Page 31 of Ruthless Reign

Why…oh, why…did I goad him? Perhaps I was tired of being the barely touched princess. Perhaps I longed to be fucked so hard I couldn’t remember my own name. Or perhaps I just wanted to rip off the weight of expectation between us. He’d had the most issue with this part of the marriage contract, and because of that, our sex would always mean more than it would to any other newlyweds.

He shoved into me so hard I surged up on my toes and sucked in air, my back curving into the contact. Once fully seated inside, he froze, shifting his weight behind me, using his feet to spread mine farther apart.

“Fucking hell, you’re tight,” he said. “So fucking hot and warm and…” He trailed off, murmuring soft perversions I couldn’t hear.

No, all I could focus on was how big he was, how much he stretched me in the most delightful ways. His fingers dug into my wrists, nearly painful in how hard he held me, and he grabbed my neck with the other hand, a sort of collar that both held me in place and labeled me as his possession. It should have been revolting, but the sensation of being claimed…by him…amped up my excitement.

His thrusts came slow at first. He eased out only to carefully push back in, and while that felt amazing, it frustrated me. He promised to smash my face into the table and fuck me so hard I couldn’t stand. How would he accomplish that with such a tedious pace?

After an eternity of fretful teasing, I growled and met his ruts with punishing ones of my own. His grip on me tightened.

“Is that all you’ve got?” I hissed, glancing over my shoulder at his clenched features. His eyes were wide and sparkling, his lips parted in exasperation, and his brows had pulled together to make an adorable scowl between them.

At my taunting, he held on to me harder and changed his angle, surging into me so rough and deep, I could swear I felt him in my bones. He hit my cervix, and it sent stinging anguish up my body and down my legs. I whined, shifting my hips to accommodate his length. But he wouldn’t let me.

“Oh, no,” he growled, moving his hand to my hair and gripping it to hold me in place. “You wanted this, you fucking take it.”

I struggled against him, trying to push myself up to no avail. He outweighed me by at least a hundred pounds of muscle, something that should have terrified me but only made me more aroused. Finally defeated, I relaxed into the pure debilitating bliss, the pressure of my carefully calculated control slipping from my chest. With him, I didn’t need to worry about it. He would take me how he wanted, and I liked it more than I should and there was nothing I could do about it.

In that submission, I found the purest form of ecstasy. My body tensed around him, my cunt turning to a vise grip the longer his savage pounding continued, every nerve lighting on fire. My toes curled at the sound of the table legs scraping across the floor. My fingers clamped into fists. Some deep-seated emotion in me snapped as my climax finally yanked me under.Moans poured out of my mouth, turning to sobs and eventually to screams when the sensations became too much.

Roman grunted and sank his nails into me, but I couldn’t feel any of it through the haze of my own explosion. The heavens parted to welcome me into their righteous kingdom. Had I died right there on that table? Was my heart still beating? I hung suspended between earth and purgatory for an eternity, and when I crashed back into my body, he had stopped moving.

His cock twitched inside me, indicating he had reached his release, and his hand rested in front of my face, bearing the weight of his body as he panted on top of me.

“Fuck, Julia,” he whispered. The scent of his cologne and sweat brought me back to my right mind, and I took a deep breath before wiping at an itch on my cheek. When my fingers came away wet, I realized I’d been crying, and tears stained the tablecloth under my face. “Are you all right?”

I shook with the fury of my suddenly released emotions, all the anger and frustration and sadness so callously wrenched from me by my new husband. He took a step back, sliding out of me, leaving the evidence of our combined orgasms to run down the insides of my legs.

“Fuck, come here.” He touched my shoulder, perhaps trying to help me stand, but I pushed away from him, holding myself up on the dining room table as I finally met his gaze. He genuinely seemed concerned, which contrasted with the wonderfully monstrous way he’d handled me only moments ago.

“I’m fine,” I said, my tone curt and cold. “Do you think that’s the first time I’ve been bent over a table and fucked like a wild beast?” It was.It definitely was. But my pride forced me to scoff, determined to make sure he couldn’t see my vulnerability or how he’d turned my insides to mush. “I think we’ve sufficiently practiced enough for one night.”

I grabbed my knife from the table, turned, and forced myself to walk toward the stairs, steeling myself against my wobbly knees as I gripped the railing for dear life. When I made it to my room, I let out a deep breath and headed to the bathroom to clean myself up.

9

JULIA

Itossed and turned most of the night, struggling with how much I liked what had happened between us. He was a Rose, a deplorable man with a villainous history and I shouldnotenjoy fucking him—especially not like that. But every time I moved, I ached between the legs, and it reminded me of how adequately he’d split me open.

I still felt his hands in my hair, and when I rolled out of bed the next morning, there were bruises on my shoulders and neck from where he’d gripped me hard to rail into me deeper. They should have repulsed me, but a sick smile pulled at my lips and a demented sense of accomplishment rattled down my chest.

You should be ashamed of yourself,whispered my mother from beyond the grave. I couldn’t imagine what my father would have thought. His only daughter, his princess, married to a Rose. Not justanyRose, but the prince. The heir apparent. The new president.

If you’re the king of this ruthless reign, then I’m your queen.

We’d made that official last night, and even if it was only pretend…practice…my stomach fluttered with the thought of doing it again. I didn’t even care if it started as a fight. In fact, Ipreferred to get him all wound up and flustered. I liked it rough with him. I liked when he took control, when he forced me into submission and held me there in his capable hands.

For the first time in a long time, I almost felt…safe.He had the power to hurt me, to kill me, but he wouldn’t. Not only that, but he wouldn’t let anyone else do it, either. I’d slapped him and held a knife to his throat, but all he did in return was smile and lean in. It was maniacal, certainly, but also strangely comforting. I existed in a world of madness, and my marriage to the Rose president had become a tentative safety net.

Still, I didn’t trust him completely, and now I knew I couldn’t trust myself around him. Even if I wanted to like him, even if I wanted to lose myself in the ridiculous emotions bubbling in my chest, I couldn’t. I was cursed. Anyone I loved had been eventually killed by my family, and of them all, Roman walked precariously closer to the edge. Gabriella would get a great thrill in dispatching him in front of me, torturing him until my heart gave out.

No, I needed to keep that stupid, tedious organ protected. There could be no fluttering romantic notions between us. Roman and I had an understanding, nothing more.

I dressed and did my makeup (leaving his marks exposed) and ensured I smelled amazing before heading downstairs for breakfast. As usual, he’d already cooked and now stood on the other side of the island in jeans and a white T-shirt. I’d grown up around men who wore suits unless they were sleeping, so the sight of him in such casual clothing should not have sent such an ache down my spine. Yet, there I stood, raking my gaze down to his boots and back up again, shivering with the memories of last night.

“Good morning,” he said, sipping his coffee. He ran the length of me with a heated stare, pausing for a moment on my neck before reaching my eyes. “How’d you sleep?”

---