Page 32 of Bride to the Fiend Prince
Through the cloth of his trousers and mine, I felt the Fiend Prince harden, firm and wanting. Wantingme, the wife he’d been forced to take. A normal physical reaction to the proximity and the friction. It meant nothing, of course. He’d have the same reaction to anyone else if he was smushed into a closet with them.
The voices continued in the hallway outside, and though my pulse was still racing, my grip on the Prince’s hands eased. But when his lips bumped lightly against mine, I clutched him again, an involuntary reaction. He hesitated, his soft mouth floating against the thin, sensitive skin of my lips.
“That’s done, then,” said the man. “On we go.”
Booted feet clumped away, down the corridor.
“Amarylla,” whispered the Prince.
At the gentle utterance of my name, a violent pulse of delight raced through my body, but I only gasped, “I need air.”
He opened the door, and I practically fell into the hallway.
“We need to get back to the library before anyone else comes.” The Prince’s cheeks were red, and he wouldn’t look at me. He checked around the corner, then whispered, “I can still see them. Wait… wait… and now.”
He ducked out into the hallway, and I followed. We hurried back the way we had come, quickly, quickly… and then the staccato tramp of more booted feet spurred us ahead and we ran, swiftly and quietly.
“Just up here,” panted the Prince, pointing to a dark doorway ahead.
But the guards’ feet and voices were close—too close. They were about to round the corner. They would see us before we reached the safety of the library passage—
I ran faster, gripping his wrist and yanking him along with me. We ducked into the passage a scant half-second before the sound of the oncoming feet clarified and the voices grew louder. They were in the hall, approaching quickly.
“Do they patrol this passage too?” I whispered.
“Yes, and they carry lights. They’ll see us even if we run.”
“What will we do?” I tried to summon my usual defiance, my will to fight—but fighting these guards would not do us any good. I would only end up being punished, or worse. “I don’t want to be whipped again.” The words burst out of me, a quiet, desperate plea.
The Fiend Prince’s shadowy form advanced on me in the dark. His hands closed on my arms, and he pushed me against the wall and kissed me just as a pair of guards stepped into our passage, lifting a light to inspect the space.
I barely had time to register the shocked expressions on the guards’ faces before my eyes fluttered shut, sealed themselves blissfully because my body was humming with a delirious compulsion, focused on the place where the Prince’s lips molded to mine.
He tasted fiery, dark, and sweet. That spicy heat of his mouth—it was as addictive as I’d imagined. I craved it, relished it, swept my tongue between his lips seeking more of it. He smacked one hand onto the wall above my head, a delighted murmur rolling through his chest as he shifted closer. My hands traveled to his backside, pressing his hardness to my aching core. His wet, silky tongue slid over mine, and suddenly I needed more of him against me, in me. I let the longing ripple through my throat, a hum of desire.
“Your—um, Your Highnesses.” A guard’s tentative voice sifted through the hazy lust in my mind. “You can’t be back here.”
The Fiend Prince broke our kiss, peering over his shoulder at the guards. “Oh, hello! I’m so sorry—I’m afraid we got carried away. We were in the library, you see, and we just wanted a little more privacy, so I thought we could just step into this passage. I suppose it was a foolish idea.”
“No one but you and the Dreadlord are supposed to use that door,” said the guard firmly.
“Of course, of course. A momentary lapse. I blame it on my wedded bliss.” The prince grinned. “I’m the luckiest man, truly. But we’ll go. So sorry for the indiscretion, and thank you for your diligence.”
The guards didn’t stop us as we moved along the passage, back toward the secret door leading into the library. I could hear them muttering anxiously behind us. But what were they to do? If we’d been deeper into forbidden territory, they wouldn’t have believed the Prince’s explanation, and they would have detained us, questioned us—perhaps punished or imprisoned me. But they’d caught us so close to the library—and the Prince’s act had been so very convincing—
I didn’t dare hope we’d gotten away with it, not until we’d passed through the gloomy channels of the library and made it back to the more familiar areas of the Cursed Palace. When we reached the Fiend Prince’s suite, his guards were back at their stations. Their helmets hid most of their faces, but their mouths were grim, a sure sign that they knew they’d been tricked into leaving so we could wander without an escort.
“Sire,” said one of them, the stout woman I’d sparred with the other day. “You and the Crown Princess should not be wandering the palace alone.”
“But we weren’t alone,” he said cheerfully. “We were together. I was showing her the library.” He added the last phrase in a sultry, significant tone, and the guard shifted her stance awkwardly.
“Very good, Your Highness,” she said. “Next time you would like to show the Princess around the palace, we will be happy to escort you. It is our duty, and failing in our duties would bring the wrath of the Dreadlord down upon usall.” She emphasized “all” in a heavy tone that sent cold fear into my stomach. This was a warning, that they would suffer if we broke the rules again. ThatIwould suffer.
“Understood,” said the Prince quietly. His hand touched the small of my back as we entered the bedroom together.
28
Two servants were in the Prince’s suite, tidying up and arranging the random items he had sent them to fetch. One of them had brought a tray of prettily iced buns and steaming mugs of cider. The Prince and I took chairs in the seating area, and I sipped gratefully from a mug. The hot liquid soothed my nerves.
