Page 48 of Prince of the Sun

“Fucking hell, Quinn.”

“Good boy,” I whisper.

His lips crook up into a smile. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this.”

“Tell me.”

“Since the first moment I saw you.”

“In Widener?”

He shakes his head. “Before then.”

This time, it’s me who pulls back. “Really?”

“Yes. Freshman Week.”

“FreshmanWeek? But that’s—”

“Over a year ago? I know.” He leans forward, lips brushing my ear. His voice is liquid honey. “I saw you at First Chance Dance. You were dancing with Cara. I watched you the entire night. Berendir even caught me staring, and trust me when I say I didn’t hear the end of it for weeks.”

I laugh softly.

“You have—” He swallows. “You have tortured me ever since.”

“Well, trustmewhen I say that wasn’t my intention.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Why not?” I pull back, grinning. “We’refriends.”

He growls. “I don’t want to be friends.”

“No?” I lower my voice. “Whatdoyou want, Daerios?”

One of his hands, strong and certain, wraps around the back of my neck, pulling me forward until his lips are pressed right to my ear. “I want to be so deep inside you that you can remember no name but mine.”

I gasp. My hands twine into his hair and pull until his eyes are burning straight into mine. My hips start to grind on his, pressing forward and down, over and over, a steady metronome that I know will serve as his perfect torture. “Like this?” I breathe.

“Yes.” His eyes don’t leave mine.

I speed up, pushing even harder into him. “Likethis?”

“Yes,” he whispers. And then “Please, Quinn.”

“Say it.”

“Say what?”

“Say you want me.”

Without warning, he swoops an arm beneath me, lifting me as if I was no heavier than a stack of books and transferring me onto my back. I spread out on the futon, and Daerios crouches over me, his body hovering just above mine. When he speaks, the air seems to pulse with his words. “I want you, Quinn Kallister. Never, in all my life, have I wanted something as badly as I want you.”

And the craziest part is that I want him too. That, after almost seven years of feeling nothing, no desire, no arousal, nothing at all, my entire body buzzes with need for him. Forhim.Anelf.Someone I should despise. Someone I have sworn to use. Someone who tortures humans for fun, and looks down his nose at me, and follows me everywhere I go, and told me his life story, and fed me honey cakes, and vaaska, and donuts—

Shit.

“You need to leave,” I say too loudly.