Page 201 of The Crown’s Temptation

Her voice stayed calm even though her hands still shook. “The jewelry I want most from you is already around my neck.” She pulled the blue diamond ring she wore on a chain around her neck out of her dress. “I want to be yours. I want to be your wife. I do not want anything else in this new life I have been given.”

He closed his eyes, determined to stay calm. Determined to let her finish talking.

She paused. “But I only want it if you want that too.”

A single tear slipped down his cheek before he could stop it. He wiped it away and glanced at Fiersa before turning back to Asharin. “Why is she here?”

“You implied the marriage wasn’t valid,” Asharin said. “To fix it, we need a witness. And she is the only being in Morrath I can think of that can cross the wards.”

Fiersa nodded. “Exactly.”

Asharin took the knife from the table and drew it across his palm in one clean line. “In Morrath the marriage is sealed with a blood exchange, apparently.” She lifted his hand to her mouth and licked across the cut slowly, never breaking eye contact.

Heat surged through him so fast his breath caught. The sight of her tongue moving over his skin, the warm, wet drag of it, sent a rush straight down his body. He was hard in an instant, the sudden tightness in his pants almost painful.

He reached for the knife with his other hand, cut her palm even though it made something twist in his chest to hurt her, and slowly lifted her hand to his mouth. The taste was sweet and perfect, copper and warmth and her. He licked the cut clean, savoring it, unable to look anywhere but at her.

They stared at each other for what felt like an age, the air between them thick and charged.

Fiersa cleared her throat. “Signatures?” She passed them a quill and a small sheet of parchment.

Asharin signed first. Then Colsar did, his hand still trembling slightly from the blood on his tongue.

“You may go,” Asharin said calmly.

Fiersa had barely stepped out of the chamber when Colsar moved. A low growl tore from him, his canines flashing in a way they rarely did. He rolled her onto her back on the bed, his body covering hers as his mouth found hers with desperate hunger.

“I chose you,” she said between kisses, breathless. “And I will in every lifetime, in every scenario or place or time. Do not ever do that to me again.”

He pulled back just enough to see her face. “Which part?”

“Watch me touch myself,” she whispered. “Watch me stare at you with want and longing and not touch me back.”

He started to speak, but she pressed her hand over his mouth and leaned in close to his ear.

“Fix it.”

That was all he needed. He rolled her fully onto her back, his hand already sliding up beneath the nightdress, and told her in a low, rough voice, “Let’s try again.”

CHAPTER 45

Again

Islid my hand up the front of my nightgown, fingers brushing the inside of my thigh, but Colsar didn’t give me the chance to go any further. He gripped the fabric at my collar and ripped it straight down the center, the sound sharp in the quiet chamber.

“A full reenactment,” he growled.

I licked two fingers slowly, then brought them to my nipples, wetting them until they tightened into hard, glistening peaks. I pinched and rolled them, watching him watch me, then let my hand drift lower. My fingers slipped in between my legs and began to circle in slow strokes. I pressed two fingers inside myself, thrusting deep, my hips rocking up to meet my hand.

“I need to know that you want me, Colsar,” I said, breathless.

“Look at me,” he said gruffly. “Do not stop. Not even for a second.”

His voice dropped lower, rough with something dark and possessive. “You want me to show you how I truly feel? Fine. I don’t want you looking at a candle or the ceiling or a rug or any fucking thing in this room but me. I am—fucking… consumed by you.”

“You just spent three days with Eravic⁠—”

“Doing what was necessary to leave here and protect my family,” I breathed, fingers moving faster. “My family is you, Cols⁠—”