Page 133 of To Bleed A Kingdom

“Mind.” Slapping my head against the wall,he presses a rough kiss to my forehead.

“Body.” Lowering his head, he bites down on my shoulder. The sting causes a shiver to wrack through my body, that warmth within me coiling even tighter, lower, as he closes his mouth around his mark.

“And Soul.” He slides the thin strap of my slip down to dangle over my arm. When he runs the rough, wet pad of his tongue along the top of my breast, my juices begin to drip down the inside of my thigh.

Rising above me once again, his eyes flash with a renewed heat and he tightens his fingers around my throat, partially cutting off my airway. “And nobody touches what's mine.”

“I’m not yours,” I wheeze out, vaguely wondering how he hasn't noticed the need glistening his leathers. I knock his hand from my throat andslip my fingers beneath his vest, dragging him toward me to slam my lips against his. But I've barely tasted him when I’m bombarded with the overpowering, toxic scent of powdered roses. Danya’s scent.

Rage instantly surging through me, I bite down on his bottom lip until I pierce through the skin. Darius tries to jerk away but I dig my blunt teeth in deeper, moaning when the iron taste of him fills my mouth.

Hands suddenly re-clamp around my throat, and my teeth tear the wound wider as Darius rips himself free from me.

“Lena,” he warns through panting breaths, blood smearing his lips.

“I’m not yours!” Licking my lips, I sneer, “You made that crystal clear with that show you and Danya put on at the pub tonight.”

Squeezing my throat tighter, he slams his lips onto mine in a swift, hard kiss. “You are mine.” A firm kiss. “You're mine today.” A longer kiss. “Tomorrow.” A softening kiss. “A week from now.” His hand loosens, and he presses lingering, molding lips to mine. “Just as you were yesterday and the day before that.” He strokes my throat, kissing beneath my jaw. “You were mine twenty years ago and you'll be mine for a thousand more.” Ducking his head, he strokes his tongue along the markings on the swell of my breast and I moan as he places an openmouthed kiss there. “You were mine before I took my first breath, andyou'll still be mine long after our flesh and bones burn to ash and our souls ascend to Elysium.”

He lifts his head, tenderness mixed with lust blazing within his eyes as he places his lips upon mine and slips his tongue between to graze against mine. He pulls back, blowing out a shaky breath as he shuts his eyes and presses our foreheads together. “Lena, you always have and always will belong to me,” he whispers, his thumb stroking my cheek. “Just as I will forever belong to you.”

My chest rises and falls in sync with his, the organ beneath swelling to near bursting beneath his penetrating stare. All my thoughts, all my plans, all my reservations flit away with each reverently spoken word, leaving behind nothing but a single, irrepressible, viscerally choking demand.

I pounce.

Smacking into his chest, I wrap my arms around his neck, my legs around his waist, and I give into this want. This desire, this need, this anger and hurt and jealousy, giving him and I what we've both been so desperate for when I slam my lips down onto his...

Us.

DARIUS

Deprived.

Starved.

Ravenous.

Those are the only words I can think of that are even remotely comparable to the feeling of having Lena in my arms. As if, for my entire life, I've been nothing but a desiccated husk, and now that she’s within reach, I can't control this desperate hunger for her. A gluttonous need drives me to take everything she has to offer, and demands that she gives me everything she hasn't.

Lena tightens her legs around my waist but rips free from our kiss, gasping for breath. But I can't have that. I can’t be separated from her any longer. Not after my foolish display with Danya. Not after the rage and turmoil I felt when I thought I'd find Zander in her bed.

Grabbing the back of her neck, I jerk her towards me, colliding our lips in a violent clash of teeth and tongues. Lena bites down on my lip again and I feel a sudden sharp pain. Blood fills my mouth and my lip begins to throb, but the pain vanishes when she begins sucking on the wound. A flash of light suddenly explodes behind my eyes, shocking my nerves into an animalistic frenzy from a euphoric sensation that feels like she's not only drawing my life’s essence through my lip, but that she's sucking it straight from my cock.

Without breaking our kiss, I spin her in my arms and lay her across the bed. Molding my lips with hers, I sweep my tongue against hers one last time, then pull free from her to unstrap my sheathed sword from my back and shuck off my boots. Her eyes darken when I slip my vest over my head, revealing the sculpted, broad chest beneath and the black shadows curling around my shoulders and the base of my throat from the mark covering my back. But when my cock bobs free from my leathers, she fists her hands into the sheets and exhales a quiet moan. And I swear to all the Stars and gods above that her amethyst eyes flash with a glowing light.

Placing my knee on the bed, I lift her arm to my chest and begin unbuckling her vambraces.

“No.” Lena jerks her hand from mine, clutching her wrist protectively to her chest. “They stay on.”

Wanting no barriers of any kind between us, I open my mouth to tell her just that, but the only sound I can utter is a strangled grunt when she sits up and I watch her pale slip slither down her chest to pool at her waist, baring full, round breasts just large enough to fill my hand.

Mouth watering at the sight, I lower my head and cup my hand beneath her breast, pebbling her nipple with a flick of my tongue. She gasps, arching against me, and I increase my efforts, enclosing my mouth around her breast and rolling the nub with my tongue. She moans, a long, drawn-out sound that has my dick twitching between us. I switch to the other side, giving it equal attention.

More. I need more.

Releasing her breast on a pop, I lower to my knees and begin licking a trail down her abdomen, tracing more of those circular shaped scars that I now realize aren’t scars at all, butsome other type of marking I can’t name. The way they dot her skin with various designs, they almost appear to be ruins. But I’ve only ever seen ruins in books. Not on a woman’s thighs, her hips, or in between her breasts. Nor have I seen any crawling up the side of a woman’s ribs.

A shiver wracks through her body when I lick beneath the silk draped around her waist. Unable to wait any longer, I fist the fabric in my hand and rip it from her, and I almost choke on my tongue when I catch sight of the most perfect pussy hidden beneath.

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