Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Auraelia
Walking down the stone hallway to her rooms, Auraelia heaved a sigh.
She was exhausted after a morning spent talking in circles with her council and hours of training in the afternoon.
Pushing open the door to her suite, she grimaced.
She hated how her tunic and trousers clung to her sweat-slicked skin despite winter's lower temperatures.
She wanted— needed, if the pounding in her head was any indication—food and a hot shower.
Mister Aramis hadn’t had any new information regarding her cousin’s movements. What he did have was confirmation that the Court of Pearl was leaning in Davina’s direction. The thought of another court siding with her cousin made her stomach roil and her head throb in time with her pulse.
Auraelia pressed her fingers into her temples to try and alleviate the ache. Food, shower, sleep.
The sound of the door latching into place echoed through the silence of her chambers.
The quiet she once craved after endless hours of royal duties had become something she sought to avoid.
She hated the sound of silence. She hated that it gave her too much space to think and feel the things she had fought so hard to escape.
She took a deep breath in an attempt to steady her mind and, instead, was greeted with the scent of sandalwood.
Sure that her tired, aching mind was playing tricks on her, she closed her eyes and leaned against the door.
Breathing in the familiar scent, she let it wash over her and calm the rough sea of her soul.
“Hello, Auraelia.”
Her eyes snapped open at the sound of her name, her hand naturally reaching for the emerald dagger she kept strapped to her thigh.
She saw no one as she glanced around her sitting area, but there, standing in the shadowed doorway that led into her bedchamber, was Daemon.
It hit her then. He’d said her name. Her real name.
And that realization sent a sharp pain to the center of her chest, making her tense.
His arms were crossed at his chest, and he looked completely at ease as he leaned against the frame. “I’d understand if you felt the need for that,” his eyes drifted down to where her hand was gripped around the hilt of her dagger. “But I’d really rather not get stabbed tonight.”
Daemon pushed off the doorframe and stepped into the dim light of the sitting area.
Goddess, he was gorgeous. His trousers hugged his legs like they had been formed around them, and the laces across the top of his tunic were left loose, exposing the intricate lines of his tattoos.
Auraelia drank in the sight of him. Her memory had certainly not done him the justice he deserved, and a familiar heat began to swell in her chest the longer her eyes lingered.
Pulling her gaze away, she released the grip on her blade and pushed away from the door. She needed to get a grip. Needed to focus and find out why he was in Lyndaria, let alone in her chambers.
“You’re not even going to speak to me?” he asked as he slowly closed the distance between them.
Auraelia straightened her spine as she walked across her suite, counting in her head to keep her emotions in check. He was barely near her, and her magic was already responding to his proximity. Warming and swirling beneath the surface.
“What are you doing here?” Her tone was icy, even to her own ears, but she couldn’t take it back now.
Within the blink of an eye, he was on her, having shadow-walked the distance between them.
His hand was loose but firm around her throat as he pressed her against the nearest wall, and her heart pounded in her chest. But it wasn’t fear that elicited the response.
It was never of fear, not when it came to him.
His thumb idly traced circles around where her pulse thrummed in her neck, sandalwood and the salty ocean air enveloping her senses as he pressed his body against hers.
“That wasn’t a very nice greeting. I’m wounded,” he teased.
That damned smirk that made her knees weak, tugging on one side of his mouth.
Fuck.
“I seriously doubt that.” Auraelia rolled her eyes, and when they landed on his once more, she immediately regretted that choice.
His smirk had morphed into a wicked smile that promised all manners of depravity, and memories of his hand slapping her ass every time she’d done it in the past trickled back into her mind.
Taking a deep breath to try and steady her racing heart and cool the flush that now warmed her cheeks, she asked again, “What are you doing here, Daemon?” Only this time, the ice had melted, and her words had turned breathy.
Shit.
“I need you.” His voice was a low rumble in his throat as he dragged out the words, and a flood of heat settled in her core.
It wasn’t just the way he’d said it or the way his body was pressed against hers.
It was the fact that he’d used the same phrase from her dream.
The one that had seemed like more of a memory than her subconscious spinning stories.
And if it was, that meant they were the same words his ancestor had spoken to hers.
And something about it just seemed…right.
Despite everything in her soul telling her that she needed him, too.
Needed to be with him. Despite the way her magic called to his.
There was still a small part of her, one that was louder than the rest, that told her she couldn’t.
Not until her cousin was handled. Not until he was no longer connected to her.
“We—” she swallowed thickly, “We can’t.”
A sly smile pulled across his lips. “I promise you, we can.”
Auraelia’s eyes locked onto Daemon’s, the gold within them turning molten as it slowly engulfed the green. Between the desire in his eyes, the heat of his body seeping into her own, and the promise of his words, it was a struggle to keep from squeezing her thighs together.
“Daemon—” though it was low, her voice betrayed her. Want bled into her tone, and the slight dilation of his pupils proved that he’d heard it.
His smile grew, his hold on her throat tightened, and he somehow managed to press further into her. “Just sex, Auraelia.”
Again, he’d used her given name. And again, it was like a stab directly to her heart, but she couldn’t blame him. He was doing as she asked and not calling her my star. But she had to admit that she missed hearing it. Missed the way her heart would kick up a notch every time he said it.
Taking a deep breath through her nose, she asked, “Just sex?”
His smile grew into something sinister as he wedged his thigh between hers. When he applied pressure right where she needed it, she couldn’t help the whimper that escaped.
“Yes, just sex. Unless you have a counteroffer?” Smug satisfaction dripped from every word as his other hand slowly slid up her torso. Even with her tunic and corset separating their skin, she could feel the heat of his touch as he grazed the side of her breast.
Auraelia opened her mouth to protest—though at the moment, she wasn’t quite sure why—but the feel of Daemon brushing his nose across her cheek made her falter.
“Tell me you hate me if it will make it easier. Curse me from here to Arcelia; I don’t care.
But you need this just as badly as I do.
I know you do.” Daemon’s leg began to move between hers.
Adding delicious friction to the steady pressure he’d provided.
“I feel it in the way your pulse flutters in your neck. See it in the swirls of your eyes. You can’t hide your desire from me, Auraelia.
Say yes, and I will make you come until you forget your own name.
” He nipped at the tender flesh of her ear. “Just say yes.”
His whispered words sent shivers throughout her body. He was right. She did need this. Goddess, did she need this. Between her ever-growing magic, the stress over an impending war, and pent-up frustration—regardless of how much training or self-pleasuring she did—she was wound tighter than a top.
She needed a release.
She needed him—in more ways than she cared to evaluate at that moment.
Daemon loosened his hold on her throat as he pulled away to look her in the eyes.
Just sex…she could do that, couldn’t she? Every fiber of her being begged her to relent. To give into the delicious temptation of the man in front of her. Even her magic vibrated beneath her skin, pushing against the hold she kept on it.
Auraelia took a deep breath and locked her gaze on his. “Yes.”
That wicked grin spread across his face once more before he shook his head and tsked at her. “You know better than that. Tell me how much you need me.”
Letting a sly smile of her own tilt up her lips, Auraelia snaked her arm between them and palmed the hardened ridge in his pants. “I believe it was you who said you needed me.”
Daemon groaned, his eyes rolling to the back of his head as his hand tightened around her throat once more. “You’re going to regret that, Princess.”
A rush went through her at his tone, and her smile turned devilish. “It’s Your Majesty—” she said, tightening her hold on his cock as she slowly ran her hand along his length, “And somehow I doubt that.”
A growl rumbled deep in Daemon’s throat, and his mouth was on hers a second later. There was nothing soft or gentle about the way he kissed her. It was hard and bruising as their tongues battled for purchase.
Releasing her throat, Daemon slid his hands down her sides until he reached her thighs. Keeping her pressed against the wall, he lifted her from the floor, and Auraelia wrapped her legs around his waist. The move had him pressing his hips into hers, his erection hard against her center.
His fingers dug into the flesh of her ass as he ground into her, and she moaned against his lips as his hands slid closer to her core. Auraelia tugged at Daemon’s shirt to free it from his pants, but with their close proximity and position, it wouldn’t budge.