Page 68 of The King's Man
Her mouth was open and she grabbed for me, her body shaking, her cries growing higher, thinner.
“Jann…Jann!”
“I’m here.”Mine.“I’ve got you.”
The light shifted until her skin seemed to sparkle with it—that rush, that wave, thatdriveinside me pushing out, reaching,clawing for her. And for a single, sparkling moment I was certain it would take. My heart raced harder, slamming in my chest as I pumped into her faster and faster. She clung to me, calling, crying,needing,hands gripping my wrists, body clenching and her eyes wide.
“Jann what… what is—Oh god!”
I bellowed as she came and pounded into her, thoughtlessly breaking the connection between us when I tipped my head back and roared my claim to her. But as my orgasm detonated at the base of my spine, and my heart exploded in my chest—a forest fire of need for her tearing out of me to find her—half my heart poured out of my body and into hers, filling her and owning her, branding her mine…
And half didn’t.
In the foggy, distant horizon of my soul, some part went still that should not have been still and a chill entered my chest.
Shuddering, coming, body in thrall, I snapped my head back to find her with my eyes—and felt as if I’d been thrown from a great height only to land on stony ground. Ecstasy and terror were twin flames, both threatening to devour me.
My ribs creaked at the impact, forcing the air from my lungs, and forcing me to watch helplessly as pieces of me rushed to her and found their final home, while others were left in freefall.
The bond had left my body to find her, and somehow… somehow she had not received it. Not all of it.
The joy of the bond was a wave washing over still waters—some coming to pull me away, others unmoved.
I shook with bliss, and snarled with pain as my skin went up in flames and only some were sucked away, while half that blistering heat I’d had for her was turned back on me.
Body jerking, I bellowed again, but this time in pain and Diadre, twitching and crying from her own orgasm, panted and clawed at me.
“Jann…Jann, what’s wrong?!”
I jerked and twitched, seared to my bones, clinging to her, wordlessly pleading with her, my heart hammering like that of a bird in the jaws of a cat, so fast that I feared it might actually explode.
I was torn in two.
One half of me owned by her. The other… alone.
Pieces of the bond returned to me… limping, weak, shriveled like fresh growth in the too-hot sun.
With a final cry, I collapsed over her, panting, holding her to me, arms curled around her and over her head, hands holding her as I gasped and grunted, fighting to find my way through as it seemed like I might be ripped in two like a piece of paper in the hands of God Himself.
I have no idea how long I lay there, jerking, swearing, in pain and fear until it finally eased. But when I opened my eyes, I lay on my side. Diadre was on her knees, leaning over me, eyes wide with alarm and cheeks still pink, her hair mussed so beautifully…
Her mouth moved. She spoke, but I didn’t hear her.
The bond.
I needed her, but reaching for her was like reaching through water—everything distorted.
The bond!
She was growing frantic. I needed to speak, to find my words again. But I could only think one thing.
The fucking bond is incomplete. Torn.
Shattered?
On the edge of tears, Diadre grabbed my shoulder and shook, her lips forming my name. I couldn’t answer, couldn’t find air to speak. But I grabbed her wrist, pulling her hand to my chest and planting it there, right over my heart…
The faintest echo of a whisper of a sizzle snapped in my skin. But that rush, that crackle…
