Page 224 of Golden Queen
At some point he released his grip on my hand, and my fingers fell away in place of my throat working to take all of him. It wasn't even close—he was much too long, but I thought it was enough as he groaned and thrust his hips into my mouth, filling me in a way that I had not even known I wanted.
Abruptly, he slid out, tipping my head back. His eyes were liquid black, his features seeming wreathed in shadows so that they stood out more sharply—more defined—his gorgeous, wicked face in better detail.
I looked up at him in question. "Why did you stop me?"
"Your mouth feels so good, Sera darling. But inside your tight cunt is the best place in the fucking world.” His voice had lost much of its cold, angry edge, and his sinful eyes were alight with mischief. He was toying with me and enjoying it thoroughly. Just as I was. He knew how much I liked it when he said such shocking things to me.
“Now spread your legs for me."
A command from him—one that I knew he would never—in a million lifetimes give to me if he knew I didn't want to obey it...it pleased me in a way that was hard to describe.
I knew that doing this for him, being his plaything, was a power in itself. Because he liked it too—anddear fates, when he made that low sound of pleasure in his throat—pleasure he got from my body, from the things I did to him—it entirely undid me.
So I obeyed my shadow lord. I shrugged off my tattered shirt and jacket and tossed them aside, leaving me in only the silky halves of my chemisethat hung from my shoulders. I laid back on the bed and spread my legs, baring myself to him.
The reaction was gratifying. His eyes danced with gold fire, momentarily lighting the shadows writhing in the depths as he devoured the sight of me open, waiting for him.
He slid his hand up my chest, pinching the tight bud of my nipple as he grazed over it, and then his mouth was on the other peak, his tongue flicking over the sensitive point before his teeth came against it, biting and sucking by turns.
I moaned, arching my back and then my hips against his, begging him to fill that ache in me. "Please, Io. I need you inside me."
"For you, Sera...anything." He kissed me, plunging his tongue into my mouth as he slid himself inside me.
I groaned a guttural sound of relief as he pulled out and thrust into me again, and then again.
He slowed, running his hand up my body, over my neck, softly roaming. "Tell me, Sera. How do you want it? Slow and...sweet?" He illustrated with his hands, cherishing me as he trailed his fingertips over my skin…and with his body as he slid in and out of me, slow and deliberate. His hands almost warmed a little as they roamed across my body in that sweet, seductive touch.
But then, abruptly, he sank into me with force, jostling the bed, making the headboard strike the wall. His hand went to my throat, wrapping around it and tightening. The cold seeped through his skin, making chills rise along my flesh where he touched me. "Or do you want it like this?" he growled and pushed into me harder, punishingly, with one hand splayed on the bed beside my head and the other still wrapped tightly around my throat.
There was no choice. Not then, at least, as the need for him to take me roughly—to dominate me, use me—overwhelmed everything else. His deep, hard thrust had stoked the fires inside me, sending my muscles winding tight and my body shuddering, crying out for release beneath him. "Yes...like that. Please," I begged.
His dark chuckle sent my pulse racing, and when I met his eyes, I saw the thing that had scared everyone around him—the dark, merciless beast with those sinfully wicked black eyes, mouth curved in a smile of pure, male satisfaction.
He slid into me, shaking the bed again as it struck the wall. And again, seating himself so deeply inside me I cried out with a mix of pain and pleasure. Again and again, he took me so that I could hardly catch a breath as he pounded into me with fury.
Those fingers pressing into my neck were some delicious danger that only spurred me on. It would take less than a thought to break me—entirely shatter my body beneath him, and yet, I craved it as my mind comprehended the fact that this man would tear his own heart out before he harmed me.
I climaxed with a scream that tore free from my chest wildly as fire wreathed my hands, my arms, racing up and over my body.
His black fire unfurled as he thrust into me with his own release. Our flames met, twisting and blending in a mass of golden fire and cruel, dark flame that surrounded us. His magic burned through me, blazing a path of dark, angry, beautiful power through my body.
When the shaking of our bodies had eased and our breaths had evened, he kissed me. Tenderly and wantonly. He held my face in his hands as though he could not let me go as his lips trailed across my skin.
His own skin was fiery hot again, that familiar warmth that guided me to him like a compass, drawing me to true north and what felt like the only way I could have ever gone.
He was back inside me in the span of a few moments, easing himself into me like breathing.
I saw our breaths mist in the air and realized the chamber was freezing, as though open to the cold mountains beyond.
"I can’t do it, Sera," he whispered.
"I know." I did not need to ask him what he meant.
"I'm so fucking sorry." He said it as though the mating bond's absence was somehow his failure. Or did he mean that he was sorry for his inability to let me go, knowing it would mean war and my own people's suffering?
Either way, it was the same, and it did not matter. It wasmyfailure. They were both my failures. "You have no apologies to make, Io."
"I have failed you—in every way. I made you a vow that I know I will break no matter the cost to anyone but you."
