Chapter 4 #2
He comes with a groan that fills the suite, his cock throbbing inside me. His forehead drops against my collarbone and both breath in heavily. I rake my fingers through his loose hair, kissing the top of his head, trying hard to commit this moment to memory.
Samuel
She weighs next to nothing in my arms.
I carry her from the lounge to the glass-enclosed shower, her head resting against my chest, pale blonde hair streaming over my forearm.
Her eyes are half-closed, lashes dark against flushed cheeks.
She goes soft in my arms, quiet and still, her breath steady against my throat as she gives me her full weight.
The trust in that silence settles into the marrow of my bones.
I set her feet on the warm tile and reach past her to turn the water on.
Steam fills the enclosure fast, fogging the glass walls, blurring the suite beyond into soft shapes and firelight.
I step in behind her and let the hot spray hit my shoulders while I gather her hair and twist it forward over her chest.
She tips her head back into the water and moans. A quiet sound, loose and unguarded. My cock already stirs despite having been inside her three times tonight.
What kind of trouble is this woman running from?
The question has been circling my head since the moment I peeled that waste of oxygen off her at the bar.
I watched her before I intervened, longer than she realizes.
The grief sitting behind those blue eyes isn't fresh, but tonight it cracked open and everything underneath came pouring out. Bad enough that she was ready to give herself to a man who didn’t know her name, let alone deserve to touch her.
Whatever drove her to the Gilded Key tonight, whatever she's running from or trying to bury, it's worse than she's told me.
Luckily I was walking through when I did. I wasn't supposed to be at the club tonight. My meeting at the bar downstairs wrapped early and I took the elevator to the wrong floor. Wrong floor. Right woman.
I work shampoo through her hair, my scarred fingers gentle against her scalp. She leans into my hands and her shoulders drop. The steam carries her scent up to me. Warm vanilla layered under a sweetness that is purely hers beneath the soap.
Tomorrow is the last day.
The thought barrels through my brain at full speed.
The contract with my family gives me until midnight tomorrow to produce a bride and proof of an heir on the way.
No bride, no heir, no seat at the head of the table.
My father will do what he always promised.
Hand the empire to my cousin, a man who couldn't run a food truck, let alone a kingdom.
I've spent the last month ignoring the deadline. Telling myself I didn't care. I have enough territory, enough power, enough money to live seven lifetimes and never repeat a meal.
But the woman standing in my shower, carrying every ounce of her pain without asking a single person for help, changes that math.
I rinse the shampoo from her hair and work conditioner through the ends.
She pauses mid-breath, her lips parting on a quiet moan at the feel of my fingers working through the knots.
My cock is fully hard now, pressing against the small of her back, and I let myself slide the length between her ass, slick with water.
Her breath hitches. But she doesn't pull away.
I press my lips to the curve of her neck.
My fingers trace the ink on her left shoulder.
The raven's wings spread wide across her skin, the falling feathers drifting down her ribs where I kissed each one just an hour ago.
A dream is a wish from the heart. She told me the raven reminds her to be wise, to let intuition guide her.
Her intuition brought her to me tonight. That's good enough.
She turns in my arms and lifts those eyes to mine. Water streams over her shoulders, running in thin lines between her breasts and down the flat of her stomach.
"Look, I understand you said some things tonight that were pretty loaded.
I get it." She rises on her toes and presses her lips to my cheek.
The contact is gentle, almost cautious. "Heat of the moment talk.
There's no need for any special treatment or finding a way to untangle yourself from your pretty words.
" She steps back and smooths wet hair from her face.
"I'll finish my shower, which I am grateful for, and then I'll quietly leave. "
I tip her chin higher with two fingers. Hold her gaze.
"You're not going anywhere."
A flicker of surprise crosses her face. She recovers fast, but I catch it.
"Um, I have a business to get back to."
"No, you don't."
I turn her gently, and rinse the conditioner from her hair.
She goes still under my hands as the warm water runs through the blonde strands and I work the last of the product free.
My cock presses against the curve of her ass, the slick heat of the water between us, and she swallows hard enough for me to see her throat move.
"Yes, I do."
Her voice hitches and the way her hips press back into me even as her mouth argues…
I smile.
“I am heading to Seattle in two hours and you’re coming with me.
” Fuck my father’s contract. He’s in New York and he can stay there.
I want to get my princess alone where I can fully enjoy her.
Showering her with as much love as she can stand is my new goal.
And not let anyone else near her is another.
That last part is for me. A primal need to mark her, possess her in every way consumes my thoughts.
No. My father can give his fortune and kingdom to my cousin. And he can live with that decision when he sees everything burn to the ground.
The water runs hot down my back and Cinder shifts against me, her wet skin sliding over mine. My father and his contract can rot.
"I need to go see Lavender first." She turns the water off and reaches for the towel folded on the bench. "Just a quick check-in. Ten minutes. Then I'll come back."
I study her face. Water drips from her jaw, rolls down the line of her throat, pools in the hollow of her collarbone. Those light blue eyes hold mine, and every instinct I possess tells me to keep her here. Lock the door. Carry her back to bed and hold her until she stops running.
But I can't cage a bird I want to keep.
"Ten minutes. I’ll phone down and have someone bring fresh clothes up."
She wraps the towel around her body, rises up on her toes, and presses her mouth to mine. The kiss is quick, warm, and gone before I can deepen it.
"I'll be right back."
She slips through the steam. She dries off, gathers her wrinkled black dress from the bedroom floor before stepping into those heels. She pulls her damp hair into a low twist and glances back at me once. I'm still in the bathroom doorway, water beading on my shoulders.
She smiles as she smoothes out her dress.
The elevator chime is a single soft tone. The doors open. She steps inside, turns to face me, and the last thing I see before the steel closes between us is the pale blue of her eyes.
I stand in the middle of the penthouse suite. Water cooling on my skin. Steam fading from the glass.
Ten minutes becomes twenty. Twenty becomes an hour.
The fire dies and the hole in my heart grows tenfold.
My princess is gone.