanned skin, reveling in the bunch of his muscles as he snapped his hips into me.
“Don’t be gentle,” I murmured, reaching up to sweep one lock of dark hair out of his eyes. “Give me all of it, Kaden.”
I wasn’t sure if it was my command or the sound of his name on my lips, but I saw a fire ignite in his expression a split second before he let go.
Kaden’s jaw clenched as he fisted my hair, drawing out delicious tingles of pain that mingled with the pleasure building inside me once more. He slammed into me like a man possessed, sweat beading along his skin as he drove toward his release.
I shuddered at the familiar tingle between my legs, followed by a cascade of sensation as I clenched around him again. Kaden came with a feral growl, and I felt a surge of warmth as he spilled himself inside me.
He collapsed on top of me, and I welcomed his weight pressing me into the floor. The steady rise and fall of his chest that told me he was alive.
A glimmer of love and satisfaction rippled down our bond, and I smiled as I wrapped my legs around him.
For several moments, we just lay there, each of my exhales moving with his inhales like waves crashing against the shore before slipping back into the sea.
When he finally pushed himself up, it was to grab a soft blanket from the back of the bench and a heavy fur pelt. He returned to the floor, tucking me against his chest as he covered us both. And for the first time I could remember, I felt wholly content.