AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His eyes flared in a dangerous kind of desire. One heartbeat, and Erik had his mouth on mine again. Desperate, heated, and lined in a touch of anger for pushing him so far, the king claimed my mouth as though it might be the last time.
His tongue slid against mine. He gripped my hair and pressed all his weight on my body. Trapped against the wall, unable to flee, I’d never felt so safe.
Erik’s mouth abandoned my lips and roved down the slope of my throat. The scrape of his teeth, the nip beneath my ear, drew out a soft moan. He bit harder and a collision of pain and desire flooded my veins. My core throbbed when I arched against him, searching, needing more.
He grinned against my skin, then with one hand gripped my wrists and pinned them over my head. Heated kisses down my neck, over my chest, pulsed shocking waves through my body. His teeth and tongue marked me. They bleeding claimed me all over again.
Erik lifted his head for a heated breath, then scooped me under my thighs, and hooked my legs around his waist. He carried me toward the bedchamber. If the limp to his step caused him any pain, he didn’t show it, only dug his fingertips deeper into my skin when I kissed him.
I sucked his tongue. He moaned and quickened his pace.
A shriek of surprise sliced through the kiss when Erik flopped me onto my back onto the bed. He reared over the top of me, propped onto his elbows, careful not to crush me into the bed, but I didn’t want careful. This moment—hells—it felt like I’d been waiting for this, for him, all my life.
I clawed at his shirt until it was stripped off his shoulders. His scars were bare and open, but Erik didn’t flinch, he didn’t shy away. The wound on his side was bandaged and stitched, but it could split. With his palm against my face, Erik guided my gaze back to his. He shook his head, mutely telling me to focus elsewhere, then gingerly started unthreading the laces of my bodice until my mind could hardly conjure up a thought.
“Bloodsinger,” I said. “I’ve seen your hands draw a blade much,muchfaster than this.”
He pressed a kiss to the hinge of my jaw, grinning. “Patience, Songbird.”
“Patience was spent at the cove. Hurry your hand, or I will do it myself.”
A low growl rumbled from his chest. Erik reached into his boot and removed a knife. A. Knife.
The bastard grinned with a twisted pleasure when my eyes widened in surprise. “Careful what challenges you level against me.”
Without another word, Erik sliced the tip through the bodice, cutting it off my body. He leveraged to his knees, straddling me, and worked the knife through the whole of my dress. The blade landed on the floor with a clatter, and the king spread the shredded dress off my shoulders.
“Damn you.” He devoured me with his eyes until his gaze reached my legs. Rage soaked his features as he took in the gashes left by the assassin. His voice went dark. “Which one of those bastards did this?”
I swallowed past a knot, staying quiet.
Erik cupped the back of my neck, drawing our faces close. “Doesn’t matter which one. They’re dead. Their blood will spill at your feet.”
The harrowing way his voice tilted to something dark sent an unnerving thrill through my blood. Erik had his darkness, but I was learning mine. I kissed him for a long moment before he pulled away again and rid the bed of the remnants of my dress.
I always imagined being exposed in such a way might cause me to curl away, to hide and recount all the physical flaws I found on my body. With the Ever King, the way he looked at me like something precious, something so stunning he might get on the ground and worship me, I embraced every searing glance.
“Touch me,” I said, bringing his palm to the skin of my stomach.
Erik dragged his fingertips over my ribs, caressing the side of my breast. “You are my destruction. Do you know that? I will never have enough of you.”
For a few breaths, Erik studied me as though he were searching for a storm, for a glimpse of hesitation. When he didn’t find it, he palmed one breast.
His touch was chaos. Beautiful, intoxicating chaos. Gentle and rough, fast and tender. I might’ve been his destruction, but he was my ruin. I would break into a thousand pieces if it meant Erik was the one to piece them back together with his touch.
He ran his thumbs across my nipples. The cool air combined with his touch pebbled them into hard peaks. I gasped. He moaned again and pressed his hips into mine, the strain of his length clear in his trousers.
My head fell back as he pinched and flicked, drawing me toward a delirious madness. Erik dropped his head. I was captivated by his touch, but I didn’t expect the shock of pleasure when the heat of his tongue wrapped around the soft skin and sucked.
“Erik.” I cupped the back of his head, holding his mouth against me, unable to catch a deep enough breath. My head was swimming, but I wanted to fall into Erik’s touch, his kiss, his body.
I wanted to make him feel the same and slid my fingertips down the front of his trousers until I found the tip of his hard length. One brush of my thumb over the head, and Erik shuddered.
“Gods, woman,” he rasped. “You can kill a man.”
Dark heat sparked in his eyes. One corner of his jaw pulsed in tension as he pulled back, standing at the foot of the bed. A ferocious tangle of need, and want, and reverence burned in his gaze, and the slightest tremble in his fingers was clear when he hooked his thumbs into the waist of his trousers. With a quick tug, his cock sprang out, so strained and taut, it looked damn near painful.
I raked my gaze over the planes of his chest, the healing wound on his side, the carved angles of his hips.
