CHAPTER 27
The only time I stopped was to take my heels off so I could run away faster.
I ran through the front doors of the manor, holding my dress up with my shoes entwined in my fingers.
I ran down the stairs and instinctively turned towards the garden.
When I got there, I hoped for reprieve, but the garden was full of party guests who had trickled outside.
“Is everything okay, miss?” One of them asked me.
I ignored them, looking for where I could escape all of this.
The willow tree came into vision, blurred by the tears pouring from my eyes.
Lifting my dress again, I broke into a run, hoping no one would follow me, thinking I needed help.
Thankfully, they all stayed put, probably too engrossed in the gossip of the king's announcement. The thought blazed through me, feeding my anger with every second that passed. The willow tree’s branches opened for me as I got closer, inviting me into its embrace.
Once I was through, they closed, hiding me behind the curtain of leaves.
I tried to catch my breath, but this fucking corset was too tight.
I gasped for air, trying to reach the ribbon that held it together, but I couldn’t reach it.
Panic started to claw at my throat as I clawed for the end of the ribbon.
“Can I help?”
I whipped around, and Zendryk was standing there, the willow tree closing shut behind him. The fucking tree betrayed me.
I needed air. I turned around as a sign of accepting his offer and let him loosen the ribbon for me. Feeling it give way a little, I inhaled a deep breath as the fabric loosened.
“YOU’RE FUCKING ENGAGED!” I whirled on him, shock, anger, sadness. All my emotions piled on top of one another and exploded into those three words. The firebugs under the tree fled at my outrage, slipping away into the night sky.
He said nothing. He just stood there, hands in his pockets, his face giving nothing away.
“It’s true then, you’re engaged to be married!?” The anger rose in my chest, replacing the panic that was there a moment ago.
“Yes.” One word. One word was all he said.
“Why didn’t you tell me?! Instead, you shamelessly flirt with me day in and day out, and make me fall for you, just to fucking rip it all away.” How could he do this?!
“You’ve fallen for me?” His eyes opened wide, full of hope.
“It doesn’t matter now. You’re betrothed to someone else. Nothing could ever happen between us!” I motioned to him with my hand, then back to myself.
“Avyn….” His voice was soft, a whisper of a response.
“No. Don’t. You knew about this, and still you played with my emotions.” I shook my head in disgust as I took a step back.
“Avyn….. Just listen to me… please.” He was broken.
“NO! You never told me; you never told me what happened in your meetings. Is that what they were about? Is that why you never told me?”
“Yes… but.” I cut him off and took another step back, widening the distance between us.
“NO! You are not going to hurt me again.” I backed away. “Go and be with your fiancé. Go and be with the one you want.”
His eyes blazed with intensity. “Want?! Avyn, I don’t fucking want her! I want you!”
I stopped backing away from him, frozen in place by his words.
“Since I saw you that first day, I have not stopped thinking about you!” He took a step forward.
“I haven’t told you about the engagement because I don’t want it! I don’t want it to be real! I have argued it day and night with my parents, and they will not falter!”
He took another step towards me.
“All I think about is you!”
Another step.
“All I want is you!”
Another step.
“I want all of you, I want to kiss you, I want to taste you, I want to be inside of you!”
I flushed red, and the heat radiated all over my body, and the feeling between my thighs pulsed.
“I fucking want you, Avyn!”
He closed the last little bit of distance between us and grabbed the back of my head, entangling his fingers in my hair, and pulled me to his mouth.
The shock of everything startled me for a second, but the feel of his lips on mine, the taste of him, I gave in and kissed him back.
The man I wanted, the man who filled my dreams, the man I fantasized about every second of every minute, had his lips, his body pressed against mine.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and opened my mouth in invitation, which he greedily took.
His tongue grazed over the top of mine, and I let out a small moan.
He pulled away and leaned closer to my ear, “I want to make you moan, over and over again.”
I let out a shaky breath at his words, and he seized my mouth again. Hungrier this time. He pressed his body into mine, walking me backward until my back hit the tree, and he released his lips from mine. “I want to be the only one who makes you moan.”
His mouth moved to my neck and trailed gentle kisses down it, moving to my bare shoulders, and then followed my collarbone across my chest. My nails dug into the bark of the tree.
“I don’t want anyone else to touch you.”
The kisses trailed down my markings to where they met my breasts, which were rising and falling with the rapidness of my breath.
“You’re mine.”
I moaned again as his mouth kissed the top of my breasts where they swelled above the neckline of my dress. His free hand ran up my side and cupped one of them, pushing it closer to his mouth, and he nipped at the bare skin with his teeth, and I gasped softly in response.
“Ever since I saw you, I have wanted nothing more than to have you like this.”
Another little nip.
“I’ve wanted my mouth all over your body.”
His hand reached behind me and pulled the lace of the corset free, one row at a time. My back arched with each tug, pressing into him.
“I’ve wanted my hands all over you.”
But just before he reached the last row of lace, I reached my hand back to stop him.
“Please…. Don’t stop me.” He begged me, and the feeling between my legs pulsed at his need for me.
“I don’t want to… but…” I didn’t know how to say it. “I’ve never…”
He pulled away from my chest and looked at me.
“You’ve never what?”
All of the blood left my body. “I’ve never…. You know. I’ve…. Only ever kissed one other boy…” I looked down at his body pressed against mine and wished I hadn’t spoken up and ruined the moment. I’m a fucking idiot.
“Only one other? And only a kiss?” He repeated it back to me as a question.
The way he said it made me blush. He reached down and lifted my chin, so I was looking at him. “If you don’t want to do this, we can stop. I don’t want this to be a mistake for you. I don’t want you to feel like you must do this either.”
I looked him deep in the eyes. His eyes were so honest. He was letting me choose.
Even after everything he revealed, and his growing desire that was currently pressed against my body.
He was letting me pick him. I closed my eyes for a moment and then looked up into his, just as a hint of a smile teased my lips… And I… Bit. My. Lip.
His need consumed him the second his eyes met mine, and he was on me again; his lips crashed into mine.
He didn’t even need me to say it; he knew.
He bloody well knew I wanted him, but he still asked.
He tugged at the ribbon holding the corset in place, fueled by desire, by need, tearing it away as fast as he could.
I raised my hands as I felt the bodice fall away, holding it in place for a moment longer, knowing there was only a sheer layer of lace beneath it.
He let me hold the corset to my body until I was ready to show myself to him.
We were lost in the moment, rooted in place, breathing heavy, trembling with desire.
I took a deep breath and then stood on my tiptoes while I trailed kisses along the stubble on his sharp jawline.
He let out a low moan, and I reached my hands up and around his neck, letting the corset fall to the ground.
His head lowered, tilting forward, and I stopped kissing his neck, as he looked down at my breast, bare except for a sheer, delicate black piece of fabric.
I breathed in heavily, and the tender part of my breasts peeked and pushed against the fabric.
My breaths were shaky as he took in the sight of me.
“You are so god damned beautiful.” And his mouth was on mine again, but only for a moment while his hands pulled the lace down from my shoulders, exposing my breasts entirely.
He lowered his mouth and took the sensitive peak between his lips.
A shudder ran through my body at the warmth of his mouth and the relentless teasing of his tongue.
I braced my hands on the tree behind me to keep from falling.
His hand lifted to tease my other breast. His touch lit my body on fire, sending a shock of electricity through me.
My legs shook below me as I tried to catch my breath in between waves of pleasure.
He brought his head up.
“Don’t stop…” I begged him breathlessly.