Page 67 of The Royal Curse

“You told me to say it,” I protested. “You made me!”

“You meant it.” His tone suggested I’d be sorry if I denied it. “And I’ll make you say it again. Just to be sure.” He lunged, and I craned my neck around to find him rummaging on a shelf above the head of the bed. “I knew she’d left this up here,” he said, and sat back on his heels with a jar in his hand.

When he pulled the stopper, the scent of sweet herbs wafted out. Some salve for healing, no doubt, but he put it to a much different purpose, taking out his cock and slathering it from tip to base, slick and glistening.

“I almost forgot how big you are.” I hadn’t meant to say that aloud.

Andreas grinned, predatory and bright. “I won’t let you forget again,” he growled, and leaned down, bracing one hand beside me and using the other to rub the remaining salve into me and then guide his cock where he wanted it.

The head kissed my hole, gently pressing against my rim. I couldn’t see anything but his eyes, pools of black surrounded by a gleaming ring of bronze. He held me completely spellbound, his natural magic so much stronger than anything a mage could’ve produced to put me in thrall. My whole body quivered, empty and wanting, my hole clenching around nothing.

And then he thrust, all at once, one long, heavy slide of his thick cock so deep into me that it punched the air out of my lungs.

For a long moment he didn’t move, buried in me, throbbing in me, letting me feel every inch of him.

“Tell me again,” he said, and kissed me, lips catching on mine, tongue teasing the roof of my mouth and then pushing in to claim me.

Contradictory, because I couldn’t speak with him taking my mouth like he owned it. And I couldn’t speak at all impaled on that massive cock.

But I moaned into his mouth, and that seemed to be enough for him, because he started to thrust, hollowing me out as he pulled his hips back and filling me to the brim when he shoved back in, kissing me, opening me, making me his.

He tore his mouth away from mine and bit at my throat. “Your Highness,” he rasped against my skin. “My love.Mine,” and he pounded into me deeply, every stroke lighting me up the way my magic had illuminated him, sparks flying inside me until I screamed the roof down, just as he’d said I would, my throat raw.

I clawed at his shoulders, fingers digging into his tunic, and arched up, cock painfully hard and throbbing, balls achingly tight.

One more thrust that felt like it turned me inside out, and I clenched all my muscles, squeezing him and drawing out a groan, and came all over us both, soaking the front of his tunic and spattering my own skin.

I collapsed, shuddering, my breath coming in gasping sobs.

Andreas bit down on my throat, the sting of his teeth making me convulse with an aftershock almost as strong as the first wave of pleasure. He went rigid, his cock swelling in me, heat spreading from the head of it to fill me up inside.

He released his mouthful of my neck and dropped his head down, sweaty forehead on my shoulder, his whole body heaving. When I opened my eyes, I couldn’t see anything but his black-clad shoulder blotting out the rest of the world.

Exactly as it should be. I never wanted to be without his protection again—although the longer I tended to my cursed magic this way, rather than with a potion, the better I’d become at protecting myself.

And him, too, when he needed me.

Andreas was so strong in every way, so muscular and brave and skilled with a sword, a respected commander with a clever mind and a quick wit. But when I slid my hands down over his chest and wrapped my arms around his back, stroking along his spine with one hand and burying the other in his hair, he shivered and thrust into me one last time, pressing a kiss to my collarbone. As if my touch was enough to make him weak.

“Niko,” he said softly into my shoulder.

I closed my eyes and let myself sink into the bed, everything else spiraling away. I had Andreas in my arms and inside me. We were both alive. And beneath my lingering exhaustion, I could feel my magic beginning to stir again, like a delicate little shoot rising from the roots of a plant that’d been dormant under the frozen ground.

We were alive. My magic would recover. Everything else could wait. Maybe I’d take a nap with Andreas wrapped around me, and he could fuck me again while I was still half asleep, whispering in my ear, making me moan into the pillow…

Footsteps in the corridor heralded a soft rap on the door, and my eyes popped open, all my relaxation fled.

“Sir! There’s dinner ready, and they want to know if you’d like it here or if you’ll come to the hall downstairs.” That was Salvius, and he sounded nearly as worried as when Andreas had been dying. “I can sit with His Highness if you’ll take a breath of air. Ten minutes, sir. I promise I’ll come for you if anything changes.”

I stiffened, braced for Andreas to leap out of bed and rush to make sure Salvius didn’t see or hear anything untoward. Although Salvius’s implication that Andreas hadn’t left my side for so much as a moment suggested…

Andreas didn’t really move, simply lifting up enough to prop himself over me on his elbows and turning his head to call out, “Give us a few minutes, Sergeant. And I wouldn’t open the door, if I were you.”

There was some muttering from outside the door, Salvius’s voice and another man’s. And then a startled laugh.

My face went boiling hot in an instant. Apparently whoever Enzo had left outside had functioning ears and had taken it upon himself to give Salvius a report.

“Um,” Salvius said through the door. “I’m glad, uh, His Highness is awake. Give a shout when you want dinner, then! Um. Sorry to disturb you, sir. Your Highness. Food’s hot!”

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