AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Do you trust yourself?"
"No," she gasped, self-hatred lighting her eyes over the admission the moment she gave it. My fingers ran through the flowing locks of her hair, wondering how hair could be so flawless and not have the unmistakable crunch of hair product.
"That's a good start," I whispered, drawing away and taking her further down the path. The hidden alcove up ahead called my name, just far enough from the group to have a moment alone with Alina without risking her reputation.
A walk in the gardens was appropriate. A romp in my bed would not be.
The lines of propriety became more and more frustrating with every second I spent with Alina, and I knew it would only be a matter of time before I couldn't control my impulses to claim her any longer.
A week felt like an eternity.
As soon as I tugged her safely into the alcove no one would find, I spun to her. Catching her off guard, I captured her face in my hands and took her mouth with a soft, teasing kiss. I tasted the strawberries on her lips, the perfect taste of her lurking just beneath it to sneak up and bite me. It tested my resolve, pushing at the limits I fully intended to set for our stolen moments.
Alina pushed back, leaning into my frame and parting her lips at the first teasing sweep of my tongue on them. With a groan, I swept inside. Tasted her. Explored her.
The taste of her mingling with the sweet strawberry was different but no less luscious or tempting. Fingers buried in her hair, I tilted her head back to absorb her gasp of surprise.
When she finally jerked herself away, touching her lips and mouthing words under her breath, my gaze again fell on that patch on her shoulder.
The faintest discoloration lurked just under the cover up applied there, the slight traces of a bruise that marked my woman. When Alina finally snapped herself out of her moment to recover from my kiss, startled green eyes met mine as my hand touched the spot. Flinching away, she stared at me in surprise and then gave a sheepish smile. "I'm clumsy," and the moment she spoke the words I knew them to be a lie. She was one of those who had no particular talent for telling fibs.
Taking a few steps over to touch the flowers blooming on one of the bushes, she turned back to me. Oblivious to the danger pooling in my veins. To the need to kill whoever had harmed her.
"Who, Alina?" I growled, watching as the smile faded from her face. "Who put their hand on you and bruised you?"
"It's nothing, Reece," she pleaded, backing into the bush when I moved forward. I didn't stop until I invaded her space and made it mine. Until our very air was shared, as it was always meant to be.
Her and I. One and the same.
"Nobody touches you but me." I bit the words out, the animal need to protect her rising in my veins. I needed a name, someone to punish for the offense against the both of us. "Your mother?" I asked, drawing the obvious conclusion. Silence was the only response, but the lack of denial said everything.
Turning, I went for the entrance to our little sanctuary. I'd destroy her mother in all the ways that mattered to the selfish twat, ruin her for all social standing and force her out of my kingdom with my own two hands. "Reece, wait," Alina pleaded, hurrying to keep up with me and stopping me from leaving by placing herself in my path. The sound of my name on her lips tormented me, the sole reason I didn't set her aside and move along. "What will you do?"
"Whatever it takes," I grunted.
"By the end of the week, my mother will be irrelevant," Alina whispered. "One way or another, I'll be betrothed. She won't have a say in my life anymore, Reece. The bruise is nothing. It's a pointless attempt for her to try to display her power over me. She's spiraling. You've thrown all her plans to the wind—"
"Are you saying this is my fault?"
"No! Gods, no. I'm saying—" She paused, then continued, "I'm saying that she sees how you affect me. She sees that I do want you, and that if I could choose for myself it would never be Corbin. She knows you could ruin everything. I’m certain she knows you already have." The words, the confession, struck me straight in the chest.
Her admission caught me off guard, taking the rage inside me and shifting it to something even more primal. The need to hear it again erased all other thoughts from my mind, the pressure of it like being trapped underwater with breath just inches away. I let my instincts take me, and I stalked forward, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her to me. "Say it again, Baby Bird.”
"I—" She paused again, her hands squeezing my arms as her mouth formed an 'o'. The thought of those soft lips, that mouth on other parts of my body, caused my shoulders to tense and I was close, so close to taking her and everything be damned.
"I need to hear the words again, Alina.” I leaned down and whispered those last words to her, feeling the way she shuddered in my arms as I did. The way I affected her, which was just as easily and as much as she affected me. "When you do, you’ll be mine. Do you understand?”
Her unsteady breath blew over my ear, sending a shiver through my body as I tried to resist the urge to touch her further. I wouldn’t. Not until she gave me the words, but I didn’t dare breathe while I waited. Her voice was soft but steadier than I thought it would be when she finally spoke. "I said that you would ruin everything because I want you." She stopped and my grip tightened around her with my own impatience. She looked up and those pale luminous green eyes cut to mine. "I want you, Reece."
She released a breath, which she sucked back in as I grabbed her by the hips and dragged her against me. I turned back around, taking us from the entrance of the alcove and back into it, further in until we were secluded in our own world. Where she was my whole world and I was hers. I took her back until she forgot all those who wanted to tarnish her shine, hide and destroy the potential of her from the world so she could fit a mold that didn't suit her. Clip her wings so she would never be allowed to fly.
"Was that so hard to say?" I smiled against her lips before I possessed them. "We both know what I feel when I put my hands on you and when you turn those beautiful eyes to me."
She chewed her bottom lip and something strong surged in me, an unreasonable jealousy because I wanted to be the one biting it. "I'm not used to these things. I'm not as experienced as you, not as worldly. My mother kept me hidden away and while I was allowed access to the outside world with movies and the internet, there was access to things she kept from me." She mumbled to herself, but loud enough for me to hear, "I don't even know what a naked man looks like."
I smiled at her, a teasing and cocky grin that any woman who was smart enough should run away from. "I am more than happy to rectify that lack in your education, Baby Bird." I pulled her towards me and gave into the temptation to bite that plump bottom lip that tormented me so. "But I promise you, I will be the only naked man you will ever see in your entire life."
I ran my hands down her back, hefting her leg up so I could stroke her thigh through the soft, pale violet fabric of her dress. I parted it, baring the smooth skin of her shapely legs. My hands touched the silky material of her underwear, soft but not quite as soft as her skin. I grabbed them, setting off a low moan as she threw her head back, baring the delicate line of her throat. I trailed soft and gentle kisses down the pale column, taking in the sweet scent and flavor of wanton innocence that was Alina.
"And when that happens, Alina, you'll be so satisfied you won't ever have thoughts of wanting to see another," I promised.
