Six Deadly Sins #2
He let out a predatory groan that made my already wet center become molten. It was savage, and I wanted to hear it again and again.
“Do you want all of me, Naci?”
I did, so badly. All of him again and again, never stopping. “Yes, gods, yes.” It was all I could do not to scream it, beg it.
But that’s what he wanted. He wanted me to beg. And I so wanted to give him what he wanted.
He pressed his tip against my entrance, and I sucked in a breath. I honestly didn’t know if my body would allow his size, but I wanted to try.
He locked eyes with me as he pushed inside, just a couple of inches at first. As I felt him stretch me, the pressure mixed with the pleasure made my head spin. I wasn’t even sure if my eyes were open or closed.
He slowly pushed further into me, softly groaning each time he advanced.
By the time he was wholly inside me, I was so full and the pressure so high in my core, I wasn’t sure if it would burn me up more if he didn’t move…or if he did. Whether they were open or not, my eyes rolled back.
“One.”
If my foggy brain heard right, he had one more round of pleasure to draw from me.
“Do you want me to fuck you? Make you scream?”
“Oh gods, yes!” This time, I screamed it, earning a satisfied smile from Varyn.
He hoisted my legs up around his waist and put one hand on the table by my head, the other holding my hip as he started to move in and out of me.
I had never felt anything so all-consuming.
He moved slowly at first, letting me get used to his size as he resumed the tantalizing circles over the bud of nerves with his thumb. I was already so close to falling over the edge again as his pace increased.
The look in his eyes grew wild with lust as his thrusts became harder and more punishing, my moans turning to screams.
My body was tight with my near release, but then he slowed his pace and stopped the circles his fingers had been tormenting me with. Their absence felt like a void opening up, desperate to be filled.
“Do you want more, Naci?”
He was moving in and out of me forcefully, but so slowly I could have screamed in frustration. I was so damn close, but he wouldn’t let me finish.
“Yes, yes, I need more! Gods, I’m so close, Varyn, please!”
“Say it one more time for me, Naci.”
“Please, Varyn!” I wouldn’t have been surprised if the entire castle heard that.
The devil in his eyes shone before he went feral.
With quick movements, he pulled out, flipped me over onto my stomach, and fucked me. Relentless, harsh, and oh so pleasurable. He had me screaming his name as I finally fell over the edge once more, the pleasure spreading to every nerve in my body, more intense than anything I’d ever felt.
I was no longer falling for him. I had reached the very bottom. Hook, line, and sinker. Isn’t that what the anglers always said when they landed a fish and reeled it up to its death?
When he pulled out, I rolled over onto my back, and we laid tangled up in each other’s naked bodies on the tabletop for a while, one of his arms propping his head up, the other drawing slow circles on my hip.
“Have I made up for being late tonight yet?”
I laughed. The…activities that had left me breathless were now leaving me lost for words.
After a deep, satisfied breath, I said, “I’d say so, Highness.”
We laid there for a few more minutes before my mind came back to me and I remembered I had planned on finding the castle blueprints tonight.
My mom. Dungeon. Urgent.
He gave a contented sigh before I said, “What else is up here on this floor?”
He thought for a moment, his gaze shifting to a door to my right that I had noticed before…things happened.
“The librarian’s quarters, the restricted books I mentioned, and the castle archives.”
That had to be it. Blueprints were usually in library archives.
“What kind of stuff is kept in the castle archives?” I was trying so hard to sound innocently curious.
He looked over at me for a moment. “Records and censuses of the people in Ashenholt, treaties and recorded laws, border records, castle building plans. Basically, anything about the castle.”
I tried not to react, but I knew it was exactly what I’d suspected.
This was where the blueprints would be.
“Could…could you show me?” I asked lightly.
I hated myself for hiding my intentions from him, but I was sure that nothing short of Varyn joining the rebellion would make me think it was safe to tell him why I needed to find the dungeons. My feelings had to stay separate from my mission.
He studied me for a moment, looking my face up and down before he agreed.
We got up off the table and dressed, each of us shooting silent, unsure looks at each other. I knew I was unsure because I had dangerous plans that were in motion, secrets. But why was he unsure after…that?
“Castle archives this way.” He motioned to the other side of the second floor from where we had come up as he buttoned his last button on his shirt.
I became all business. The pleasure, while intense and blissful, was nearly forgotten in my drive to find anything that could get me closer to my mother. Nearly. But definitely not completely.
We passed through another heavy wooden door into a small room, all light from the moon gone here. He lit another lantern, and in the orange glow, I could see more shelving. Some were stacked with books, more haphazardly than those in the library, and some were stacked with scrolls.
This room smelled strongly of parchment and dust, feeling immediately forbidden.
He kept watching me, his stare feeling different from before, assessing. “Is there something you want to see here?” he asked.
I felt like I was on thin ice, like I was a breath away from exposing myself. “I’ve just…always loved architecture. And my time here is the first time I’ve ever seen a castle with my own eyes. I…if I could, I would love to see the blueprints. It’s just fascinating.”
I knew I had messed up immediately. He knew when I was lying. He had been vulnerable with me about his mom, and then we had shared such an intense sexual experience, and here I was, lying to him.
I felt low.
He stared at me for a long moment. Too long. But then he said… “Well then, let’s get the blueprints.”
I beamed at him, trying to show my gratitude and excitement. But it was laced with regret at my deception.
His face was unreadable, that damn mask back firmly in place.
He pulled down a thick scroll I would never have seen at my height and unfurled it across the small desk in the corner, placing the lantern on one corner to help keep it from curling back up.
I moved closer, then he framed me between his arms on the edge of the table, once again very close to me, which set my heart racing. This male’s effect on me was immediate and visceral.
I cleared my throat to speak, but before I could say anything, he started pointing out various points on the intricate architectural diagram.
His words were barely registering as my eyes quickly scanned the yellowed parchment. I saw dining halls, ballrooms, royal quarters, kitchens, servants’ areas and corridors…the garden where I had that beautiful dinner with Varyn.
But no dungeons.
And then I felt incredibly stupid. If the royals didn’t want anyone to know where their dungeons were, they would likely not be documented in the blueprints.
The disappointment was ready to consume me, but I had one last small hope.
“And is this the castle as it is today?” I asked, trying to sound offhand.
He looked at me for way too long. He was impossible to read with the mask on, and that scared me. I had decided to trust him, but I thought for the briefest moment that it had been a mistake.
After everything we’d just done, I didn’t think I could even contemplate the dire consequences if I’d gotten him wrong—both for my plans and for my heart.
I dropped my eyes back to the map, unable to hold his scrutinous gaze any longer. It was then that I noticed a thin, inked square near the kitchen and a note in small print at the bottom corner that said “Pre-renovations.”
I didn’t dare react.
The dungeons were either left out of the blueprints on purpose, or they didn’t exist when the castle was originally built and were added during the renovations.
Based on the history lesson from the prince earlier, the castle was built when Caedryn and his mother, Seralyth, had first ascended the throne, moving Ashenholt’s capital to Dolvenar.
And a kind and benevolent queen would never have agreed to a dungeon. So it had to be part of the renovations that timed almost precisely with the late queen’s death.
The wheels in my head were turning fast.
Without answering my question, per usual, the prince rolled up the blueprint and smiled at me in a very sharp and unsettling way.
“This has been a wonderful night, Naci, and I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing the library. We should get you back before Miss Melda has both of our heads for having you out this late.”
My heart sank, but his smile changed, softened. And when he held out his hand for me and squeezed mine when they connected, it felt like there was no bad blood between us.
I wanted so badly to believe things were okay with us, but it felt like he was covering up what he was thinking and feeling.
We crept through the dark and silent castle once more, and when we arrived back at the door to the laundry wing, he kissed my hand with a slight bow and a wink and left me reeling for a whole hour in my bed before I could fall asleep.
I wasn’t sure if my squirming belly was from the events of the night that had already transpired or the fear of things that could transpire if he thought I was lying to him.
And as high as I’d felt finally being with Varyn, I felt just as low now, wondering if I’d made a grave mistake.