My breath seized in my chest.
“You have options and I’m going to make sure you’re aware of every single one. You deserve the best and if I’m not that then I will willingly step down every time.”
I didn’t know what to say. I could hardly breathe. All I could do was watch as the people in the room spun in circles and drank themselves into happy stupors. The town would be an absolutemess tomorrow but I couldn’t find it within myself to care. These people deserved it. They needed happiness. There hadn’t been much of it, as of late.
His lips brushed the curve of my shoulder. “Gods, I will never be able to get the look of you out of my head after tonight. Your greatness practically radiates from you and I don’t know how I didn’t see it before when I first grabbed you.” He chuckled against my skin. “Blinded by beauty, I guess.”
“Stubborn man,” I managed to breathe out.
His tongue traced up the curve of my neck and I squeezed my eyes closed as my legs began to tremble. What kind of game was he playing? “Let me apologize correctly, let me worship you in the way you deserve.”
How could I possibly say no?
If anyone wereto ask me how we got back to our home without touching each other and looking completely innocent, I wouldn’t have known what to say. My skin was on fire. The air was full of electricity around us. I was sure we looked anything but innocent. I didn’t know how we didn’t race from the celebration just to tear each other’s clothes off on the way. It was all I could think about. The thin fabric covering my body was too much, I needed it off. I needed him like I’d never needed anything else. I was a big ball of nerves that had never wanted something so badly.
The door swung closed and he was on me. There was little time to prepare as his hands slid into my hair and my back hit the wall. His mouth was warm and tasted slightly like spiced wine and dirty promises. I didn’t know what to do, or where to touch. He removed his hands from my hair and guided my own down his body. First to the buttons on his shirt. With trembling fingers, I undid the first few but the rest seemed stubborn andbefore I could finish my task, he made an impatient sound in the back of his throat and ripped the last six buttons free. They popped and pinged along the wall and the floor but it didn’t matter. He immediately had my hands on his hot skin and every thought I had about anything else was gone. All I could think about was his mouth sliding down the side of my neck and his hand pushing the thin fabric from my shoulders. A chill raced through my body as the cold air brushed my nude skin. My breasts tightened at the feeling of his palms on my sides. When his mouth brushed the skin between my breasts, I thought I was going to collapse. My knees shook as I tried to remain upright before I knew it, he scooped me up from the wall and carried me straight to his room. His mouth hadn’t stopped what it was doing, it simply went back to my lips.
He seemed to devour me. His lips were relentless but I didn’t mind. All I could think about was this. It consumed my every thought. My every want. I was blinded by lust and need like never before. As soon as my back hit his bed, my dress was torn from my body as if it was made of nothing but tissue. The beautiful work of art didn’t matter, I would mourn it later when I could bask in the memories of what this night would bring. I would probably keep it as a reminder to look at when I felt lonely because I knew that would come too. It was inevitable.
“Where did you go?” Ryven’s low timber interrupted my thoughts and I felt my face flush.
I shook my head against his blankets and watched his eyes go dark as he licked the center of my chest. Was this what heaven was like?
“Stay with me,” he rumbled against my skin and I felt myself melt even more. “Watch me please you. Be here with me when I taste you.”
My mouth went dry and I fought to keep watching him as he lowered himself farther down my body. He couldn’t possibly mean?
His bright eyes met mine as his tongue swiped across me and my legs fell open in shock. He had. His grin was mischievous as he lowered his face to the center of my legs again and licked me once more. A moan escaped my lips as my head fell back. He stopped his efforts and my eyes flashed to his.
“Watch me please you,” he said as he ran his thumb down my center. I fought to keep my eyes on him as he continued working my body into a big ball of ecstasy with his mouth and tongue. How was it possible to feel this good? How was it possible to feel this alive?
I never wanted to come down from this high and I could feel it building bigger and bigger with every press of his mouth. So many things made sense now that had never made sense before. His lips continued to move against me as he pushed a finger inside of me and I almost came undone. The sparks—the euphoria—it was almost too much. I felt like I was on the edge of a cliff about to dive off and there was nothing at the bottom to catch me.
Louder moans escaped my lips as he picked up the tempo with his mouth and started to move his finger. My breath hitched in my throat as he lifted his head and grinned.
“Fall apart for me, let me hear you, let me taste you, let me savor this.”
And that was all it took. I fell right off of the cliff into an abyss I had only thought I’d experienced in the past. Whatever pleasure I’d brought myself in the middle of the night thinking of him was nothing like the pleasure of falling with him.
He continued to kiss, lick, and devour me as I fell apart over and over again. Every moan only seemed to fuel him and when I began to pull away, he would push me back down. He wasn’tdone inflicting this torturous rapture on me. When the last wave of intense thrill died down, he crawled up my body, laying kisses in his wake. Everything felt new and different, but in the best way. I could hardly feel anything with pleasure still coursing through my every nerve ending.
He kissed me long and deep as I tried to reach for his leather pants. He moved out of my reach and pressed his lips to my cheek instead.
“Let me make you feel as good as you made me feel,” I whispered. He smiled softly against my neck and shook his head.
“I want nothing more but tonight is about you.” His lips captured one of my nipples while his fingers found the other and I forgot about anything else but the feeling of his hands and tongue on me.
“Please,” a moan slipped free.
His eyes met mine as he released my breast with a soft pop. Heat curled within me again and I knew this was something I would easily get addicted to.
The first crashseemed like something far away. We could ignore it, we could continue. The way Ryven’s tongue was tracing circles on my body, I couldn’t possibly think of anything else. I couldn’t possibly stand to see what was happening outside of our chambers.
But then another one happened and rocks rained down on us. We could no longer ignore what was happening in the keep. Ryven pulled his face from my body, his eyes were wide, and something glowed from his back. He reached back and his hand wrapped around the hilt of one of his swords. His face looked conflicted as he pulled himself off of me the rest of the way and stalked to the terrace that overlooked the small city beneath us. Another explosion went off closer and Ryven was thrown intothe wall. More rocks and debris rained down on my naked skin and I sat up quickly. Ryven squeezed his eyes closed and shook his head before tossing me a pillow.
“Put this over your head,” He marched back to the area that overlooked the chaos. He clenched and unclenched his jaw as his eyes bounced between me and the obvious attack happening. “I can’t leave you but the keep needs me.” His words were a whisper, obviously not meant for my ears. He ran his hand down his face and shook his head.
“Go,” I answered for him.
