Innocence (Tales of Olympus #1)(76)

“I’ll let the Shades know. Only perimeter patrol.”

Marcus raised his chin and then he and Cora were over the threshold and inside.

Marcus didn’t seem to be in the mood to show her around, either.

No, he carried her straight up the central staircase, in spite of her repeated squeals that she could walk, she could walk! all the way down a short hall to the master bedroom, where he deposited her in the center of the bed.

He followed her down, sliding his knee between her thighs.

Oh, so they were going to start this portion of the evening early tonight, was that it?

He rarely came to her bed before midnight. Sometimes hearing him open the door woke her up, other times she managed to stay awake in anticipation. But it was barely nine o’clock, twilight still hung outside, and when Marcus leaned over he hit a button that turned on two table lamps to a soft muted glow. So apparently they wouldn’t be doing this in the darkness, either, as was per their usual.

Cora trembled underneath him.

He planted his elbows beside her head on the bed and dipped his hips, dragging his erection against her most sensitive place. His greedy hands were on her thighs, reaching underneath the skirt of her dress.

His hands on her body felt so familiar.

Too familiar.

She’d gotten used to fucking this way.

But after all they’d said, if he really meant for it to be a cease-fire…

His lips kissed down her collarbone and the next thing she knew he had latched onto a nipple.

It wasn’t that things had become routine in bed. Far from it. Marcus was always showing her new positions and ways to feel him inside her and to get her off.

But apart from the first time, he rarely sought eye contact. His kisses weren’t often on the lips, and he took his pleasure and left to return to his own bedroom.

And Cora didn’t think she could keep giving herself to him if that was the way it was going to continue.

She wasn’t sure if Marcus felt her tense up beneath him, but his head came up and, as if he could sense the very thing she was thinking, his gaze caught hers.

If true inner freedom came with taking action and claiming it, well, here went nothing.

Cora grabbed Marcus’s face with both hands and drew him down to her face. To her mouth.

She didn’t know what she was doing. So she smashed her lips against his. It was awkward. She never initiated kisses and she was terrible at it—

But then his lips gentled on hers and his clever tongue began to tease at her lips until she couldn’t help but relax in response. And when his hands on her sex over her dress did something that felt especially good, she gasped.

Marcus used the opportunity to slip his tongue in her mouth and oh—oh—

Her tongue moved tentatively to meet his and holy shit! The second the tips of their tongues touched, it was like connecting a live wire straight to her clit.

She moaned shamelessly and lifted her pelvis up against his hand.

“That’s right,” he growled. “That’s how it should be. Give it to me.”

At this point, Cora couldn’t not give it to him.

He shoved her skirt up and her panties down, not even bothering to get them all the way off, just to her ankles.

She kicked at them but only halfheartedly because Marcus had shifted his weight above her. She hadn’t even heard him undo his zipper, but the heat and length of him was undeniably at her center, the fat head of his cock pressing and teasing for entrance.

Cora let out the highest pitched cry yet. She wanted him. She wanted him more than anything she’d ever wanted in her entire life.

Now she knew her answer. She didn’t care if she was caged or free. As long as she came home to this man every night, she would be happy. Deliriously so.

She loved him.

She grinned at the revelation, wanting to tell him so that he could feel her joy.

But the next second it dimmed. Because there was no way he felt the same. And what the hell was she doing, loving him? She was still the na?ve girl imagining she was a princess and he was the prince and that there was still a way this could end in anything other than tragedy.

“What?” Marcus wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. So close their chests were cemented together like…like he couldn’t bear to lose her. “What has you looking so sad?”

She forced a smile. Dammit, she wouldn’t ruin this. Caged or not, tonight she wanted to fly completely free. She wanted to let it all go. To surrender absolutely to the bliss of being in his arms.

She tried to kiss him and distract him but he shook his head.

“Cora,” he demanded, balls deep inside her, invading her everywhere.

There was no getting away from Marcus Ubeli. There never had been.

“You were here, with me. But then you went away.”

He was supposed to be some dangerous crime Lord. He wasn’t supposed to see shit like that. But maybe reading people had made him so good at what he did.

Cora wanted to hide her face against his cheek. But she doubted he’d let her get away with that either.

So she looked up at him, and meeting his eyes this time was one of the bravest things she’d ever done in her life.

“Marcus,” she whispered. “I still feel it. It never went away. Not fully. I still feel it, Marcus. And more.”

Marcus’s eyes got dark at that but he didn’t make her explain further.