Forbidden Honor (Dragon Royals #1)(80)

“You care about me.” He didn’t know that he just put me through my worst nightmares, only to dismiss me when I forgave him. “Me, of all people? When you’re infamous for never caring about women.”

He looked unexpectedly rueful. “Do you think perhaps those stories are exaggerated, Honor? Don’t you have any angry lovers you’ve left behind?”

“No. I’ve been too busy to leave a trail of broken hearts the way you have.”

“I haven’t broken anyone’s heart,” he scoffed. “None of them actually cared about me. They cared about my position, my power, being seen with me. They might have cared about getting into my bed, hoping to get a ring on their finger, but they didn’t actually care about me.”

“Is that how you justify the way you’ve acted?”

“And what makes you brave enough to get close to me? If you think I’m such a horrible person.” His tone was cool; the more heated I grew, the icier he was.

“Well, like you said, I’m reckless.” I pressed my palms against his chest, pushing him against the wall. I moved slowly and carefully, because I didn’t want to hurt him even though part of me yearned for the same hot angry clashing of bodies that we’d experienced earlier. I desperately wanted to burn some of the energy churning in my muscles ever since I’d been trapped beneath the academy in the tunnels.

He watched me with hooded eyes. “This is too reckless, even for you.”

His shoulder blades hit the wall, his body jerking. His hands hung at his sides, refusing to rise to touch me, and the hurt sparking inside me felt like fury.

“What changed?” I whispered.

“People will try to hurt you because they’re jealous, because they think you’re beneath me, because they think you’re dangerous.”

“How can I be the one who’s dangerous?” I asked softly. “I’m just a girl.”

Jaik’s amber eyes gazed into mine. “Bullshit.”

Warmth heated my chest and my cheeks. I hated how easy it must be for him to tell the effect he had on me. I pressed on. “Who hurt you? Why?”

He scoffed. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me. Because I’m going to find a way to hurt them.”

The fierceness that entered my voice surprised us both, based on the look on his face. Then something genuine softened his gaze. “You know that I don’t deserve you, right?”

“Oh, I’m keenly aware.” But I swayed against him anyway, and his lips met mine. We traded a soft, sweet kiss. I was trying to be mindful, but his lip split and started bleeding again.

I pressed my own handkerchief over the wound. I wished I could heal him. But I had dragon powers. I broke things, I didn’t stitch them back together again.

“Let me see you,” I murmured, pulling his shirt loose of his belt.

“You need to leave.” Even as he said the words, his hands wrapped my hips. He pulled me close.

“Make me, then,” I challenged him.

He groaned in response, tugged me closer, his cock hard against my inner thigh. I kissed his face carefully, finding clear skin between the bruises. His lips pressed mine more urgently, mindless of how it made him wince.

No matter how much he thought it was a bad idea, his lips devoured mine. There was a raw throb of need between the two of us as we undressed each other, our movements quick and frantic. There were deep purple-black bruises across his torso, and I moved behind him, tracing them across his back. His entire back was a bruise. His face was hardly the worst of the damage.

I stepped in front of him again, looking up at him. “Someone did this to you because of me?”

The king, this had to be the king’s punishment. No one else could hurt Jaik. But why did it matter what Jaik and I did together, when he had sex with dozens of women before? What was different now?

He didn’t answer, his bare hands hot against my skin. “This has to be the last time, Honor. A goodbye.”

His gaze studied mine, searching for agreement.

“You’re trying to protect me.”

The tension in his shoulders eased. “Yes. That’s all.”

The knowledge made me want more of him, not less.

For Jaik, I’d defy a king.

It would be difficult to make the king pay for hurting Jaik, but someday, I’d find a way.

There was a swollen, shiny white circle on his chest, angry red symbols emblazoned through it. “What is this?”

“An enchantment to keep me from healing.” His fingers skimmed my back, reminding me of the old scars that crisscrossed my skin, almost entirely faded, but he’d found them. “It doesn’t matter.”

It most certainly did, but I’d let go of it for now. I wrapped my hand around his cock. “I found a place that isn’t bruised.”

“Thank the gods,” he muttered, bringing a faint smile to my lips.

“How do we do this without hurting you?” I whispered.

“I don’t give a damn about hurting,” he promised me, and the realization flooded me that he was trying to avoid me for my own sake, not to protect his own battered body.

The two of us fell onto the bed together, trading quick, fevered kisses. His hands stroked my stomach, my breasts, his gaze as heavy and worshipful as his touch. I gasped against his lips.