23
Warmth at my mouth lured me from sleep.
But it was the heat between my legs that made my eyes spring open.
I gasped—the sound muffled as that warmth at my mouth clamped. A hand. A callused hand. Voran. His arm lay heavy over my stomach and chest. His other hand pushed at my thighs, which I’d tried to close as soon as I’d felt that lapping heat at my core.
Exquisite, divine, and toe-curling heat.
Voran’s mouth.
Goddess.
As if it were a sweet stick, the prince slowly licked and licked and licked at my sex.
Sweat instantly misted my flushing skin. My panicked breaths gained sound. A low growl and the tightening of his hand at my mouth warned to be quiet. But I couldn’t. He’d…
He’d snuck into my room, and he was…
His tongue eradicated my ability to think. My body both liquefied and tensed as he continued to lick at my core. I tried to reach for him, but the blankets were in the way—bunched over him. I placed my hand on his to pry it from my mouth, but it slid to the bed when pleasure pulsed.
My legs trembled. Feeling it, Voran quickened his pace.
I came apart with a choked moan, squirming beneath his arm and hand and mouth. My shaking thighs squeezed his head. Before I could recover, he was atop me. My evening robes had unraveled, as they always did when I slept. His luminous gaze roamed my heaving chest—my exposed breasts—to my face.
“Voran,” I started, but breath eluded me.
“You look shocked, broshklin.” A sinister smile curled his mouth and flashed his teeth. He licked his lips, then placed them over mine. Against my mouth, he whispered, “I did warn you.” He kissed me. Once and lingering—ensuring I tasted myself.
Then I was left panting, clammy, and alone.
The door was cracked open.
I peered down the darkened hall. Snoring crept from some of the wards’ rooms. Looking back at Voran’s door, I pushed it open.
As I carefully closed it, Voran murmured without removing his eyes from the book he held, “Lock it.”
“I’m only here to talk to you.” Regardless, I did as he said, then turned to him. It didn’t matter what we were doing—getting caught in here at this hour would tempt the priestesses to send us to the sea cells.
“Then we will need to do so quietly. A young pest resides in the next room.”
My lips wriggled. “Pest?”
Though his gaze rose, he didn’t respond.
Flame swayed from the candle on his nightstand, causing shadows to dance across the small room. They failed to touch any of his unreadable features. His eyes matched the night sky beyond his window, his damp hair free and falling to his ribs.
He sat where he usually did—on the edge of his bed. This time, his feet were bare, and he too wore his evening robes. He closed the book. “What kept you from me this afternoon?”
He knew nothing had kept me from seeing him this afternoon. Nothing tangible, at least.
I’d spent it agonizing over what he’d done, and finding the courage to say, “You cannot do that, Voran.”
“Do what?”
Averting my gaze to my bare toes, I whispered, “You know what.”
“Maybe,” he said. “But I cannot be certain until I hear you say it.”
“You snuck into my room and woke me by putting your mouth…” I swallowed.
“On your perfect cunt,” he finished. “Yes.”
I glared at him—or tried to. I was likely too red in the face to be convincing. “You cannot do that.”
He tilted his head. “Yet I did exactly that.”
Rotting roots.
So flustered that I could have run from his room without another word, I tossed my hand and blurted, “You cannot just sneak into my room and pleasure me when I’m asleep. It’s wrong.”
Crickets and cicadas sang into the ensuing silence.
Then, low and tauntingly, Voran said, “If I were you, I would stop telling me what I cannot do.” He shifted on the edge of the bed. “My cock is painfully erect.”
More warmth rushed into my face. “Voran.”
“Ayla.”
I stared at him.
He stared right back.
And I had to finally ask, “Were you punishing me for failing to meet with you?”
Something sparked in his eyes—amusement or perhaps even surprise.
“I have punished more people than you’ve met.
So I can confidently say that you did not moan like one does when punished, broshklin.
” He trailed his finger down the closed pages of the book.
“And you certainly did not writhe like one does when punished.”
Those words. That finger trailing back over those pages…
I shook my head. “I wasn’t avoiding you yesterday afternoon. Celestine tried to get out of her duties and—”
“I know your friend stole you from me.” That finger continued to drag back and forth over the book’s closed pages. “I saw it.”
He’d seen it.
Though it wasn’t necessary, I tightened my robes. “Right. Good. So then—”
“I also saw no flower-scented princess in my room before dinner.”
Confused, I muttered, “You just said that you saw Celestine steal me.”
“I did.”
Understanding dawned. “Voran.” His name was a harsh whisper. “There was not enough time to see you after that. I bathe before dinner, and because we fill the tubs, it takes…” I trailed off when I realized I was chirping, as he called it.
And because he was fucking smiling. Wolfishly and so broadly, it was a little bit endearing.
I blinked.
The last thing I should have found him was endearing.
This male, this enemy prince, this renowned monster, had snuck into my room after dark to lick my most private place while I slept. And he saw nothing wrong with that. In fact, he seemed rather smug about it.
Attempting to make him see differently was a waste of time.
“Just…” At a loss, I said softly, “Please don’t ever do that again.”
“Unless you are awake?”
Again, I blinked.
Then I turned to leave. “We’ll resume our lessons tomorrow afternoon in the east wing.”
“Have my actions upset you?”
The quiet question turned me back.
A wolf indeed. He knew he had me cornered, and without even looking at me. He gazed down at the book. “Or are you upset because they allowed you the freedom to come so hard that your thighs threatened to make my brain ooze out of my fucking ears?”
I opened my mouth to tell him that it was his actions that had brought me here. His actions that had stopped me from seeing him this afternoon. His actions that had haunted me throughout the day.
But he already knew all of that.
“By now, we both know what you need to surrender to what you want.” His finger ceased moving along the pages. His eyes rose, as dark as a wintry night. “To whom you want it from.”
Chest heaving, I unlocked the door and left.