A Kingdom of Blood and Betrayal (Stars and Shadows #2)(19)

His other hand slid across my breast, rolling my nipple between his fingers, and I cried into his mouth as I pushed my chest harder into his hand.

“So perfect,” he murmured against my lips before dragging his hand slowly down my stomach until it met the spot where we were connected. He slid his fingers through me, but he never stopped thrusting. I didn’t know what to concentrate on. I couldn’t decipher which feeling was the one I was desperate to chase.

“I’m filling you up so perfectly, princess.” His fingers skated over my nub, and I bit down on his bottom lip as my body shook. “You need me? You need me to fuck you until you’re unable to move without remembering me inside of you?”

“Yes,” I cried out and wrapped my arm around the back of his neck. He was surrounding me, filling me so fully, yet I still needed more.

I wanted to feel him like fire in my bones, burning me alive with everything that he was.

“Good girl,” he whispered against my mouth just as his hand pulled away from my sex and came back down hard. The slap against my sex ricocheted through my body, and I couldn’t hold it back any longer.

I cried out his name like a prayer of desperation, and he held me to him as he slammed into me over and over again. My pleasure coursed through me on the edge of pain, but it was the kind of pain I would chase for the rest of my life. He plunged inside me one final time with his hands gripping into my flesh and his low growl echoed through the room.

We sat like that for a long time. Our thighs pressed together, his arms still holding me, and our breathing ragged and reckless.

As my pleasure settled, my heart rate skyrocketed. Everything about him scared me, and I had been willing to give him too much. I gave him more than I ever should have ever allowed.

In that moment, I felt like I would follow him to the end of our world, and I would willingly destroy it to stay at his side.

And nothing frightened me more. That truth coursed through me, my magic feeling its truth with every spark of its power, and my chest ached. I had been prepared to do anything for him, all while he was lying to me.

“I need to go back to my room.” I tried to pull away from him, but his arms tightened against me and his forehead pressed against the back of my neck.

“Please don’t do this.”

Panic clawed at my chest, a caged animal looking to rage, and I knew I needed to leave.

“Let me go, Evren. I want to go back to my room.”

His hands shook against my skin, but he finally let out a harsh breath against me before letting them fall to my sides. I scrambled away from him, and I could feel the proof of what we had just done dripping down the inside of my thighs.

I quickly grabbed his shirt from where it lay discarded on the floor, and I pulled it over my head. I needed the protection, anything to put space between us.

Evren was still kneeling on the bed before me, and I could hardly look at him without feeling regret. It wasn’t what we had just did that filled me with anguish. It was regrets over why we were here. Regrets over what fate had forced us into. I regretted forcing myself to take another heavy step away when every part of me was begging me to return to him.

“Stay.” He reached out for me, but I took another hurried step back.

“No.” I shook my head and wrapped my arms around myself as doubt and fear ate at me. “I shouldn’t have let you bring me in here in the first place.”

He swallowed hard as he flinched back from my words. “Don’t fool yourself into thinking you didn’t want this.” He ran his hands through his hair, but I couldn’t stop myself from looking down his body. Every part of him was chiseled from years of work and dedication. He was a warrior in every sense of the word, and it was masterful to see.

And it was just the reminder I needed to remember who he was. He was a prince first and a warrior second, and he wasn’t mine at all.

“I need to leave.” I looked back up at his face, and he looked so dark and beautiful still kneeling before me. “This can’t happen again.”

“We both know that’s a lie.” He climbed from the bed, and I stepped back to put more space between us. “We both know neither one of us is capable of staying away from the other.”

“I don’t know that.” I tried to convince him along with myself.

“You are so fucking good at so many things, princess, but lying isn’t one of them.” He ran his thumb over his bottom lip, and I felt desperate to go to him and pull that lip into my mouth. “Your body was craving me just as badly as I was craving you.”

“I’ll find someone else to crave.”

He stopped on his path toward me, and I could see his magic swirling in his eyes. Dirty, dark, beautiful magic.

“Don’t say things like that to me, Adara.” His hands fisted at his sides. “I will destroy anyone who even thinks about touching what’s mine.”

“I’m not yours.”

“The fuck you aren’t,” he growled. “I’ll let you keep telling yourself that if that’s what you need, but just remember what you cried out to me just moments ago. Remember that I am your fucking mate, and there is no one else who can give you the things that I can.”

I watched him without saying a word. My chest rose and fell harshly, and the warring feelings inside me felt like they were soon to crash.