Page 39 of Lifeblood

“Fuck,” he cursed as he raised his head. Our eyes met. His flashed silver. “You taste divine.”

I wanted to say there was a reason for that, but my mind had become a cotton-filled, needy mess at the sound of a moan escaping from Gareth, the fucking King of the Court of Brimstone. The otherwise tightly wound, in control, angry hardass.

The sound of his giving in had broken me. So instead of replying, I reached for the back of his head with my free hand and pulled his lips to mine. He groaned into the kiss and rolled the fingers of my bleeding hand over the knife cut. I sent magic to that palm and closed the wound while Gareth’s tongue slid against my lips. I allowed him access and tilted my head, deepening the kiss as he wrapped an arm around the small of my back.

Our mouths danced, but he quickly dominated me. I fucking let him. It was the least he deserved after I’d tried to steal from him. After getting away. Nearly blinding him.Hidingfrom him and the other kings for so damned long.

I let him take my mouth as though he were claiming all of me, and Gareth rose to the occasion. His kiss was hot and fierce, and by the time we separated, it was with ragged breaths and heaving chests and him using his free arm to lift me up into the air. I wrapped my legs around his middle and slid against him, moaning as I felt his hot, hard length between us. Large. So large. Every movement sent more shivers through me, every bit of friction rewarding pleasure across my core.

Gareth growled in my ear as our hips met again and again. I couldn’t stop grinding against him. It was like every last bit of hesitation was gone now that the air had been cleared, now that our true forms had to either surrender to our primal roles or work together for something more. And this was surely surrender. This was surely primal. But it was not going to end in a fight or worse.

Gareth walked with me to the nearest wall, one hand at my head, and slammed my back against it. His mouth was back on mine, then along my chin and neck, then down along my collarbone. Every searing-hot kiss he planted elicited a moan from the deepest parts of me.

We should stop, my mind called. But I didn’t want to. Gods, I didn’t. I’d wanted this the very first night we’d met, even if it had been completely and utterly illogical at the time.Thathad been the mate bond calling. This… This was more. This was the culmination of stress over the last few days. Of the tension with Gareth. Of the surrendering to whatever fate had in store. To—

Gareth pinned me to the wall with his hips and tore open the front of the dress, revealing my lace bra underneath. In another motion, he had that torn too, and then he was holding one of my breasts as his lips closed around the other.

I gasped loudly and arched my back as pleasure rocketed through me. The heat of his mouth, the heat of hisentire bodywas setting mine on fire with need. I ground my hips against him, reaching for the friction of his pants, of his erection, ofanythingthat’d bring this pleasure to a boiling point. My dress had ridden up my legs, leaving only the lace underwear beneath, but it wasn’t enough.

Gareth’s teeth tugged at my breast. I moaned raggedly, gasping for air, as his hand left my other breast and palmed down my abdomen. Lower and lower toward the heat that needed stoking. Toward where I really,reallyneeded Gareth right now.

He let me down to the floor in the same motion that saw him kneeling before me. Pushing up my dress and raking down my underwear with his fingers until it was at my ankles. I barely had time to say his name before his tongue was between my thighs. My head rolled back against the wall and I grabbed his red hair for support. His beard tickled between my legs, but his tongue—gods, his tongue. It expertly explored, bringing me straight to a boiling cliff of pleasure—

And then stopping.

He looked up at me. Said nothing.

“What—What are you doing?” I gasped out. I was nearly there, nearly cumming, and he’d juststopped.

A playful light shone in his eyes. Then it retreated as a dark seriousness came over him. “Beg me for it.”

My eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?”

“Beg for what you want,” he whispered as he drew his thumbs in circles along my inner thighs. So far from where I needed him. “You tried to steal from me, so I’ll steal this from you until you beg.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” I gasped and wiggled my hips. Gareth didn’t budge. “Are you serious?”

“Very,” he said simply. His thumbs traveled north more but stopped just short of where I needed them.

So, this was thetruepunishment for attempting to steal from a king.

“I want you to pleasure me,” I let out. “Happy now?”

“Hmm,” he said as he trailed a thumb along my center. Barely a touch. “That sounds like an observation to me.”

“Pleasure me,” I repeated. “Please.”

He licked his lips. Grinning, he slid his thumb along my center. I cried out a moan, happy just to feel pleasure again. “Louder,” he said. “Beg for what youreallywant.” He punctuated his words by sliding a finger inside me.

My lips parted in another moan, this one nearly silent. “Gareth. Please. Make me cum.” I couldn’t handle it anymore. Everything was hot. My cheeks. His breath. His very presence. My entire body.

Now it wasmewound tightly, and only Gareth could let me loose, and here he was playinggames.

“Good girl,” he said before returning his mouth between my legs. Another two fingers slid inside me. The combination of sensations, the hooking of his fingers, sent me screaming back toward the edge and soaring over it.

My toes curled as pleasure spiraled through me. My legs squeezed of their own volition and I was clawing at Gareth’s hair. By the time I came down from it, Gareth was already standing, spreading my legs wide, and undoing his belt. My head spun from wine and pleasure, but Mordred’s warning came back to me. His rules.

No one claims her.

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