Page 53 of A Heart of Crimson Flames
“And what ifyouwere in control of me, hmm?” he murmured against my skin as he kissed down my neck. “What would you have me do to you, Sadie?” His mouth hovered over my nipple, his eyes lifting to meet mine. “Something like this?”
When he sucked my nipple into his mouth, my head dropped back into the mattress. His hands roved my bare skin.
“Not fair,” I moaned. “I was meant to be playing out your fantasies and now you’re determined to meet mine.”
“They are one and the same,” he said as he skimmed his lips lower. His breath skittered across the planes of my stomach, and I writhed beneath him. “Don’t move,” he commanded. “Or I’ll tie you up to feast on you just as I like.”
A little amused hum escaped my lips. I loved when he got possessive. He kissed his way to the inside of my thighs, hands hitching at my knees to spread me wider. His mouth hovered over my throbbing sex. At the first lick of his tongue, I arched back, chest heaving, too exhausted from the training to fight against the waves of pleasure that crashed over me.
Navin laughed against my wet core, clearly pleased with my response. “Perhaps this training won’t be so bad,” he purred, giving a soft taunting lick to my clit again.
“I’d train every day if you keep doing this to me afterward,” I moaned as he started working his mouth over me again.
His fingers circled my entrance and slid into me, stretching me, making everything he was doing with his tongue all the more acute. I reached over to grab his hair, to ride his mouth, when his hand snapped out and pinned mine to the mattress.
“I said don’t move,” he taunted, and my chest rose and fell faster, loving the command in his voice. He knew just what I liked, the way he took control in the bedroom, one less thing I had to be in charge of. But I liked to push him, too.
When my other hand reached for him, he stopped and rose up to meet my eyes. I looked at him with a defiant smile, a goading one that I hoped would taunt him into handling me rougher. His smile matched my own as he shook his head.
“That’s how you want to play this?” he asked and my smile widened.
He flipped me over roughly, his hand in my hair holding me down as I heard him fumble to grab his discarded belt. He quickly tied my hands behind my back, tight, the leather of his belt biting into my wrists. He yanked at my hips, pulling me back until my ass was high in the air and then brought his hand down on a cheek, stinging my skin. I moaned at the sensation, my skin buzzing.
“Yes,” I groaned as he repeated the action, spanking me again. My ass seemed to move toward his strikes. Gods, I hoped I’d have the perfect outline of his hand on me when we were done.
As I panted and writhed, he slid the head of his cock up and down my center, spreading my wet heat over myself.
I moaned, trying to push back like I had with the spanking, but the hand gripping my hair held me in place.
“Is this what you really wanted, Sadie?” he purred as he positioned himself at my entrance. “For me to fuck you hard?”
“Yes,” I panted. “Yes—”
My second begging word was cut off in a gasp as he slammed into me, making my vision glaze over. He was so big, but theangle with which he took me was hittingthatspot inside me and had my toes curling. My fingers clutched at the belt binding them together. It was already too much. My orgasm sitting just below the surface as he fucked me hard, slamming me into the mattress with each of his powerful thrusts.
I cried out with each piston of his hips. His hand in my hair tightened with a bite of pain that had my eyes welling and I shattered. The pain and pleasure so overwhelming I came as I screamed his name.
Navin battled my clenching channel, my release only aiding him with thrust after thrust until he was spilling into me, chasing my orgasm with his own. I was completely wrecked by the time he stopped moving, my breathing ragged, my body pulsing with the intensity of my climax.
Navin untied my hands and gathered me back into him, kissing me soft and tender as he smoothed over the sore spot on my ass. I loved this, loved how he could push me to the edge and bring me back, the dichotomy of his ferocity and his tenderness, so very wolflike himself.
“Only you,” I whispered and kissed him again, completely forgetting that we had come out here to practice magic. But when it came to Navin, I fell under a spell sweeter than any song.
Briar
I PICKED AT THE BLOOD BENEATH MY NAILS UNTIL THEY WEREso raw I couldn’t tell if it was Evres’s or my own. The day was silent, Maez gone to some part of the castle—or somewhere else entirely—I had no way of knowing. Either way, I didn’t dare go looking for her. Not now, not after everything.
I studied my warped reflection in the water of the fountain—long red hair spilling over my shoulders, bright blue eyes shining back at me. I wore no paint on my face, no kohl lined my eyes nor rouge on my cheeks. There was something tougher in my gaze than its usual softness. No longer was I the perfect little doll. Maybe this was truly who was there under all the smiles and faux pleasantries, maybe I’d always had this darkness lurking in me and I just needed someone to pull it out—to be more than what I was expected to be.
That I mightwantto be something more.
Ever since Calla claimed merem... ever since I saw them bloom into this confident leader, into the very best and truest version of themself... I began to wonder.
Maybe I could let myself be more, too.
I knew something for certain: I could be more than the doll, the puppet, the vixen. And rather than taming the rulers of theworld with my smiles and looks, I was more suited to tame them with my blade, my teeth, my claws. I thought of the way I’d attacked Evres, of his mutilated body, of the way I threw myself at Maez still coated in his blood. Of how much it delighted me to play into both her and my darkness.
It terrified me and liberated me in the same breath.
