A Kingdom of Venom and Vows (Stars and Shadows #3)(63)

I lifted myself just enough for his cock to slide against my sex, and I whimpered as the head of him brushed against my opening. I dropped down slowly, enjoying every inch of him filling me up, and when I settled against him fully, I pressed my hands into his stomach.

“Fuck, you feel so good.”

I pushed against him, lifting myself up before dropping back down, and the sound of my body sliding on his filled the room. I did it again and again, before I dropped my head back and fell into a rhythm against him.

“So good.” Evren’s thumb touched my nub, and I came down hard against him as pleasure coursed through me.

I couldn’t control myself or the way my body moved against him. I was desperate for everything he was giving me, and I ground down against him as his thumb moved more rapidly against me.

I rolled my hips, feeling him deep inside me, and I moaned as he thrust his hips up to meet me.

“You are mine,” he growled and his body moved beneath me until his chest pressed against mine. He wrapped one arm around me, holding me close with his hand on the back of my neck. “Tell me you’re mine.”

“I’m yours.” The words slipped past my lips immediately, the truth of who I belonged to the greatest thing I had to cling to in that moment, and Evren’s hips surged forward.

“That’s right.” He groaned and pressed his face into my neck. “You are mine, and I am yours.”

His hot breath rushed out against my neck, and I was so close to coming. So very close to falling where no one could catch me but him.

“Come for me,” he grunted against me just as his teeth sank into my skin, and I did as he commanded. His name left my lips on a cry, and when his thumb pressed against my nub more forcefully, I lost myself to the pleasure.

He lifted his hips, pushing into me over and over as he drank from my neck, and the pleasure that shot into me was overwhelming. It was too much yet I still reached out for more.

He groaned, his teeth sinking harder into me, and I dug my nails into his back as another wave of pleasure coursed through me as I felt his own pleasure spill inside me. My magic thrummed inside me, aching and desperate, and I was barely able to keep a hold of my control.

He pumped into me a few more times, riding out our pleasure, before I felt his teeth slowly retract from my skin. I whimpered at the loss, and he licked the spot, slowly caressing it with his tongue.

My magic still snaked inside me, and he tugged me tightly against his chest before moving his mouth to meet mine.

We kissed as if we couldn’t get enough of each other, as if he wasn’t still inside me with the proof of our need sliding down my thighs, but I didn’t care.

I still needed him like I needed my next breath, and he gave it to me. He kissed me long and hard, and only when I felt my body ache with the need for him to move inside me again did he finally pull away.

He pushed my hair out of my face as he assessed every inch of me, and his gaze was so dark it reminded me of his power that was so like my own.

“It is you and I, princess,” he reassured me, and I nodded my head.

“You and I.”





CHAPTER 23





EVREN





T he temperature around the kingdom seemed to drop even as the sun rose higher in the sky.

I had just finished meeting with King Drystan to make sure they were ready for whatever today was to bring. I couldn’t tell him what we would face, but I could see the stern look in his eyes that he would be ready just the same.

Two of the scouts had returned in the dark hours of the night, and they told of the army marching toward us. Men I had spent years training beneath me as the captain of my father’s guard.

And now I was prepared to destroy them all.

“They’ll likely reach the edge of the kingdom within the hour,” Sorin said from beside me, and I nodded.

“Once we’re all ready, we’ll meet them at the boundary. I want this war as far away from my people as I can get it.”

I wanted it as far away from Adara as well, but I knew that she would fight. And I would never try to convince her otherwise.

This was her fight just as much as it was mine, and these were her people.

And if the nymph’s words were true, we wouldn’t win without her.

“Is Thalia still sleeping?” I asked because her room was where I had found him this morning when I went looking. I didn’t know what was happening between them, but I knew well enough to keep my nose out of it.

“She was when I left her room.” He checked his daggers at his side as we moved up the street and toward the palace.

Most of the kingdom was still sleeping, and I looked around, taking it in one last time before we faced the evil that was my brother. He would do what he could to see my kingdom destroyed.

But he had no idea what he would be taking.

I looked around me and memory after memory flashed through my mind. Some from my childhood but others with Adara, with my friends.

“We won’t let him destroy it.” There was such a conviction in Sorin’s voice, and I let it settle deep in my chest. He was right. No matter what power Gavril possessed, we would do whatever we could to stop him. “We will fight him to whatever end.”

I looked back at my friend, at the man who had been more like a brother to me, and I bowed my head slightly. He was the greatest warrior I had ever fought with or against, and I knew his word to be true.