Page 152 of A Crown of Tears and Treason
Plain and small.
Not interesting enough past the wedding night, Valuta had hissed.
I could stare in the mirror at how my cheeks had rounded and my eyes had lit up all day long.
Those comments still lingered.
“In the throne room, when I met the advisors, you said you’d never touch me,” I whispered. “Inanyway.”
After I found out about the cool charade we had to play in front of them, the logical side of me understood. And yet…
The blue in his eyes sparked as his face tightened with that otherworldly air that used to make me feel so unbalanced when we’d first met. Now, it only drew me in, like a moth to a godsdamned flame.
“Inany wayyour former groom would have,” he bit out. “You’d just asked me if I’d attack you.”
“You’re right. It’s just…” Back then, I’d been in that hazy, alarmed state after my wedding massacre and being thrust into the glistening world of the Blood Brotherhood I’d been taught to fear worse than the underworld.
A different Evie must have endured all of that and come out living. Logically, I knew I was stronger. But after a lifetime of being told I was wrong and not enough, detaching myself from those lies was difficult.
Zandyr waited patiently for me to gather my thoughts.
“You say we might be fated mates,” I began, unsure. Standing here in the shadow of Dria’s magnificence gave me courage. “I want to believe. I want the legends to be true.”
“I want that too. And they can be,” he said. “Our blood can sing for the other.”
I bit my lower lip. Gods, I wanted to believe that this–us–could be real. More real than a contract our parents had signed, than fate ramming us together, than duty and honor and everything else clinging to us.
“You have no idea what you do to me.” His hushed words pulsed through me. “Do you, menace?”
Me? What about him? Haunting my dreams with searing kisses, making me want to wake up every day next to him, hearhis soft breaths in the morning and his heated groans at night as he tasted my skin.
Torture. Delicious, alluring torture that I couldn’t get enough of.
Time stretched as Zandyr captured my lips in a gentle, teasing kiss. I melted back against him, one of my hands coiling around his neck.
I’d missed this. This madness that took hold of me whenever his mouth was on mine, demanding and certain. The teasing swipes of his tongue against my lips. The small groan that reverberated from the back of his throat into me as I gave him access.
He pressed his large palm against my stomach and pulled me against him. And I feltallof him, big and straining against the base of my spine. A shameless moan tore from my lungs as my back arched against him.
Whatever semblance of decorum this pavilion should have instilled in me was gone. Ancestors forgive me, but here I was, shamelessly dripping for the prince they’d warned me about. And wanting more.
His palm slid from my cheek down to my neck, thumb resting against my pulse point. In the dead of night, he’d ravaged me with kisses that had left me shaking and moaning with want. But this small touch felt more intimate than all the thrashing in our bed.
Because I let him touch my neck. Hold it. It was more a gesture of trust than passion, but it scorched my senses and hardened my nipples all the same.
“Do you feel it?” His urgent whisper brushed my ear as his teeth nipped at my earlobe. He gripped my hips, as he pressed himself harder against me. Gods help me, I pressed back, another moan falling from my lips. “Do you feel how much I want you?”
“Yes,” I moaned.
“Good girl.” He kissed my forehead, not stopping the torturous sway of his hips. “I think about you constantly. I can’t get you out of my mind no matter how hard I try. I crave your presence every waking moment and curse the gods when you are not with me. The memory of your smiles keeps me company wherever I go, and I always want more. I can’t even rest without you by my side. What you do to me shouldn’t be possible. And yet, it is.”
It seemed I wasn’t the only one unhinged tonight.
Suddenly, the connection pulled taught, then contracted, meshing us together.
Ifelthim. The torrent of sensation he’d tried to keep leashed from me.
So he wouldn’t overwhelm me with his desire for me. I felt that, as clear as if I’d thought it myself. I didn’t exactly read his mind, just his intentions.
