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“One day, she didn’t come home. They found her body in the river. I was old enough then to do something. It wasn’t hard to find the man who murdered her. Everyone talked about it because no one cared that she was dead. Except me, though she did nothing to deserve my vengeance, save birth me.
“After I killed the murderer of my mother, I fled Revekka for Keziah. They are a vibrant and warrior-like people. I trained with them and only came to the Red Palace for the King’s Tournament. Dragos did not care that I had murdered, not after seeing my skill in the ring, and he did not know that the only reason I sought to be part of his guard was so that I could kill him.”
“I never knew,” I said. “Why did you not tell me?”
“Once the truth is spoken, it always seems to find its target.” He was quiet for a moment. “Once, though, a long time ago when I thought you and I could have a peaceful life under the mountains, my vengeance did not matter so much.”
I recalled our conversation in the woods near the cabin where we’d spent our final night, when we had discussed a future that was so far out of reach, it would now only ever be a nightmare.
“Perhaps our mistake was ever thinking we were meant for such things,” I said.
But Adrian shook his head. “I will never forget the times I spent with you, dreaming. Those are my brightest memories.”
It was late when we left Ana’s bedside. Usually, after executions and funerals, the palace was alive with celebration, but not this night. Tonight, the halls were quiet, a solemn memorial for Violeta.
I worried about returning to our room, thinking of how we’d left it this morning. It felt almost wrong to think about sex in this moment, but it was how I took control of my world, and no matter how dark or terrifying, I needed to reclaim it. “I need you, Adrian,” I said, looking up at him.
He slowed and met my gaze. “I am here.”
“I mean that I want you to make love to me.”
His gaze softened. “Isolde, I—”
“Tell me you do not want me,” I said, stepping closer, though we remained in the hallway, and nowhere near our room or bed. I placed my hands flat on his chest, smoothing them down his stomach, dropping one to touch his arousal. He took a breath, releasing it slow between his lips.
“It is never that,” he said. “Youknowit is not that.”
“I am well enough,” I said. “The only way you will hurt me now is to refuse me.”
It was not a lie.
He watched me a moment, not so much hesitant as he was discerning.
I rose onto my toes and pressed a kiss to his jaw, running my tongue and teeth along the column of his neck, nipping at his skin, sucking it into my mouth. He hooked a hand at the base of my skull and let me explore. I felt his control slipping. The tighter his fingers twisted into my hair, the harder he grew beneath my hand.
Finally, he broke and forced my lips to his, his other hand going to my breast, squeezing. I gasped, and he thrust his tongue between my lips, guiding me until the wall was at my back. There, his mouth explored me the same way I’d explored him, and I shivered beneath his touch.
I moved my hands around his neck, and Adrian’s shifted to my ass, his arousal pressed flat against my lower stomach.
“What do you consider making love?” Adrian asked.
“Anything with you,” I said.
He gave a strangled sigh and kissed me, holding me tight to him before turning me toward the wall. I planted my hands against it as Adrian lifted my skirts. His hand dipped between my thighs, his fingers sinking into my heat.
“Fuck,” I breathed, my head falling back.
Adrian touched my breast with his free hand and kissed my neck, fingers moving inside me. Then he knelt, and his mouth was on me. I thought I might collapse from the pleasure.
“Adrian—” I warned, my legs shaking.
He rose to his feet and dragged me to him, my back to his chest, speaking against my ear. “Bedroom. Now.”
He released me, and I turned to him, my body warm and lust-filled. I kissed him, sucking his bottom lip into my mouth before hurrying for our room. I walked ahead of him, teasing as I reached behind me to loosen the ties of my dress. Once we were behind closed doors, Adrian shoved my gown down and gripped the neckline of my linen chemise, tearing it in two before his mouth was on mine again. He pushed into me until the backs of my legs hit the bed and I sat.
He shoved off his overcoat and pulled his tunic over his head while I unbuttoned his pants. Once he was naked, I took his cock into my hand and kissed down his length before closing my mouth over his crown, sucking and licking. He groaned over me, gathering my hair into his hands while I coaxed beads of come from him.
At some point, he decided it was enough because he took my head between his hands and kissed me, moving me to my back, settling between my thighs. There was a wicked glint in his eyes as he taunted me with soft and slow kisses down my body and the sensitive skin between my legs. I twisted and arched beneath him, desperate for his mouth, the fullness of his fingers, anything that would free this pressure he had erected inside me.
