Page 98 of Brutal Birthright

She hummed. “Stars, you’re so sensitive under all that tough guy exterior… If you’d let me finish. It’s sexy. I like it a lot, brute.” Wriggling her hips like a little vixen, she began to grind down on him again just a fraction. “You know, the first time I saw you, there was nothing out of place. You were just this sleek, composed exterior. The warlord with an armour that nothing could penetrate.” Dancing her fingers over his shoulder muscles, she tapped on the firmness of him while working her own magic. Shifting slightly over his length with the way her pussy was slick and filled with his cum.

“And now?” His eyes flickered between her own.

“Now I feel like you’re letting the true strength of you show.” She paused to bite her lip as they could both feel another release building between them. “Yes, there might be some softer parts exposed—just a crack here and there—but you’re stronger when others can know your heart.”

“So what does mine say, little faerie? My heart that’s now apparently exposed.” His deep voice was barely a whisper. Digging his fingers tight against the softness of her flesh, he worked her hard against him now.

“I’m still learning the language. I’ll get back to you when I’ve figured out how to translate what it means when it speaks.” She was breathless. Heat raced between their bodies, and her tight nipples grazed his chest.

After a confession like that, there was only one place he wanted to have her. Standing them both up, he kept her legs wrapped around his waist. Magic dried their bodies off in the short distance between the water and his room.

Only this time, as he walked them both over to the bed, he took her mouth with his own. Sliding his tongue deep, in a slow but powerful glide. Eating up every moan against him as she allowed him to fuck her mouth with the kind of heavy, dominant strokes he wanted to give her pleasure from.

Sitting down with his back against the head of the bed, he palmed both breasts and took in the magnificence of her. Still in his lap, exactly where he wanted her to be, with his cum seeping between them, but right on the edge and desperate for release.

“What do you want?” She pushed his hair back off his forehead. Cheeks flushed and lips puffy from his kisses.

It wasn’t a question about sex. This was something much deeper passing between them in this quiet moment. One where they both teetered on the edge of falling into an abyss of quite a different kind.

One that Rowan had never dared venture into before now.

With his head tipped back, he watched her through hooded eyes. Now was the time to stop running from what he wanted. The only time he’d ever felt confident to actually take what was being offered, and from the last person he ever expected.

His voice rough, he fixed her with a penetrating gaze. “I want a life. I’ve been cursed with three hundred years, and I haven’t lived a single day. I want the kind of life you make me wish for, filled with long days in the sun, swimming in the ocean, and star gazing at night on a new moon. But most of all, I want you there with me. We could do all of those things, or none of them, and somehow I’d feel happiness like I’ve never been able to taste before.”

And as his words hung in the air around them, he felt her clench and sob out soft whimpers of pleasure. Riding out her climax that was quickly chased by his own. Breathlessly, she crushed her mouth over his and murmured her agreement.

“I need you, brute. All of that. Only you.”

She wanted that, too.

She wanted that with him.

And he didn’t deserve any of it.

Chapter 30

Pressure bore down on her throat with unrelenting fury. Her breaths began to shallow, and in her semi-awake state, Ri vaguely had the sense of being pinned beneath a massive bulk.

What kind of unwelcome dream was this?

She fumbled with her hands in the dark. Only a faint crack of grey seeping into the room indicated that dawn had arrived. But she was still firmly in the grips of slumber, groggy and trying to make sense of what was happening around her.

Latching on to the source of the pressure tightening, she recognised the presence immediately. It was Rowan. One part of her sagged with relief, while the other felt a rising sense of panic. This wasn’t Rowan, but something else—some other part of him.

And as her eyes cleared of sleep and adjusted to the light, she felt the tight grip begin to choke her. The force of his hands around her neck jerked her body awake immediately. Ri made a tight noise beneath him, her eyes flickering over his face that didn’t see her at all.

Whatever he was witnessing behind those unseeing eyes certainly wasn’t her.

Thumping at his forearms and begging to struggle beneath him, Ri felt her chest tighten. As her airway became more and more restrained, she kicked out, but his huge frame was too overpowering. He was all tense muscle and predatory intent.

Rowan’s pale face and unblinking eyes stared into her own with a fierce snarl etched onto his features as he squeezed and squeezed, until finally Ri thought she was going to pass out. Blackened dots crept in around the edges of her vision, and her mouth hung open. No sound passed her lips, no matter how hard she tried.

Until finally, she gathered enough strength to produce a blade in her fist. Slamming it into his forearm with all her might. A final attempt to draw him out of whatever nightmare he’d become trapped within.

Blood welled and ran down his arm, dripping all over her chest in hot rivulets as she watched him wake. A sharpness appeared, clearing away the cloudiness in his blue eyes. Focusing with a couple of blinks on the scene before him. He jerked backwards with a pained noise. The blade flew from where it had still been tightly clenched in her fist, and Ri choked down a lungful of air. Her hand clutching and rubbing the bruised skin as she doubled over onto her side.

“Fuck.” Rowan barked and erupted out of the bed. Both hands shoved in his hair as he lurched on unsteady legs across the room. Still not fully back in his body, but instinctively trying to put distance between the two of them.

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