Page 30 of The Crimson Princess
It’s his way of telling me that he knows I can sense his power, that he knows I have the power to do so, and I don’t pretend otherwise. “No,” is my only answer, and already he leans in again.
“Wait,” I insist a second before his lips are on mine, fearing temptation will lead me down a path of danger and uncertainty when a princess should follow the straight and narrow.
“You’re killing me, princess,” he murmurs roughly, grit in the bite of his words, his hands sliding from my face, away from me.
He’s close but no longer touching me, my hand still resting over his heart, and I don’t seem to want to pull it away. How can I when my body already aches for his in every possible way? When I’m cold everywhere I was hot with desire only moments before.
I’m killing him,he’s declared and with such a raw quality to that confession that I believe him.
And yet he stopped. He didn’t kiss me.
The honor and control in this action defies the stories of debauchery I’ve heard of the vampires, but I no longer know what to believe of him or his kind.
“What is it that you need from me, princess?” he presses, his tone managing to be both sandpaper and silk, demand and seduction.
“I need to know how you’ve tasted my father’s blood.” I expect my question to be the lightning igniting the thunder in his chest all over again, his heart beats slow and steady.
“In battle,” he explains with no hesitation, “but only out of necessity and of his free will.”
I’m stunned by this explanation though I’m certain no one who knew of such a thing would dare speak it out loud. “What battle? What happened?”
“It’s a long story, princess. As you can imagine I don’t wish to discuss it in this very moment.”
“You mean not ever,” I accuse.
“No. I simply have you, not your father, on my mind right now.” His hands find my face, his touch what I can only call brutally tender, and just that easily I’ve already forgotten my father. “I’ll tell you more later,” he murmurs. “Ipromise.AfterI kiss you. A long time after if I have my way.”
After we’re naked and moaning in each other’s arms, I think, and heat pools low in my belly. His breath mingles with mine now, warm with promise. He hesitates only a beat, but long enough for me to pant with need, before his mouth closes down on mine, the lick of his tongue, pure seduction. I’m melting for the vampireking when I should be pushing him away and I’m fairly certain many a gale would call me shameful. But they would not deny themselves if he stood before them, if they felt the pure power and dominance I feel as the king of vampires slides his fingers under my hair and his hand cups my neck.
“Your father would not approve,” he says softly.
“My father’s approval is not a familiar prize,” I admit.
He eases back and studies me with the intensity of fire on ice. “You aren’t even a little afraid of this or me, are you?”
In this moment, one might think I was a world of sexual knowledge, which I am not. My sexual coming of age was in the human world, and it felt nothing like anything I’ve felt with Toren. Perhaps because they were nothing like Toren. There is something about the king of vampires I cannot seem to resist.
“Maybe it’s you who should be afraid,” I taunt. “I did kill the frostburn with my blood. And you are a vampire who I found hunting for blood tonight.”
He laughs low and deep, heavy in his chest, the sound vibrating through me and settling low in my clenched belly. His mouth dips to my mouth, but when I think he might kiss me again, his lips are on my neck, his teeth scraping the delicate skin there. My body tenses and my fingernails dig into his upper arms.
“I was hunting you, princess,” he murmurs, near my ear, and this time his teeth tease the flesh of my lobe and I swear there is a pinch and lick that follows. As if he has tastedmy blood. “Afraid now?” he challenges, his voice is rough with a seductive taunt.
Intrigued, I think, but all I give him is a whispered, “Not even a little,” before I pull back and tilt my chin up to meet his stare, “and if that’s what you want from me, you’re going to be disappointed.”
His mouth crashes over mine again, and when his tongue presses past my teeth, in a long, wicked caress, I taste his need, his hunger, and it echoes my own. Incredibly, considering he is both alpha and vampire, his kiss is equal parts demand and tenderness, his hand on my back, fingers splayed wide and molding me closer. In his arms, in that moment, and oh so easily, the warrior in me slipsaway. I amnother now. I am a princess who is consumed by him, a man who should be my enemy, but is nothing that I expected, and everything I crave. I am lost in the ache that has become my need for this vampire, the king of another world, the stranger, I cannot resist.
Remotely, I’m aware of my back hitting the door, of the tug of his teeth on my lip, and then the pinch of his bite. I gasp with the iron taste of blood in my mouth. His tongue licks across the wound, and he eases back just enough for me to witness the pure lust etching his handsome face, the blood on his tongue, and on his lips.
My blood.
“You can’t kill me that easily, princess,” he declares, and then he’s kissing me again, and I can tastemeon his tongue, and I cannot even begin to understand why it’s erotic, why it excites me. I’m wild with need, touching him, my hands under his jacket, roaming the heavily muscled planes of his torso.
And when he tears his mouth from mine, he is all about removing barriers, and all I can think is,yesplease.He drags my jacket down my shoulders, and I take over, tossing it aside. By the time it hits the ground, his is there, too. “Your father would lose his mind if he knew you were here.”
“My father doesn’t need to know,” I say, and when he pulls me close, my hands flatten on the hard wall of his incredible chest, the snug tee he’s wearing leaving little to the imagination. And I like what I find, what I see, what he looks like and how he feels. “But let’s just call this our contribution to peace talks,” I add.
His fingers catch my chin, his eyes once again meeting mine. “Nothing about this is about peace or war. It’s about us,Satima. Just us.”
