The Controversial Princess (The Smoke & Mirrors Duology #1)(98)

“Then do them.” I’ll take anything from him. Let him do anything to me.

“I wasn’t asking for your permission.” His fingertip rests lightly on my clit, and I feel my pulse pushing into it consistently. My hands ball, fisting the sheets at my sides. “I will do with you as I please, and you will beg me to do it.” Collecting a belt from the nearby dresser, he pulls the leather through his fingers, regarding me closely as I comprehend exactly what he means. “I need to loosen us up.”

My eyes light up, as does his. “How so?” I know exactly how so.

He snaps the leather together, one eyebrow hitched. “Off the bed.”

I edge to the end of the bed and find my feet. “And now?”

“Turn around and give me that fine ass.”

I turn, bending over the bed and jutting my bottom out in invitation. Closing my eyes, I fill my lungs, already feeling that weightless sensation take over me. Thwack! I grunt and jolt forward, the biting sting of the leather chasing away every solemn thought, peace replacing it. Thwack! My eyes roll behind my closed lids, my body rolling, too. The burn spreads and penetrates me to my bones. Thwack! I cry out, the sound desperate and hungry. Thwack! They’re getting harder, each strike more powerful than the last. My flesh is on fire. His breathing is heavy behind me, each lash delivered on a shout of victory. Thwack! This one connects with the backs of my thighs, spanning both, and sends me to my knees, my body pooling the end of the bed. Part of me wants to scream enough! But a bigger part of me wants him to go on, to thrash me until I’m weightless.

There’s a long pause, and I open my eyes, feeling drowsy. Josh straddles my collapsed body and grabs my hair, pulling my head off the bed. “Who is your king, Your Highness?”

“You are,” I breathe, no hesitation or thought, staring at him looming over me, exuding power.

“Damn straight I am.” Bending, he kisses me hard, a kiss of ownership and possession, one that cements his claim. “Up.” He lifts me, turns me, and pushes me to my back, dropping the belt and shoving my thighs wide. “Soaking,” he mumbles, full of appraisal as his head lowers. I hold my breath, bracing myself for the heat of his mouth over my throbbing, wet flesh. The stroke of his tongue is firm and long, dipping inside of me before lashing straight up the center.

I cry out, tossing my head back, my body locking up, as if tensing can protect me from the blessed torture of his mouth. His long lick doesn’t stop when he reaches the strip of hair that frames me, and instead continues up to my belly button, Josh crawling up the bed, following his tongue as it travels on, up between my breasts, to my chest, onto my chin, and then into my mouth. His cock finds where it wants to be, falling into place and slipping inside of me, deep and high with one precise thrust of his hips on a grunt into my mouth.

The powerful plunge steals my breath, and I don’t care if I never get it back, because this, right now, is perfect. If it were my last moment in this life, it would send me out in a blaze of glory.

My nails sink into his back, my teeth into his neck, and my legs curl and grip his hips with an unthinkable strength. I feel so overcome by our connection—by our closeness—that tears spring into my eyes. I can’t stop them.

“I feel the same,” he whispers, stilling, buried as deep as could be inside of me. “I feel it. All of it.” Breaking away, his flesh dragging through my bite, he gazes at me, and I am certain through my clouded vision that he has water in his eyes, too. “You’ve fallen in love with me.”

A ragged sob ignores my fight to hold it back, wanting to be out there, heard. I pointlessly close my eyes and sink my face into the crook of his neck, but I’m not blessed with my sanctuary for long. He withdraws and plunges forward again, nuzzling me from my hiding place as he hits me accurately, pushing me up the bed a little.

“Look at me.” His demand is clipped and rough, his body stilling again. I let my eyes peel open and face my weakness. He is my weakness. My American boy. Yet he is a formidable strength in me, too. His gaze, twinkling and alive, holds me in place. “You love me.” He states it as the fact it is, and I nod, clamping down on my bottom lip. My acknowledgment makes him smile as his cock throbs against my internal walls and his eyes, the very essence of him, take on a brilliant sparkle. “Say it.”

I don’t have to think twice. “I love you,” I whisper, laying myself bare before him.

“And I love you.” His reply is quiet, yet the loudest thing I’ve ever heard. “I think I loved you the moment you yielded to my command to kneel.”

“Because I did what I was told?” I question, my heart bursting with joy.

His big shoulders hitch a little from a half shrug, his gaze leaving mine, just for a second. “Many women do what I tell them.” He dips and circles his nose with mine. “But only you made the whole world disappear when you did.” His mouth presses to mine. “Only you made me insane with want. Your face, your body. Only you have monopolized every thought in my head. Your wickedly smart mouth. Your fiery temper. The fact you’ve let me dismantle your high, protective walls.” He laps his tongue through my mouth slowly and softly. “Only you have made me wish more than anything that I could be a real fuckin’ prince so I could serve you and support you. So I could be yours.”

I smile against his lips, not feeling the need to say anything, and roll my hips up, reminding us both we’re tied so closely. He groans and follows my lead, setting the motion, kissing me into an oblivion of Josh. Two people loving each other, feeling the exact same way about each other, should make the path to their happily ever after easy and blissful. But we are not two ordinary people. We have a fight ahead, and our battle plan needs to be set. But for now, we can love each other without the complication and pain of that path tarnishing it.