AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I came around the throne and stood between his knees. My fingertips tapped the points of the waves on his crown. “Troubling thoughts?”
“Nothing of great note.” He kissed the center of my palm.
The man owned my soul, as surely as I owned his. But he was not accustomed to baring his heart, his troubles, what he’d been taught to think of as weaknesses.
I traced the lines of his jaw, drawing his gaze to mine. “As ithappens, Bloodsinger, I want to take note, no matter how small, of all the things burdening your mind.”
Erik’s eyes darkened in the flicker of candlelight. He placed the crown in the seat of my new throne, and slumped against his, more defeated than before. “I’m not certain this is worth it, the Ever, this fight, this plan.”
I lowered to my knees in front of him. “What are you saying?”
Our eyes locked—fire and water—and there behind the fight and ferocity of the Ever King was the worry of a man. “I want to give it up, hand the crown to Larsson, and take you away from here. But if I did, what a pathetic reward to you after all the pain you’ve endured.”
A touch of frustration scorched through my veins. “Reward? You think all that matters is that I am given a title as some sort of reparation for how we were brought together again?”
“I put you at risk by bringing you here, Songbird. The smallest consolation I keep trying to reconcile is that you are a queen. But I still want to take you away, live as mere peasants if we must. I want to get you so far from Larsson, so far from danger, it is maddening.”
I cupped one side of his face. “You brought me here, but my consolation does not come from the title you gave me, Bloodsinger. It comes from knowing I have this.” Slowly, I dragged my palm from his cheek, to his throat, down his chest until it halted over his heart. “Don’t you dare start bemoaning how you have only added burdens to my life.”
“Even if it’s true?” He arched a brow. “You would be with your family, safe. You would not have been harmed byhimif not for me.”
This man. Beautiful and vicious. A man who’d fought since childhood for his people, loved so fiercely he’d give it up for my sake, and he was yet to realize what a remarkable force the darkness, the passion, of his heart could create.
“I would still be searching for something I could feel but could not find.” I rested my palms on his thighs. “Not until I caught the eye of a masked stranger across the ballroom. Something awoke withinme in that moment, and no matter the fear, the pain, no matter the risk, it has been worth it all.”
Erik studied me but said nothing, as though he did not fully believe my words. I stood, released the clasp on the cloak on my shoulders, then lifted the hem of my chemise over my head. A deep, throaty sort of growl rumbled from Erik’s throat.
“What plans are you making, love?”
Naked, bared for my king, I tapped the bone necklace around my throat. “I thought you requested nothing but this tonight?”
Erik’s tongue swiped out, licking his lips. He curled two of his fingers, gesturing me closer. I leveraged my body over his lap, straddling him in his throne. Erik’s lips quirked at the corners; he palmed my waist, drawing me closer.
I dragged my knuckles down his face. “King or not, Erik Bloodsinger, I would follow your darkness across the skies and seas. You are mine, a beautiful monster, a passionate lover, a loyal friend, a vicious king. All mine. And that is all I will ever want.”
Erik kissed me before I finished speaking. Not a sweet kiss, it was a kiss of hunger, almost brutal. Our teeth clacked, our tongues battled. This was a kiss edged in promises of desire, of unbendable devotion.
This kiss dug deeper than the heart—Erik was mine to the soul.
Something snapped Erik from his melancholy. He tangled my hair around his hand, tilting my head back. With a glance, dark with desire and no longer than a breath, the Ever King claimed the slope of my neck with his mouth.
A strangled sort of sob rattled over the empty throne room when the sharp points of his teeth broke my flesh. Erik bit my skin, his tongue following the sharp ache, pooling heat and want in the pit of my belly.
My body responded to every brush of his fingertips, every press of his lips. I rocked over his lap, desperate for more.
“Dammit,” Erik breathed out, his brow pressed to my shoulder, his palm gliding up the divots of my spine.
“Don’t want this?” Gods, I felt I might peel out of my skin if he stopped.
Erik’s eyes flashed in a dark frenzy. “Yes, Songbird, I want this. You’re rocking against my damn cock, and I fear I’m going to spill all over myself like ableeding boy.”
My cheeks heated. I widened my knees and lowered my core over the strained bulge in his trousers, rolling my hips until Erik coughed. His fingers pierced the flesh of my hips.
Gods, I hoped there’d be marks in the morning.
Head back, Erik’s eyes shuttered closed. On pure instinct, on nothing but thesensationof me, he guided my hips over his shaft.
“I need to be inside you,” he whispered, voice slurred with desire.
