Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGHT
ALL THE QUEEN’S MEN
To my surprise, I’m taken back to my hole-in-the-wall of a cell. I’m not complaining, but would it kill them to add a little potpourri or a valance to spruce this closet up a bit?
Roman pauses, his broad shoulders filling the span of the door frame. My brow lowers in confusion, and it’s then that I realize he isn’t staying.
He’s leaving. I’m becoming their monster to be hidden away in the dark.
“Creatchin is planning something,” Zilo says as he files into the room with a weight on his shoulders that I can visibility see.
He’s tired.
Avain lingers near the wall in the shadows, not coming fully into my quaint little prison as Zilo continues on. “She’s gathering supplies and magic. Dark fucking magic. She wants the High Hell in the war chamber within the hour,”
Shit.
I’ve never been so unhappy to be right.
I nod to him so slowly; it feels like I’m already watching the four of us kill off realms and realms of innocent people.
He too nods, much the same.
The three of them head toward the door near the stairs but Roman slows, not allowing the shadows to fill the space between us.
“I’ll come back for you.” His shadowed face looks this way and that at the small room I stand in. “For the first hundred years, this was my room,” he whispers like a confession.
My heart dips down low. He doesn’t look at me.
But he can’t seem to walk away either.
“I won’t leave you in this fucking room,” he vows.
He turns back to his friends and the three of them share a few unspoken words that pass in the quiet.
“Roman,” I whisper as my hand slides over his along my jawline. He’s so cold to the touch. This prison is literally seeping into him. “You should go,” I say with as much strength as I can find rotting inside myself.
His laughter is a cutting, eerie sound in the dark.
“That’s never gonna fucking happen, beautiful.”
“What? Why?” I utter with so much confusion sinking through me.
“Because,” his eyes blaze into mine with pure honest emotion shining in the depths. “Because I fucking love you, Cersia. I love your wit, and your anger, and your fucking mouth. Goddess that mouth,” he murmurs.
And then he’s kissing me.
The dampness and the cold no longer exist. This prison, the Night Witch, the entire Realm of Hell, they no longer exist when he’s kissing me like I’m the only air he’ll ever need for the rest of his miserable life.
His hands slide desperately through my hair but his tongue slows, sliding over mine once more before pressing his lips to mine ever so gently. And then he steps back to look at me.
The pressure in my chest alone could break me. The way he’s looking at me, I could die right now and feel only happiness.
“I love you too,” I whisper and the words linger in the darkness between us.
“Are … are you sure? Because you don’t have to. I can—like fuck right off right now if you want me to, beautiful.”
My laughter is a quiet rumble that slips away into a sad sound of realization.
He steps closer. His body envelopes mine. He holds me like I’m a forbidden secret only the two of us will ever know. The space between us doesn’t exist. His fiery scent, his warmth, his strength, it’s all around me.
“Zilo loved you first, you know?” Avain says from somewhere very close by.
My head lifts and the three of them are close now, circling me and staring down on me like they won’t ever leave this prison so long as I’m locked away inside it.
“Hardly,” Zilo says with a slow shake of his head.
His long hair is loose and hides his features from me but I see him glance my way briefly.
“It’s true,” Avain confirms with a taunting smile tilted at his friend. “I heard him confessing under the moon before everything happened.”
My eye widen but Zilo refuses to meet anyone’s questioning gaze. And we are all questioning this tall tale Avain is telling.
“I think you’re confusing cursing with confessing,” Zilo mumbles.
“No, no, no,” Roman says as he folds his arms solidly across his chest. “By all means, please tell us what you whispered to the goddess just last night about the woman you’re constantly warring with.”
We wait. All three of us hang on the silence as Zilo’s lips open and then close. He studies me then, his gaze unfiltered as he looks down his strong nose at me.
And then with a long, heavy sigh, he gives in.
“I said—I said, I know I brought her here to steal the heart of a cruel prince.” His lashes close slowly and he exhales even slower. “And I knew Avain would love her with ease. I knew Roman would fall under her spell … I just … I didn’t think I’d fall for her too.”
His gaze is heavy and unblinking. The weight of his stare sends a shiver across my arms that shakes me to my core. My heart pounds in my ears and I feel all three of them staring at me. But all I see is him.
“Zilo,” I whisper and my voice cracks. My fingers slip into his warm palm but he simply shakes his head at me.
“I don’t expect your love, Cersia.” His smile is halfhearted and hurts my heart right to the core.
“You’re the most beautiful woman in all the realms and I’m—I’m a fucking guard.
But what I said to our goddess is true. You’re an impossible woman, Cersia.
And you’re impossible not to love. I just want you to know that. ”
“As are you,” I whisper to him as my palm slides up the spine of his back ever so slowly. I pull him against me and his brows furrow together in confusion.
He’s clearly never been seduced before.
What a shame. You’re telling me no women has ever looked Zilo in his hardened eyes and thought… you’d be a fun ride to climb. If I survive.
“What are you thinking?” he asks hesitantly and all those dirty thoughts slip right out of my head as I realize he truly is confused about our closeness in this moment.
Intimacy is a bewildering sentiment to someone who’s only ever felt cruelty.
I lift against him, my palms flattening over his smooth chest as I inch little by little on my tip toes.
His attention shifts over my features like he can’t possibly guess what might happen next.
He doesn’t lower for me in the slightest. Why would he, after all?
My fingers shove hard through those soft long locks of his.
His eyes widen as if an inkling of a clue might be rattling around in his mind.
I have to pull him roughly down against me.
His gasp of surprise is a delicious sound that catches against my mouth.
And before he can piece it all together, I slam my lips to his.
The tension in his spine flexes before easing into calm for possibly the first time in his entire life. Big hands slide slowly down my back and he pulls me flush against his hard body.
Goddess he’s huge. Why does that thought alone make me moan against his lips?
“Fuck you’re tiny,” he growls out and I smile against his kiss as he devours me all over again.
His storming feet pound over the flooring and my back hits the cold wall before I even realize what’s happening. Warm fingers slide beneath my pants. I shove at the offensive material until they’re pushed fully from my hips by a gentler set of hands.
“Why the rush, beautiful?” Roman asks as he kneels and helps me step out while Zilo’s teeth nip along the lowest part of my neck, catching my breath with every slow press of his lips against my skin.
“The—the queen. She’s waiting,” I utter as my lashes fall closed and I pant against Avian’s lips.
He kisses me slowly, just a taste.
“She can wait,” he whispers.
“She owns the entire Kingdom,” Roman murmurs as his gaze darkens and falls to the space just below my hips. His warm fingers slip along my wetness there and he seems mesmerized as he watches his index and middle finger slide back and forth over and over again. “Right now, we own this moment.”
My whimper is diminished the very second it escapes. Avain steals the sound away with slow flicks of his tongue. His fingers drift softly through my hair and he holds me intently, possessively.
The cold chill of the prison isn’t felt despite how quickly my clothes are lost to the floor. Warm hands skim across my ribs, my breasts, my ass, and every inch in between. Hot tongues flick against my nipples until they’re pebbled and aching for more.
Zilo worships there slowly as his friends tease my pussy first with their fingers and then with their mouths. Avain keeps kissing me long after I lose the ability to kiss him back. My moans are shaking breaths that he kisses away and coos sweetly to me in the darkness.
“We’re going to take care of you, Cers,” he whispers along my ear.
“We’re going to take you away from this place.
But first … we’re going to make you cum so hard you’ll think back to your time in this prison with longing.
” His taunting smirk is lost on me as Roman’s tongue swirls firmly across my clit and my head flings back to the brick wall so hard I see stars.
He's pressing me hard along the edge of oblivion over and over again and I’m about to lose all control.
And then big hands are jerking me forward. The warmth against my sex is gone. Avian’s sweet, sinful words slip away.
I’m straddling hard hips and staring down on beautiful starry eyes that shine up at me in the darkness.
“I don’t know if you’re ready, beautiful,” Roman whispers as he holds my hips and rocks my center back and forth against the hard length of his cock.
A smile toys at the corner of my lips as I lift ever so slowly, ready to take charge and rock every inch of this beautiful man’s torturous world.
As I grip his length and line him up along my wetness though, he lifts his hand. His index finger wags back and forth as he literally tsks at me like I’m still his puppy in training.
“Ah, ah, ah,” he says with a disapproving shake of his head.
His elbows slide up and he holds himself at my level as he smiles knowingly at the confusion pulling between my brow. Seconds tick by in the darkness and still he just smirks at me.
What is he thinking?
Strong fingers dig into my hips and I’m pulled ever so slightly back, my ass lifting in the air just a fraction more. My head turns and Zilo’s hooded eyes as focused intently on my ass in his hands. And his enormous cock positioned just behind me.
“I said we’d take care of you, not the other way around,” Avain tells me.
He kneels at my side, his fingers pushing back the hair from my neck as he kisses there sweetly and slowly. My body trembles as Roman then covers my breast with the flat of his tongue, flicking lightly at the end before nipping at the tender flesh.
Something hard sways between my thighs. Zilo’s grip on my hips tightens as he sinks in little by little, taking his time stretching me before sliding back just slightly and sinking back in all over again.
My legs shake around him. They surround me.
They take every part of me for their own.
Keeping the sounds of my shaking breaths for shining little sparks in the darkness of their memories.
Or perhaps I’m just glorifying my own memories of the four of us.
Because I’ll never forget the sound Zilo makes along the back of my neck as he drives all the way in, growling and cursing and worshipping the goddess for making such a beautiful woman like me.
I won’t forget the way Avian kisses me slowly, a conflicting feeling from the hard pounding of his friend behind me.
And I definitely won’t forget he way Roman trembled in my hand as my fingers sneak between us and wrap around his length one finger at a time.
His head falls back with a groan and that’s the only time I give him before I lower to my hands on all fours and press my lips gently to the tip of his dick.
My tongue swirls around him until a big hand tangles through my hair the moment I taste his saltiness along my tongue.
I slide down his length slowly, teasingly.
My name on his lips is a prayer that encourages me to try to take all of him as much as I can until I’m moaning around his shaft as Zilo fills me from behind.
I reach to the left and Avain’s warm hip meets my palm.
I slide down his smooth abs until his thickness meets my fingertips.
It pulses in my hand but someone else’s fingers slide over mine as I pump up and down his shaft.
I lift for only a moment to find Roman’s taunting smirk.
He holds my gaze as his hand slides down his friend’s cock in time with my own.
Avain’s palm hits the wall hard at his side and the groan that leaves his lips is a delicious sound that I feel all through me.
His back arches as his gaze drifts from his friend to me. His lips part without sound and he’s the sexiest man I’ve ever laid eyes on in this moment.
Avain’s other hand slips between Roman and I.
The roll of his wrist is slow and dominant and he takes his time working his friend’s cock.
I lower my head once more and my tongue flicks along Roman’s length slowly at first but the pressure of Zilo behind me has my thoughts and emotions too scattered to fully commit.
I can’t catch my breath. I can’t steady myself.
Every part of me shakes and trembles from the air in my lungs to my thighs.
As if he’s furious over not pleasing me, Roman sits up.
He presses warmly against me now chest to chest with a sinful smile along his lips as his friend never once stops rocking his palm up and down his cock.
He doesn’t pause the slow stroking of his hand against Avain’s length but he’s determined to touch me it seems. He holds my gaze with sexy, hooded eyes.
Roman’s fingers tremble against my wetness as he dips in slowly at first. He waits until Zilo sinks in as deep as he can before he pushes hard over clit at just the right moment.
And then I’m gripping his shoulder hard.
My orgasm is a demanding pulse that consumes my entire body.
The pounding of Zilo’s hips against my ass never pauses and when Avain’s teeth rake against my neck at the same time as Roman’s fingers circle my clit, I’m coming all over again before the last one has even finished.
Again and again they drag every ounce of pleasure from me. They take turns touching me and touching themselves. I don’t know how long we go on like that in a tangled mess of groans and shaking breaths that shudder long into the night.
It feels endless. It feels consuming.
It feels … powerful.