AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I spread my fingers over his firm ripple of abdominal muscles, unsure if he was real. He felt real, hot, and hard and soft all at once. His breaths and mine sawed in the quiet of his chambers.
This couldn’t be real. I didn’t trust him, knew he’d lied, used me, and he would again. But like the fool I was, in that moment I didn’t care. Torn from the dream, I was vulnerable and open, at his mercy.
Fierce determination pulled a snarl onto his lips. He wanted me to come… wanted to be the one to make it happen. He’d clearly noticed how last night I hadn’t. It would take more than his savage strokes for me to spill my seed, but this pleasure was enough. I’d noticed a few things about him too. For a Prince of Love in a court infamous for its sexual freedom, his bed had been a lonely place long before I’d arrived. Was he saving himself for someone? A special lady? Or a lord, given his eagerness for men. I could not have been his first, but the thrill at the thought left me breathless.
If I asked him to hurt me, would he?
“What is this?!” Albus blustered from somewhere near the door.
Arin stopped rocking and pumping, although he kept his grip on my cock—so firm, in fact, that when I pulsed in his fist, his fingers flexed a little, and I bit my lip to keep from moaning. Perhaps his father would like to watch? Hm no, that was a step too far for this court.
Arin stilled and lifted his chin, so damned proud that he had me under him. And so fucking gorgeous for it. In the morning light, all of Arin’s new, tiny cuts blushed on his honey skin. There was one at his chin, another at his hip, my bite in his shoulder—that one had turned into a startling purple bruise. There was no hiding it from his father.
I’d have laughed, but the king’s expression made it clear he was far from amused.
“Father, kindly knock before you enter my rooms—”
Albus surged toward the bed with new purpose in his stride, a purpose I hadn’t seen in him for years. The dagger in his hand might have had something to do with that—Arin’s dagger. I’d tossed it at some point during the night. He’d found it. Albus swooped in around my side of the bed.
Arin called his name, and now the prince did dismount, probably fearing he might be about to witness a murder.
I shifted upright, covering my cock—a vital part I’d prefer to keep.
Albus didn’t have it in him to kill me. But rage made men do desperate things.
He drew to a halt. “Get out, Lark,” he growled. “Get away from my boy, you… you, whore!”
If only he’d shown such passion and fervor toward his wife, she might have still been with us.
“I rather think I should dress, or would you prefer I stride naked through the royal wing?”
“Father,” Arin interrupted, throwing on a shirt. “Lark’s presence here is none of your concern.”
“Do you know what he is?” Albus waved the dagger toward me but glared at Arin. “He will use this, he’ll hold it against you, he’ll make you pay for it in ways you can’t imagine. He recently showed me how manipulative he can be.”
“I know what Lark is.” Arin sighed, already tired of his father. What Albus had recently discovered, his son had known for years. “You’re the one who needs to leave.” A thin warning wove through Arin’s tone.
“‘Leave’?” Albus blustered.
“Lark stays.” Trouserless, wearing just a shirt, Arin’s icy calm made it appear as though he didn’t care about me or his father, or any of this, but it was a thin veneer. He’d told me how he felt everything, and I saw it now, reined under control but there. If pushed, his icy veneer would shatter.
The king glanced from me to his son. “All those cuts? DidLarkcut you? Did he hurt you?”
Arin marched to his dresser and snatched a pair of trousers from its drawer. “Father—”
“Did he cut you?!”the king shrieked.
Arin whirled, and all that restraint shattered. “How dare you enter my chamber and demand answers of me when I’ve spent the last half a decade propping upyourreign! You have no right to judge when you drove mother to madness, force girls into your bed, and lose your mind to pennywort while your kingdom crumbles.”
Albus blinked, stunned, and lungedat me, assuming I’d been the one to spill his secrets about the girls.
The dagger slashed the air too close for comfort. I danced up the bed, rolled off the opposite side, and then Arin lurched between us, his hand clamping on his father’s wrist, holding him back. “The Court of Pain slithers around our feet and you do nothing!” Arin roared. He snatched the dagger out of his father’s trembling hand.
“The Court of Pain?” the king stammered. “What do they have to do with any of this?”
Arin’s laugh sounded hollow, but I knew that to be a ruse to hide the pain. “Your ignorance is proof of your incompetence. If only you’d cut your own throat, instead of mother’s.”
So sharp, Arin’s tongue, when he wanted it to be. I backed away but didn’t leave—couldn’t leave. Arin was ablaze with righteous fury, his passion only matched by that which I’d summoned last night.
