Page 48 of King of the Dawn

He tucked me in, then pulled the sheets over me.

“Lay with me, please,” I whispered, pulling myself up to kiss him.

He didn’t deny me a kiss. He never did. That was something I had always appreciated about my husband. He always kissed me, held me, stroked me when I asked. No question. No agitation. He was generous with his love. So why would he not make love to me now?

“I already told you, you need to get rest,” he said again, pulling a strand of hair from my face.

“Jericho Vasiliev,” I tried a different tact to get what I desperately needed. “If you do not get into this bed and make love to me, then I will get up and go to my little greenhouse and get to work until I am exhausted and collapse.”

His brows knitted, and he scowled at me. A scowl that made my thighs clench with anticipation.

“You’re playing dirty, witch.”

“I’m not playing dirty enough,” I mocked, as I touched the buttons of my dress, unfastening them slowly until they opened. A simple black bra covered my modest breasts as my top fell open for his inspection.

His eyes widened, as his tongue darted between his beautiful lips. “Eve?”

My name was a warning on his lips.

“Husband?” I said, raising a brow. Then I palmed his face, my thumbs grazing over his lips. “Don’t deny me this.”

I watched as his will crumbled to me. Whatever was keeping him from my bed fell apart in that moment, as his lips plunged into mine. His kisses weren’t as intense as they’d been in the past. These ones were tender, as if he’d been scared to hurt me.

I knew we shouldn’t have sex, my body was still recovering, but the need to bring him back to me overrode the ability to be responsible. Jericho was withdrawing, and I couldn’t have that.

I’d remind him just how much I needed him, how much he needed me, with my body. There was no denying that we both had the ability to melt into each other, to read what the other needed and give in to it.

I tugged at his shirt, pulling it over his head. My hands caressed his hard muscles, almost as if I were savoring him because I knew I might not have him much longer. My fingers moved lower, playing with the metal clasp of his belt.

“Off,” I demanded.

He obeyed, but he moved too slow, and I whined at how long he was taking to make love to me.

“Patience,” he chuckled, reading my mind. “We have the entire plane ride. Let me savor you.” He slid out of the clothing that I so desperately loathed at the moment, and then he settled his head between my thighs.

My fingers dug into the sheets as he lifted my dress and pressed his lips against the already soaked fabric of my thong. And then he feasted on me with a desperation I could feel in my soul, deep inside my bones.

And we never stopped making love. Not once from the plane, to the apartment. He held me like it was the last time, and consumed me like I was his last meal.

He rented an apartment for us, one with a balcony and a view of the beautiful main street. I barely had time to appreciate it, before he made me very acquainted with the bed, our bodies tangled, and hungry for everything.

I had spent a life away from my true husband. I had been kept from him by fate, and the evil that we had vanquished with the death of my tormentors.

I had so much time to make up for. Years of misery were wiped away, again and again, with each kiss, and thrust. With every gasp of breath against our tender, heated flesh.

I made my vows to him, again and again, sending the prayer to the world, as if repeating it would make it true. As if each gasp would render it in stone.

“I love you,” I said again and again until I was weeping with the love he poured into me. “I will never have another.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Jericho

I couldn’t stop. Now that the pieces were in place, the right people were in the know… I needed her.

I should have let her sleep. I should have let her be well-rested for all that tomorrow might bring her. But I’m a selfish bastard.

I drew her into my arms, kissed her shoulder and let my cock throb in the space between us until she was squirming, rubbing herself against me. It was all the encouragement I needed to mount her, pinning her beneath me and banishing the thoughts of her ever being out of my sight until we both tipped over the edge.

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