Page 97 of Of Shadows and Blood

I can handle it. I grab his hand and hold it firmly down.

“When you do that, I feel as though my body might explode,” Cedric mumbles against my skin, his tongue dragging back up my leg.

“Don’t stop doing that,” I gasp as he squeezes my behind. Watching him, Cedric’s eyes flick up to meet mine as he picks up my dress with his teeth and drags it up, revealing my barely there undergarments.

And trust me, these were the most modest of them all.

“Liv, you truly do not understand,” he breathes against my stomach before planting more kisses and love bites on the way up to the crevice of my thigh.

“Tell me,” I say as he slowly dips his finger in. My back arches again, and this time I really must stifle the urge to truly moan.

I find my way to his hair and tangle my hands in his locks.

Cedric moves back up to my lips and parts my mouth wide with his tongue to make claim. Bringing his hand up, I suddenly feel very empty without his subtle touch. His hand idles below my belly button.

I’m moving like crazy beneath him, begging him to take me right then and there. Who cares about everyone around us? I certainly don’t. Not while I’m literally on fire for this man, this king. Cedric bites my lip slowly as he pulls back and locks eyes with me again, silver lining them.

“Is everything okay?” I ask this time, his look sobering.

“Perfect,” he says as he leans down again and licks his way up my throat. My hands grip his arms, nails digging in. This is all so, so sensual. There is nothing too dirty or too romantic about this.

We don’t need romance.

“Take me,” I breathe into his ear, my heart rate rising.

He stops short of my lips.

“Take my body. It’s yours,” I say. My drug-induced confidence might be scamming me at the moment.

As if a bucket of ice was thrown over him, Cedric rolls off me, then pulls me in close atop his chest. My breasts lay pressed to his skin, but there is nothing else sexual about this position.

Definitely the drug-induced confidence.

A lump lodges in my throat. The room still spins and Cedric rests his hands on my back. Below my ear, his heart still beats thunderously. His hand traces idle circles on my back. A completely opposite scene than the one we were just lost in.

He presses his lips to my head. “Not here. Not like this,” is all he says.

I want to whine. And cry. I want to get up and walk away from embarrassment. I gave him something, a piece of me so raw I shouldn’t have and yet, he didn’t take advantage of the situation. Disappointment and something else hits me like a jarring melody and not long after do I find it hard to keep my eyes open.

These drugs are very, very strong.

My eyes lazily drift over to Baron and his wives who are still tangled in and on one another. I could never share like that. The vulnerability and trust a relationship like that would take makes me wonder how old they all are.

With a few more slow glances around the room, I close my heavy lids and welcome slumber.

Atop Cedric.

Chapter 25

Forge allies, make friends and keep the sun on your back.

Cedric invited me to the meeting with Baron this morning. The dregs of Death Dust cling to my head like tar but I managed to peel myself from the bed I somehow made it to. He must have slept elsewhere because the bed was only tussled on my side.

Nothing more happened beyond kissing and touching yet I feel his body’s absence terribly today.

Cedric flips a paper over and back again. As if he can’t comprehend what he is reading. I shift in the leather chair beneath me, waiting for the blow to hit.

“Baron, tell me this is an old report.”