Her eyes opened, and she looked down at him. He turned towards her, his eyes on her face. He looked like a better version of her king because he looked more relaxed than she had ever seen him.
“I scared you. Then I took you so savagely. Already some parts of your body where I gripped you are turning red,” he said to her.
If only her body was her biggest problem. Her external comfortlessness, bruises, and body were the least of her problems. The thoughts that she’d be saying goodbye to the life inside her was the primary source of her problem.
“I’m fine,” she whispered, giving a small smile to emphasize that notion.
He laid his head back on her body, listening to the sound of her breathing. What happened a few minutes ago still shook him. How he had lost it. He’d needed her badly. Never wanted to let her go. He could still remember how overwhelming it had all been. He needed nobody the way he’d needed her a few minutes before.
And she’d been there. She was right there. And she never left.
He’d scared her. He’d hurt her severely, and the thought did not sit well with him. She had choked tin terror and the need to escape him. And yet, she didn’t. She gave herself completely to him. Touching him. Urging him on. Caring for him. He closed his eyes and the feeling washed over him. For the first time since his father died, he felt connected to another person. She never let him go. And, for the first time in his life, he was willing to keep that connection. To fully give his trust to her. She would never betray him. Or leave him.
A cherished memory prickled his head. He opened his mouth to talk about it. “When I was a lad, my father was very strict when teaching me everything about being a good prince.”
Danika released her breath softly and listened attentively. She couldn’t resist touching him, and she didn’t. She swirled her fingers around his earlobes, slid it down to the stubble patch of his cheek and rested it there.
“He would teach me how to shoot an arrow. How to hunt and to fish. How to make decisions in court. My father said that the strongest king is the king of his people, not the king for his people.” He eyed her plump breast with interest as he spoke. “After every lesson from him, I always felt bombarded and overwhelmed. I would run to my mother’s chambers and fight with Melia about who would get the favourite spot to sit and listen to her stories. In the end, we would sit anywhere, and she always read to us. Told us lots of stories. As a child, she was my escape. After every tough day, I would go to her, and she would make it all go away.” He swallowed tightly. “And then, one day, she was no longer there.”
Danika didn’t stop touching him. He pulled closer to the crook of her arm so that her breasts became a breath away from his face.
“I’m sorry,” she breathed, not knowing what else to say.
He flicked his tongue out and licked her nipple twice. “It was difficult because I had to suddenly resume the responsibility of so many people because my parents died, and still I failed them all. We ended up in slavery and experienced hell for ten years. Ten horrible years that lives at the back of my head, tormenting me all the time.”
The way he paused in between every few words told Danika how difficult it was for him to talk about, and yet he was telling her about it so effortlessly.
He wrapped his mouth around her nipple and suckled in soft tugs. A shiver worked down her spine. He was fixated on her breasts to distract himself from his revelations.
One arm around his neck, and the other obsessed with his face, Danika held him like a woman would hold a child who nursed at his mother’s breast.
He let go of her nub with an audible pop, and his eyes found hers. “I made Declan a promise that I would get him out of that hellhole. I failed to keep that promise and it haunts me. I held on to Declan like a lifeline because he was the last of my relatives. The only person I had left.” Blue eyes fluttered closed, and he pulled her back into his mouth, sucking with more urgency this time around, causing her to grimace. Her breasts were bigger and more sensitive.
He released her puckered nub reluctantly and began playing with them. “His death was not an easy one. I don’t think I can ever get over it.”
Emotion welled inside Danika that he’d open himself up to her like this. She swallowed down the lump in her throat. “Death of a loved one is never easy to get over, but we must keep trying. That is because we’re alive, and we have to survive and keep our head above water.” She paused and debated if she should say the next thing on her mind. Would it upset him? She took a blind leap at it. “When my father died, I mourned him. He was never really a father to me, but he was all I had. That was before I found out how evil he was. That was before I found out that he was a monster who loved no one but himself. I don’t have anyone but Sally. And she keeps me going. Now she’s married.” Her throat closed up, and she blinked hard to keep the tears. Her friend was married, and she was happy.
He swiveled his head, pulling his attention away from her breast, and looked at her beautiful face laced with languid exhaustion. King Lucien enjoyed being this close to her. Maybe, just maybe, he could take a chance. Maybe, just maybe, he could try to let one more person in—someone who would never betray him. Someone who he could give more of his trust. Someone who would never leave him.
“Promise me, Danika,” he whispered hoarsely.
“What, my king?”
“Promise me you will never betray me. Promise me you will never break my trust.” His voice took on a hard edge.
Danika swallowed. This was the second time he had said those words to her. They sent a shiver down her spine. “I promise,” she vowed in a low voice.
“Promise me.” He buried his face in her neck. “Promise me you’ll never leave my side.”
The vulnerability he showed her shocked her. She could not imagine how difficult those last words must have been coming from a hard and powerful man like him.
Her throat cloaked up, but she whispered hoarsely, “I promise.”
He looked up at her. Warmth filled his eyes for the first time in years. He lowered his head again and kissed a small bruise on her neck. “I will never forgive you if you break any of those promises, Danika,” he stated softly but vehemently.
“I will never forgive myself, either.” She would never betray this man. Why would she ever betray him?
A man who had known more heartbreaks and emotional suffering than all the slaves in the whole twelve kingdoms. How could she ever betray him?
He took a deep breath, licking her neck. Silence descended.
Can I tell him about my pregnancy now? Danika thought.
Just the thought had her heart in her throat. She opened her mouth, “I… I… I’m…”
He raised his head and looked at her. “What is it?”
She swallowed tightly, “I’m… I’m… I’m pr….” But the words caught in her throat.
“What if I get pregnant?” she blurted out.
He stiffened all over. One moment he felt like a man, and the next, he felt like a stone beside her.
The silence that followed was nerve-wracking.
Then, “You should never worry about that. I have never given you to another man. I have never shared you before, and I do not have plans to share you with anybody.” He looked her dead in the eyes. “So, that is not possible, Danika. That, I can assure you.”
.
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