Page 107 of Prize for the King
He points at the ceiling above the bed, and I shake harder, imagining what it would be like to lie under Magnar or one of my knights and see our reflection. Khay kisses my nipple, and I hiss from the abruptness of it. He chuckles and sucks it into his mouth, and I arch with a loud moan.
I didn’t realize it was possible to be this aroused. I’m burning up.
“What an excellent idea,” Raduna growls, parting me with hisfingers while Khay still sucks, flicking his tongue over my nipple in ungodly ways. “I need to see her from every angle when we fuck, and even when we don’t. When she slept last night, and I was inside her, fuck, Khay, I looked at her beautiful face and prayed. I prayed for her to be real, because she seemed like a dream, too good for the likes of us.”
Khay sucks off my nipple with a wet sound, and Raduna dives in, licking me where I’m the wettest. I keen, shaking violently, and Khay kisses my forehead.
“She is too good for us. Our treasure, more beautiful than any other woman in the world. Smarter, too. And so sexy. I never even thought it was possible to want someone this much. She’s the first and only woman I ever fell in love with. Oh, man, if you could just look at her, but don’t. Keep doing what you’re doing, because our girl really likes it. I wish I were an artist. Such a beautiful face twisted in bliss deserves to be painted.”
I come when Raduna sucks my clit into his hot, sinful mouth. I come hard, all the impossible, loving words they spoke ricocheting in my head with every wicked pulse of my flesh. When I relax, still throbbing with aftershocks of bliss, I realize I’m crying, and not in a pretty way.
“Shh, come here,” Khay whispers, tucking my teary face into his chest while I wail, something horrible and dark uncoiling from where I didn’t even realize it was, slithering around my ribs, suffocating me.
A weight is gone, and it hurts to breathe.
Raduna lies behind me, and I’m surrounded by my two knights, their bodies solid and warm, still clothed. I cry myself to sleep in their arms.
XXXIII Mother
I wake up to a sunlit room, finding only Arvi in bed with me. He sits up against the headboard, reading a book.
He’s wearing spectacles.
“Um… Good morning.”
He turns to me with a grin, marking his place with a folded piece of paper. “How did you sleep?”
I stare at him. The spectacles are round, their frames thin and gold. Arvi could never look scholarly with the tattoos and all those knives hidden around his person, but he does have a certain intellectual air now. It’s very attractive.
“Thank you,” I answer when he frowns at my silence. “What are you reading?”
“Oh,” he says with a sly smile. “I stole it from your castle’s library. You had nine copies of it. It seemed important.”
He shows me the cover. It’s a book I know well and hate—Lady Darbury’s Manual for Young Ladies’ Betterment and Education. It’s a very thick, heavy tome, and we had so many copies because Avinia used to beat me with it whenever I turned out to be a disgrace and a disappointment—so a few times a week, on average.
“Why would you read this horrible thingwillingly?” I ask with distaste.
“I see you’re familiar. Well, I want to understand you better. I had little time to read when we rode, but I dove in this morning. It’s quite fascinating. Considering you grew up with all these rules, I’d say you turned out all right. A princess who actually followed all of these would be an abomination.”
I snort in agreement. “Have you seen the part about the appropriate ways to smile? My governess had me practice in front of the mirror for days until my face was numb, and she still beat my hands every evening and pronounced my smiles unseemly.”
Arvi turns his face away, his spectacles flashing as light reflects off them. He clears his throat.
“You can’t say things like that and expect us not to have that woman drawn and quartered,laruna,” he says, still not looking at me. “It makes me so angry to imagine you beaten for something so ridiculous. I don’t know what to do with that anger if I can’t at least pull out her teeth for daring to criticize your gorgeous smile.”
I know he said some significantly more outrageous things, but all I focus on isgorgeous smile.
My chest squeezes a little, but not as much as it used to every time one of them gave me a compliment which I knew was untrue. Instead, butterflies take flight in my belly, and I remember last night, Khay and Raduna kissing sweet things into my skin, forcing me to take the praise with pleasure.
I’m lighter now, light enough to consider it. Maybe my smile truly is beautiful?
I let myself believe it and beam at him, so happy and fizzy inside. His jaw slackens, and he swallows roughly.
“See? That’s what I’m talking about. Fucking stunning. I love your smile.”
“Thank you,” I mutter, not brave enough to say it with my whole chest. “But pulling teeth, Arvi? That’s so gruesome!”
“It’s fitting.” He shrugs. “Teeth for lying about your smile, fingers for beating your hands, and her fucking heart for making you hurt and cry. It’s fair, no? And it’s not like you’d have to watch it. I’d just have my fun until all the anger was gone, then I’d wash up, tell you it’s done, and fuck you sweetly. What’s not to like?”
