Page 110 of Tall, Royal and Grumpy

“Come on, Babble,” he said without sounding even the slightest bit strained. “Faster.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck. I wanted to look over my shoulder and see how close he was, but I couldn’t risk losing any momentum. Instead, my eyes chased after a route of escape ahead of me, and I spotted a trail through some tall scarlet red hedges trembling in the breeze. I made a beeline for the opening, heading across a corner of lawn.

A set of fingers brushed across the side of my neck.

I squeaked as my legs threw me forward through the opening, and Kai’s mocking laugh rushed up the back of my neck. “Almost had you there.”

He was taunting me. A big cat toying with a cornered mouse, grazing the belly of the little creature with a single claw until it quivered in fear. He was reminding me he was in control with that touch to my neck, and he got his desired effect. I turned into a frantic mess.

I also realised my mistake of heading through the hedges.

Three walls of scarlet red shrubs surrounded me, including the one I’d come through, with a stone wall opposite forming the large rectangular space. There was a path around the perimeter that gave access to the pale wooden outbuilding in the corner with a trimmed patch of grass in the middle.

“Looks like you trapped yourself, Babble,” the big bad wolf snarled behind me.

No, no, no. Yes. No!

I went straight over the grass, bounding around one of the three oval-shaped flowerbeds cut out in the lawn, hoping that I could misdirect Kai and circle back out of there.

In hindsight, it was an absolutely stupid idea sure to fail from the beginning. I was done for the moment I tried to zip around the second flowerbed back towards the opening.

He must’ve known what I’d been planning to do, because his hand was already out, ready to clamp around my elbow. By the time I realised it was there, it was too late to move away.

He caught me and I shrieked. He yanked me back and the momentum threw me spinning around to face him. I crashed straight into his front as he stumbled to slow down. I tried to take advantage of him being off-balance, but he was so much bigger than me, so much more powerful. So much faster. His corded arms wrapped around my waist before I fully extended my elbows, trapping me against his hot, heaving body with no escape.

“Got you,” he grated through a heavy breath, his cheeks flushed and his eyes so black and drugged on some manic sort of arousal.

“Kai.” I was panting, my burning lungs and lust-induced trembling leaving me weak. But I still struggled and pushed against him, trying to force my way out of his superstrength grip.

“Oh no you don’t.”

He lifted me up off the grass and dragged my tingling body all up his front. The big bulge of his erection dug into my lower belly, rubbing into me so good with every step he took. But I still kicked and wriggled and thumped his shoulders, fighting his conquering while craving my downfall.

All I achieved was making myself breathless as he took us inside the outbuilding. He slammed the door behind us, shaking the whole structure, and shoved something under the handle. Darkness whirled around me as he spun me away until the light from the two small windows on either side of the door poured through. My breath vanished at what I saw.

The glow in Kai’s eyes was absolutely feral as the light bounced off his irises, illuminating his cheekbones and the tight angle of his jaw. The panic that bucked through my chest shouldn’t have turned me on, but a hollow ache jolted so hard through my pussy, I whined in anticipation.

He chuckled. “Are you already whimpering, Babble?”

Faster than I could form a retort, he dropped my arse on a wooden surface in the middle of the space and snaked a hand around the top of my ponytail. He crashed his mouth over mine, forceful and greedy. His tongue chasing, cornering, catching my own as he’d just caught me.

I moaned under his rough domination but pushed and clawed at him, biting his lip as he retreated his tongue. That earned me a rough growl and a hard yank on my hair, sending sharp sparks all over my scalp. I gasped, and he took full advantage, plundering my mouth even deeper.

He kept his weight heavy on me as his other hand spread over my ribcage and shaped my body up my neck to squeeze my cheeks. He held me completely still, my lips puckered and forced open.

To his smug purr of satisfaction that left me no choice but to let him take my mouth however he pleased until my body shook and the strain on the fabric of my skirt bit into my thighs.

I gasped for air when he relented on his attack and slumped into the sturdy hold of his palm at the back of my head. My vision split and blurred before combining back into one clear view of Kai’s beautiful eyes, glowing and hooded as they travelled down my body.

“Look at you, Babble,” he whispered huskily. “So fucking beautiful all tainted in red.”

My mind struggled to catch onto his meaning. That was when I noticed the red dust all over his hand and down the sleeve of his white jumper, and I remembered his earlier threat.

He’d promised to mark me.

With a sharp inhale, I glanced down and gaped.

There was a path of red streaked up one side of my jumper. An obvious handprint over my left breast. And a trail that moved up to my neck and higher.

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