Chapter Sixteen
Lunelle aimed to get back to her room, where she could panic in private.
And yet, the madness within her pushed her feet toward the eastern wing of the palace, where two guards flanked the ornate bronze doors of the prince’s chambers.
As she approached, they did not ask questions. They merely pulled back the heavy door, welcoming her in.
She’d been expected.
She wasn’t sure what disturbed her more, that she’d made herself into the prince’s plaything or that she’d just committed the deepest betrayal of her sister without intending to.
It did not matter.
Both suffocated her as she entered his chambers.
Arcas was not in the massive bed to her right, layered with plush quilts and pillows. Candlelight flickered on one nightstand—that must have been his side, she noted.
Her stomach twisted in knots as she stepped further into the room, deep blue velvets and black silks creating a dark, lush space. The doors at the far end were flung open, letting the Autumn air float across the dark marble. His slender frame appeared in the doorway, lit by the rainbow aurora of the Rift behind him.
He looked more like a deity than a man.
And that was a dangerous line of thinking.
He was only in a pair of soft sleep pants, the rest of him exposed to the starry sky above.
“Lunelle.”
“Arcas,”
she muttered. His name was a curse—a means to an end. She was so utterly thrown by the Tether in her chest, so miserable under its strain that she would have done anything to forget about it.
And she was about to.
“I wasn’t sure if I’d see you tonight.”
She only nodded, fiddling with the lace of her sleeve.
“What’s wrong?”
Arcas squinted in the dim lighting, tilting his head. His jaw flexed, an irritation there she could not identify.
“What do you need from me, Princess?”
She took a breath. And then another.
And a third for good measure.
And then she hauled herself to him, praying to any god that might be listening that it would take away the stone settling in her stomach for just a moment.
Their bodies clashed together, a low grunt leaving his bare chest as she pulled at him. This was not the controlled exploration of her desires before, where she knew exactly what she wanted and how to get it.
This was a woman unhinged, desperate to numb many types of pain at once. She roamed her hands over his torso, his fingers finding their place on her hips and in her hair, pulling harder than he might have had she not swept in with such a fury at her back.
Arcas did not ask another question—perhaps afraid of what the answers might be—as he backed her into the glass of his balcony door, bracing himself before pulling against her backside and wrapping her legs around his waist. He never broke contact with her mouth, taking anything she would give him as he walked her toward his bed.
She was slipping under the waves of him before her back even hit the silk of his bedding, surprised when she was suddenly horizontal. He reached for her braid, tugging at the leather band and releasing her long white waves.
He crashed over her, the weight of him a welcome anchor to her heavy heart.
She could feel him between her legs, already hardened at the thought of her seeking him out once more, ready to make her forget. Lunelle clutched at his back as he kissed her neck, his bare skin smooth to her touch as she ground her hips over his.
Arcas tore at her dress, pulling it down over her shoulders and around her waist. She rolled beneath him to her belly, and he separated from her only to slide the dress off her hips and legs, shedding his pants in the process. He fell back over her, kissing a sizzling line up her spine and straddling her hips. She could feel the length of him resting against her, but he was focused on other things first.
“You’re so tense you feel like you’re about to burst, and not in a way I’d like to see,”
he mumbled. He leaned over her, reaching for the candle on his nightstand. Arcas hissed as he dipped his fingers into the molten center, rubbing his palms together as the wax slipped between his skin, glazing them in an oily sheen that smelled like the roses in his gardens.
He ran his hands over her back, the warmth from the oil soaking into her muscles as he leaned his weight into her, massaging the tense knots away. With every movement he made, she felt him graze her backside, the swollen heat of him teasing her. He was on his third round of wax when she snapped, arching her spine so her ass pushed into him, begging for more friction, more movement, more of him inside of her.
“We don’t want to play, then?”
he hummed, running his hands up her sides, brushing the sensitive skin of her breasts. Lunelle bucked again. “Fine,”
he sighed, pressing a kiss against the back of her neck.
He leaned his weight over her, his knee hooking behind hers and pushing her leg out, creating space for him.
“Gods,”
he sighed as she gasped, rolling her head forward and sending her sheet of silver locks over the edge of his bed. He stayed still for a moment, repositioning his arms around her, wrapping his long fingers around her neck, and pulling her face toward him as he hovered over her.
Lunelle took his thumb into her mouth, biting at the soft flesh of a hand that had been spoiled in his palace. Her refreshed irritation with him spurred her on, pushing her hips back as she bit down harder.
“Easy now, starling,”
Arcas purred, twisting his hand tightly into her hair. The sting on her scalp erased the sting in her ribs.
“You don’t want to start a game you cannot win.”
Lunelle arched harder, twisting her neck to find his hard gaze as his knee pushed her leg further toward her elbow, allowing him to sink deeper and take up more of her space.
That was enough for her.
The way his thighs hit hers, the twitch of his fingers in her mouth, his hot breath in her ear… all of it was enough to destroy whatever pain her misfortune planted within her and send her mind over the edge of the Plutonian cliffs.
His lips claimed her ear, her neck, her shoulder, leaving marks across her entire body as she slowly felt her muscles coil around his.
“That’s right,”
he sighed as she rocked back and forth with him, finally releasing the last vestige of self-loathing keeping her from fully enjoying her distraction of choice.
“Take what’s yours, Princess.”
She pulled his hand from her mouth and shoved it between the bed and her breasts. He may not have been the leader his court needed, but he at least had no problem taking direction. He pinched her soft skin as she rocked her hips faster, taking more.
Arcas leaned back, the pale blue column of his throat stretching toward the ceiling and out of her limited view.
Lunelle closed her eyes, resting her forehead against her arm as he groaned behind her, the sound so delicious she almost forgot she was meant to loathe him. As he pushed her closer to the edge, his grip loosened, the thumb she’d bitten earlier now hovering between her legs.
She pushed her head up, looking over her shoulder. His head leaned back, eyes closed, his lower lip tucked between his teeth as he kneaded her. His throat tightened with the same tension that kept her in place. She watched his thumb swirl a circle around her lower back, hesitating to move lower.
“Do not hold back from me,” she said.
Arcas’s eyes snapped forward, searching for hers.
“Are you sure, Princess?”
She nodded, the need for more from him driving her onward. Arcas grinned, a darkness welling within his eyes she should have feared, if she didn’t know how pathetic he was beneath the veneer of his crown. He leaned over her, that cursed thumb of his slipping lower, but not low enough.
“Ask nicely,”
he whispered.
“Arcas,”
she muttered, the pleasure of him quickly drowning in his petulance. He pressed lightly against her, hardly a brush, but it was enough to change her tone as she writhed beneath him, desperate for more.
“You came to me,”
he said, hovering near her, but not giving in to a second touch.
“You need me.”
Lunelle released a muffled whimper, annoyed enough that she debated if she’d be able to finish the job herself, but just as she began to say as much, a lightning bolt traveled her spine and crackled against the base of her skull as he pressed into her once more.
A satisfied laugh rumbled against her ear.
“Ask for more, I’ll give you anything you ask for.”
“Please,”
she managed, her teeth clenched tightly against the plea. He did not require her to elaborate on her request. An immediate increase in pressure sent her into another universe entirely. She pushed into the touch, her heart pounding as her vision exploded into white stars. “Arcas?—”
“Let go for me, Lunelle,”
he rasped.
She clenched around him, her entire body dissolving into a rippled spasm that seemed to have no end in sight as he fell forward again, gripping her throat as she cried out. It was as if he wanted to catch the notes and hold onto them in the dark.
Arcas tensed against her, his breathing stifled as he bit at her ear again.
“Where do you want me to?—”
“Anywhere but inside of me,”
she huffed, hardly able to breathe as he pulled away from her.
Arcas collapsed beside her, tangling their legs as she struggled to breathe, the pressure of him gone, the emptiness within her welling into a hot flood of tears at the back of her throat. The pleasure of him hadn’t lasted but a second after it was over, the reality of her heartache returning in full force.
“You may stay here tonight if you want to,”
he offered, stroking her arm lazily.
She pushed herself upright, searching for her dress.
“Not tonight,”
she mumbled through the wave of stinging pain clutching at her chest.
She was still pulling her dress on when she burst from his room and darted across the palace, the Tether in her chest yanking reluctantly the entire way.