Page 85 of Blood Curse

“I don’t want to lose you every time the Crown finds a new way to hurt us.”

“You won’t.”

“Don’t promise what you can’t control.”

He held my gaze. “Then I’ll promise what I can. I’ll tell you when I’m frightened. I’ll tell you when obedience feels easy. And if you ask me to leave while the Crown is silent, I’ll believe you mean it.”

“I need the whole truth even when it makes you look bad.”

“Especially then.”

“And if you start protecting me with half an answer, I’ll keep asking until I get the rest.”

“I believe you.”

“That’s enough.”

Stellan searched my face. Then he lifted his free hand and touched my cheek.

I turned into his palm and kissed it.

His control broke.

His kiss pushed me back against the pillows. His hand slid into my hair, careful of the Crown, and held the back of my head while his mouth opened over mine.

I caught his shirt and pulled him with me.

There was nothing careful about the kiss. Fear remained in the room, but it didn’t get the bed. Stellan’s weight covered me. His thigh pressed between mine, and I moved against it because I wanted the pressure.

He lifted his head.

“Still yours?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“And you still want me leading?”

“Yes. I want your hands on me because I know they’re yours.”

His eyes darkened. “They are.”

I kissed him again before he could ask anything else.

His hand closed around my hip. He slowed the kiss when I chased him and deepened it when I softened under him.

I opened his shirt. My fingers found warm skin and hard muscle. He was uninjured. The dagger had left nothing on his chest, but I pressed my palm over his heart anyway.

It beat steadily under my hand.

Stellan covered my fingers with his. Then his mouth moved to my neck.

His fangs grazed my skin without breaking it.

Pleasure tightened low in my stomach.

“I don’t want you to feed.”

“I won’t.”