So she leaned forward and placed her lips on his. He stiffened momentarily. But only for a moment. “Oh, hell!” The words sounded like a surrender. And then he was kissing her back.
Hot. Hard. Rough.
His lips devoured hers. Danika didn’t mind; he was finally kissing her again, and that’s all that mattered. She closed her eyes and held on to him as he ravished her mouth with wet, deep kisses, with a ferocious hunger that weakened her knees. It was as if he finally unleashed the hungry demons in him on her—as if he finally let go of the control he’d been trying to hold on to.
His lips devoured hers. In one quick shove, he had her hands pinned in the hard confinement of his above her head. He trapped her body beneath his hard body and he unleashed his demands on her. She moaned as his tongue plunged into her mouth, sweeping inside and plundering, owning. And she was kissing him back just as much, heedless of the sharp pang of pain that came from her thighs where his leg shoved her leg wider for him.
The flames that started burning in her blood from the first time he kissed her by the side of the river erupted into a sudden inferno, and she was lost, only distantly aware that she was gasping and grinding helplessly against his hip, her hand holding his shoulder and her mind blissfully empty beyond a formless depth of want, and desire, and carnal need.
So much need.
Then he tore his lips away from her mouth, his breathing as erratic as hers. “What are you doing to me?” The question was rhetorical, so Danika hadn’t bothered to crack her tuned-out brain for what to say to him. His enormous body surrounded hers, blanketing her.
She felt safe. Sheltered.
Danika hadn’t allowed herself to see the red flags of how she’d feel safe in the most unsafe place, how she’d feel sheltered in the most dangerous place.
He kissed her ear. “I… I…” He wanted to talk to her, but he couldn’t say the words. Instead, he rained kisses down her neck and back to her ear. “Creator, Danika. I want you so much,” he finally admitted.
Knowing the admission didn’t come easy for a man like King Lucien, and hearing him say that meant everything to her. “I want you too. So much.” She clung to him.
She heard him swallow. “I need….”
“Whatever you need, you can have. Take whatever you need,” she whispered, caressing his shoulder with a shaky hand.
“I do not understand the things you do to me…” he trailed off, sounding confused and angry at the same time. Then he slid down a bit, angled his head, and took her rosy nipple into his mouth. At the same moment, his hand spread her thighs wide, and he shoved into her in one deep plunge all the way to the hilt.
Chad lay with Sally on the bed. She rested her head on his chest while he stroked her head rhythmically. They were fully clothed. He was running his hand through her long auburn hair while she kept her eyes closed, listening to the soft thuds of his heartbeat.
Sally didn’t know how much time had passed since they’d been conversing. He’d promised her he would no longer avoid her. He’d ordered his food and hers, and the guards had brought it in. They talked as they ate. She’d discovered a lot about him that she never knew before. It was the most cherished time of their lives, this one moment they were spending together. Especially now.
Chad finally admitted to himself that he had feelings for Sally. Deep-rooted feelings. And so help him, Creator, but he didn’t think he could keep denying them.
He must be very selfish for wanting to keep something so precious to himself. Something so beautiful. He must be selfish, but he wasn’t letting her go again. He couldn’t. “I care about you,” he blurted out, breaking the surrounding silence.
Sally looked up at him shyly. “I care about you too, sire. I…” She swallowed. “I love you.”
He shuddered at the admission and pulled her close. “God, Sally. How can you say words like that?”
“I say them because I m-mean them. I love you, Chad. Or I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t be lying in your arms.”
“I love having you here in my arms. God help me, but I love it too much.” He tilted her cheeks and kissed her passionately.
Her fears deserted her, and she kissed him back just as passionately. She pressed closer to him as his mouth took hers tentatively. Her body warmed all over. Chad wanted her so much; his phallus had grown so hard and thick it was almost painful. But he forced himself to stop kissing her.
“Please.” She clung to him, not wanting it to end.
“No. No, Sally,” he groaned, trying to get his breath under control. He pulled himself away from her. He wouldn’t dishonor her or disrespect her by knowing her body carnally outside the bounds of marriage. She was sacred and precious to him; he wanted to perform all the sacred rites of marriage before taking her to his bed.
Tears stung Sally’s eyes at his rejection. He didn’t want her. He didn’t even want to put his hands on her.
“Am I?” She swallowed tightly and forced herself to ask, “Am I too dirty for you?”
“What!?” he asked in bewilderment, not understanding why she would ask a question like that. Then he saw the tears falling from her eyes, and it was like a sucker punch to his jaw.
“Sally…” He reached for her.
But she pulled away from him in embarrassment and pain. She got up and ran out of his bedroom, her heart breaking in two at his blatant rejection.
.