She peered up at him in wonder. How could she ever hope to keep him? “But... but you...” she stammered, trying to find the right words. “Tell me something,anything, something no one else knows. Give me a part of you no one else has.”
He kissed her fingertips again, then moved to lie on his side facing her. His large, muscled body was outlined by the glowing of the cave’s bioluminescent light.
“Just as you do not belong in your world... I do not fully belong here. My father was an Unseelie warrior, but my mother was a princess of the Morning Court. Her powers came from the sun.” He paused for a long moment. “I know what it means to grow up knowing that those who brought you into the world did not want you. My father believed I would never be strong or ruthless enough to succeed him.”
Kate held her breath, not wanting to reveal that she knew some of this because of Patch. In a strange way they were alike, and that broke her heart.
Roan’s blue eyes seemed to frost over as he spoke again. “But Iwasruthless, Kate. More ruthless than my father could have imagined.” His voice deepened with a cold rage. “He told me that with his dying breath as my dagger pierced his heart.”
Kate’s heart skipped a painful beat. “You... killed your father?” The words were barely above a whisper.
The Fae king’s grip on her wrist was firm but gentle as he stroked the inside of her wrist. It made her heart jolt in her chest.
“Yes. He was determined to break the barrier between your world and mine for his own selfish reasons. It would have destroyed both worlds in the process. Someone had to stop him. And you are the only one who knows what I’ve done. Even my sister believes our father was killed by a Seelie warrior. The day after he died, we made a treaty for peace. I swore that my father’s death would go unavenged because it brought about peace.”
Beneath his determined, steely gaze, she glimpsed sorrow so deep that it could carve oceans out of the earth. “The truth was, I knew he must die. He had caused too much harm as king. Too much that couldn’t be forgiven. It cost me greatly to do what had to be done.”
Kate, strangely unafraid, moved closer to him and placed her head on his arm.
“What happened?” she asked.
“My mother left after my father’s death. When she did, something inside me withered. The parent who had actually cherished me left, and I could tell no one what I’d done. It would throw the Twilight Court into chaos, and others would vie for the throne. I am a fair ruler, no matter how I came to be king, but I knew others would not see it that way.” He paused, letting out a slow breath. “My power comes with a price—my solitude.”
He has no one to belong to and no one to claim as his own. Just like me.
“Is there no way your mother could come back?” Kate asked. “Is she truly lost forever?”
She swore she saw Roan’s expression shutter closed, blocking out any other displays of emotion. It was clear he didn’t want to talk about his mother anymore. Kate understood that need to curl into a defensive ball against the world, but she had hoped, perhaps foolishly, that Roan wouldn’t shut her out. Still, he had told her something no one else knew, something dark and sorrowful.
Roan leaned in close to her, his lips brushing over hers. “It could always be like this, if you wished.”
She took in the sweet scent of him, letting it briefly cloud her good sense with heady desire. Would it be so bad to just lie here and kiss him until the stars fell from the sky?
Roan kissed her deeper. “We could stay in this bed forever.”
The touch of his wicked, wonderful lips was simply too much for her. Kate slid closer, opening her mouth to his, letting his tongue play with hers. His tongue traced the softness of her mouth as he persuaded her with slow, drugging kisses, willing her to forget the world outside, to forget all but him.
She lingered in that moment, and when he rolled her onto her back beneath him, her legs opened around his hips, ready to experience heaven with him again. She’d gone from having no understanding of her body or its desires, to the woman she was now, a creature who craved pleasure, who knew what true pleasure was.
“Mine,” Roan whispered fervently. “My little Kate.” He lifted her arms above her head, pinning her wrists together in the bedding with one of his hands. A moment later, he removed his hand from her wrists, but they were pinned in place now by some invisible force.
Then he eased his other hand down to his cock and guided himself into her. She moaned at the sore stretching of her body as he entered her, sinking so deep that their hips were pressed tight together. There was no end to her and no beginning to him. They were simply...one.
“The way you grip me... ” Roan growled like an animal, his blue eyes glowing like a summer sky even in the darkness. “It’s like you never want to let me go.”
Kate nodded desperately. It was true. She never wanted to feel unconnected to him. Perhaps they could stay here forever in this bed, making love beneath the light of these cavern stars. He withdrew and surged deep, making her cry out with pleasure. Her arms strained against the invisible grip on her wrists.
Roan flashed her a wicked smile. “My pretty human pet,” he teased. “I rather like you helpless beneath me. Perhaps I will keep your wrists bound to the bedposts in my room in the palace and spend all night and the next day bringing you to climax over and over.” He thrust deep again, driving his words home.
She submitted to his control, letting him fuck her. Her body was his to tease, to torture with pleasure. Yet even at his mercy like this, she felt safe. Somehow, her body knew that he wouldn’t hurt her. Kate shook with excitement as Roan took her. In that moment, she could have vanished into the blue sky of his eyes.
It was both terrifying and exciting to let him take what he wanted of her, to submit, but it also made her feel desired... cherished. He was tender and cruel at the same time. His thrusts were hard, deep, almost punishing, but the look in his eyes, the way he focused on her every little reaction was intoxicating. He seemed to only think of her and what he could give to her and how she was feeling. The heady rush of that intimate connection was undeniable. She would never trust anyone else the way she trusted this dark Fae king.
He sees me,allof me.
And yet he seemed to want her even more... and Kate felt the same about him. He had shared his dark and terrible secret, and she was unafraid of him. She understood him and why he had done what he had and didn’t judge him.
“Do you trust me, my little mortal?” Roan asked.
