Page 23 of The Royal Curse

Because…I could feel him.

And that, more than anything else could’ve, broke through my fugue of curse-fueled desperation.

“Andreas,” I breathed, and shifted my hips slightly, because I couldn’t quite believe it. But unless he’d stuffed several rolled-up pairs of stockings into his trousers…I could feel him. He’d gone stiff all over, not just in that one crucial area, his arms like steel bands around me. He was barely breathing. I started to laugh, hitching almost-sobs that shook me down to my core and had me rubbing against him almost frantically. “It looks like you can definitely get it up.”

“And so can you,” he snapped. “You didn’t tell me you’d—stop. Please, Your Highness. Stop.”

But I couldn’t stop, because I couldfeel it. His cock, pressing between my legs, thick against my thigh and against my own cock, which was—it was hard, for the first time in years. Hard and eager for Andreas to impale me with his.

With strength I’d never have had without all the magic coursing through me, I shoved at his shoulders, and he rolled onto his back with me on top and straddling his hips.

Andreas gazed up at me, eyes blazing, lips pressed tight, a deep red flush along his cheekbones.

And I couldn’t look away. I went still, caught and pinned by the force of his eyes on me.

“You don’t want this, Your Highness,” he gritted out. “Stop before I have to hold you down.”

Hold me down—fuck, he meant that as a deterrent? I moaned and shuddered, and it took a moment for me to come back to myself.

His hands rested on my waist, fingers digging in, belying his words—and the long, thick erection pressing up between my legs didn’t help his case, either.

Andreas wanted me.

Hewantedme.

The last of my scruples evaporated in an instant. If Andreas wanted to fuck me, then I didn’t need to feel guilty for begging him to do it. And at that moment, I couldn’t remember why I’d been so insistent on maintaining my independence, on never giving another man the power over me he’d have if I predicated my control of my magic, my freedom from pain, my very life, on his willingness to fuck me.

It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but ending this torment, the hollow ache inside me.

I’d simply have to convince Andreas, my guard who’d sworn to protect and respect my royal person, that the best way to accomplish that would be to spread my legs and use me like his whore.

Chapter Nine

“You should hold me down, only you should fuck me,” I gasped, grinding down with my hips. Wait, hadn’t I meant to say something seductive and persuasive? The ridge of his thick, perfect erection pushed between the cheeks of my ass, teasing my hole, making me burn with helpless want and erasing any other thoughts from my mind. “You can have me if you want. Take me. Use me. Or I’ll sit on your cock and do all the work. Please, please—”

Everything went upside down, my stomach flipped, and then suddenly I was flat on my back and blinking up at Andreas’s flushed face and tight-lipped grimace. His fingers tightened around my wrists where he’d pinned them over my head. Andreas had landed between my legs, knees spreading my thighs wide around him.

“Please let me have your cock in me,” I finished, and Andreas went even redder and let go of one of my wrists. A quick scrabble ensued, me trying to touch him, and him getting me pinned again, this time with only one of his big hands wrapped around both wrists and the other flat across my mouth.

I bucked and fought, trying to rub my cock on him, and fuck, but it was so incredible to be hard, to want, to know I could be satisfied if he’d only give me what I needed—

“Knock it off,” Andreas snarled. “Please. Fuck.” He closed his eyes, opened them again, and said, “Your Highness, I know you can’t help it. But you don’t really want this. And I’m going to keep you from doing something you’ll regret. You asked me to.”

My eyes widened.Askedhim to? The hell I had! I shook my head frantically, but his hand didn’t budge. Finally, in desperation, I licked him, shuddering with desire at the heat and salt of his sword-callused skin.

Andreas yanked his hand away like I’d bitten him instead, clenching it into a fist at his side.

“I never asked you not to fuck me,” I said the second I had my mouth free.

“You told me you’d beg, and that I should…” His voice trailed off, and his jaw went all hard and set.

“You see?” I pushed up again with my hips, because I couldn’t help it, and the pulsing desire inside me kept building. Licking my dry lips, I tried to blink away the haze in my vision. Nothing helped. “I told you that youwouldn’tfuck me. Not that you shouldn’t. And you should. Please, Andreas? Please!” Nothing. Damn him. What would tempt him? My mind raced and my belly clenched and there was only one card left to play…no matter how much it shamed me that no one had ever wanted me before. But I could phrase it slightly differently, at least. “No one’s ever had me before. You could be the first. Show me how it feels to be filled. Please!”

Andreas’s hips bucked forward, the bulge in his trousers straining the fabric, and he hung his head down, shoulders like rocks. I cried out as the hand on my wrists clamped down like a vise. The pain stilled me, and I stared up at him, startled and shocked.

At last he lifted his head and met my eyes. His expression had me pressing myself back into the pillows, genuinely afraid of him in a way I’d never have thought I could be. Those metallic eyes. Mostly pupil, and fixed on me the way I’d seen a hawk look at a sparrow.

“I’m going to tie you to the bed,” he said, his voice terrifyingly level. “I’m going to gag you, and I’m going to bring—any one of the men. You choose. To watch over you. I’ll come in and out and give you doses of your medicines. Your Highness, I’m sorry. I thought I’d be strong enough to do this. But I can’t.”

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