Page 37 of Hopeless Kingdom
That smile of his lights up his eyes into a sexy look that almost has me dragging him back into my room.
The door closes. I force myself to walk away. Opening the wardrobe in the corner, I don’t waste any time. I grab the first nightgown I touch and begin to change as I walk toward the bed. It’s a thin, white material that stops at my mid-thigh. The soft blankets tease my bare calves and I slouch down until I’m right in front of Daxdyn.
“It’s rude to use someone like this, Dax. If you only want me for my bed you could just say so.”
He doesn’t answer but he does turn his head until his starry eyes are looking up at me. They’re a dimmer color tonight. Not filled with shining humor. His eyes are open but unseeing. Uncaring. Unalive.
“What if, eventually, you want to marry?” Daxdyn studies the soft, white sheets as he asks this question. It’s as if he doesn’t really care about the reply, but I think he does. I can feel the tension in him, the slow bobbing of his throat as he waits for my answer.
I don’t even know where that question came from. Does he think I want to marry Darrio?
“I’m not really the marrying type, Dax,” I whisper and my stomach sinks as I realize how true that confession is. His fingers thread through mine, clinging tightly to my hand.
I could be. If I tried to be happy with someone, I probably could be.
I could be happy with Darrio. I could be happy with Daxdyn.
Iamhappy with them.
That thought alone scares the hell out of me.
Sarcasm defaults through me and I say the first snarky thing I can think of.
“Besides, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I’m like the Eminence and stuff. I don’t think someone with that title really needs a man in their life.” A smirk pulls at my lips and he almost smiles at me as well. “I’ll really have my shit together when I become the Eminence.”
Lightly, his fingers trail over the Hopeless lines scaring my forearm. From the inside of my elbow down to my wrist, his touch feathers over my skin, sending a shiver all through my body.
He leans up until his chest is brushing mine, and I’m starting to realize my closeness seems to energize him.
“I don’t think someone so holy and all-powerful would be affected by my hands on her body,” he whispers against my neck, making my thighs clench together.
I clear my throat and the smile is lost as I part my lips with a shaking sigh.
“I’m not affected by you, Daxdyn.” My teeth sink into my lip to force myself from breathing out his name.
“Is that so?” His words feather across the crook of my neck before his mouth follows. His tongue sweeps over my flesh and my eyes flutter closed.
“I feel nothing,” I say in a trembling voice.
Slowly, his teeth rake across the side of my neck before he kisses it tenderly. His fingers sink into my hip as he holds me to him and continues kissing up the side of my jaw.
“Nothing at all?”
I try to speak but only a whimper comes out.
Hot flicks of his tongue trail down my collarbone and he pushes aside the top of my nightgown, raking his teeth over the top of my breast. The smooth sheet tangles in my legs as I shift beneath his hard body. His hand pushes against the soft material of my short nightgown. Warmth sears through me as his palm travels up my thigh. Slowly his fingertips sneak beneath my clothes, toying with the smooth skin of my hip.
“Tell me you don’t need a man. Tell me you don’t need me,” he mumbles between kisses across my chest.
A terrible smirk fills my features. My lips part and my words come out in a pained and broken sound. “Whatever you’re about to do, Daxdyn, I can already do all by myself.”
The logical part of my mind is giving me a standing ovation, while my ovaries are crying and throwing a tantrum over my stupid, stupid pride.
His head hangs until it bangs against my sternum. All of his torturous movements come to a halt.
“You’re the most frustrating woman I’ve ever met,” he whispers against me.
I force myself not to touch him. If I touch him, I’ll push his shirt off, and I just know it’ll end with his sexy lips pressed slowly against mine.
