Page 37 of Born of Blood and Thorns

"I-—I just need you. I burn?—"

Lore cut my words off as he captured my lips in a punishing kiss, his tongue thrusting inside of me. Soon, his hips matched the thrusts of his tongue as I met them both with my own. We began a dance that was as old and magical as time itself as a building pressure started in my center.

One of pleasure.

We moved together in a tangle of limbs and impassioned cries. Lore worshiped every hollow and curve, wringing gasps and moans from my lips as he learned my most intimate secrets. Finally, movements became harder and deeper, and our bodies fused in exquisite harmony. Lore swallowed my keening cry with a searing kiss as he claimed me fully, irrevocably. As the building intensified to a crescendo, I could no longer handle it. It peaked and crested until it exploded—and I with it—into a million tiny fragments.

My pleasure burst through my body as I shook and screamed Lore's name like a promise. I could feel my body convulsing around him as he became almost brutal, and his thrusts became deeper and more demanding. They carved out a place with my center and within my fallible heart as he took me. With a cry of his own and a jerk of his body, he found his release, slamming hard inside of me one last time.

After, we lay replete in each other's arms. The silence between us was weighted with unspoken truths. This was more than lust and convenience—our souls had collided and melded into one.

He lay next to me, his arms around me. He held me as if the day didn't exist and only that moment mattered.

"How do you break the curse?" I asked, breaking the bubble of our cocoon of languid pleasure. I hated doing it, but a new idea wrapped its sticky fingers around my dark thoughts.

What if his mate showed up one day, and I had given him everything I had to offer? What would happen to me then? After what we had just done, I knew that the magic we created together had done something no one had ever done to me before.

In the jagged pieces of my rough, hardened heart was a place for Lore to make its home. Caring for people was a weakness that terrified me, and I feared this would be how I finally found the end of my miserable life. It was a mistake to care about someone. Falling for the enemy was a grave mistake, but planning to kill them was an even bigger one. It was at that moment I knew I was in serious trouble.

"The curse is not your concern," Lore muttered, his voice sharp and cold as he answered me, instantly releasing me and pulling away.

He was cold again, all traces of tenderness gone, and my heart plummeted. I was such a fool.

"It does concern me. I'm stuck here," I said sharply. "At least tell me who this 'true love' of yours is. Do you know her? Have you met her?" The questions spilled out before I could stop them, tinged with bitterness and insecurity I didn't want him to hear.

Lore remained silent for too long as I lifted from the bed and glared at him.

Lore withdrew entirely then, the coldness of his retreat more painful than any blow. "You know we are enemies and nothing more. This changes nothing."

His words pierced my heart, even as anger roared through me. I flung bitter words, channeling my anguish into rage. How dare he use me so callously!

In the end, he retreated to the solitude of the castle. I snatched up my clothing, keeping merely the blanket from his bed wrapped around me as I stormed out of his bed-chamber, weeping tears that seared like dragon fire. What cruelty, to find bliss in his arms only to realize I had been a fool. All the more to harden my heart further and burn that little part he had found his way into, only to cut me deeper than I'd ever been cut before.

I lay awake long after Lore was gone, my mind spinning. Did he see me as a mere distraction, a way to pass the endless days until his supposed true love arrived? The thought pierced my fragile heart like a dagger. After opening myself so completely, the idea of losing him to another threatened to break me. Yet what choice did I have but to accept it?

All the more reason to kill him, I seethed.

CHAPTER 17

Bella

"Careful now!" Alastair yelled at me as I rounded a corner and slammed right into him, too concerned with keeping the bed sheet wrapped around me to pay attention to my path. Alastair stared at me as the corners of his lips twitched upward, but the glare on my face that I pinned to him had him swallowing hard. "Bad night?" he asked as he pressed his lips together. His expressive eyes betrayed him, however, as they danced with mirth.

"Actually," I almost yelled. "It was the best damn night of my life. It was the morning that turned into shit." I wrapped the sheet tighter around me as I stumbled down the corridor toward my room, hearing Alastair chuckle from behind.

"Funny, Lore said much the same," I heard him say behind my back, and I wanted to scream. "Back in my day, we called that corridor the walk of shame." He laughed.

I rounded the corner, slamming the door to my room and dropping the sheet instantly, muttering curses about Lore to no one but myself… or so I thought. As I entered the room, I realized Alysha was holding a tray.

Her eyes widened at my disheveled nude body. I glared at her, refusing to cover up, too angry to care.

"This big as freaking hell castle and all you people can do is be exactly where I don't need you to be!" I yelled at her.

She flinched, and guilt hit me like a ton of bricks.

"I… I'm sorry," I said, my voice softer as I covered my breasts with my arms. I grabbed my discarded clothing—the ones I'd arrived in—and quickly threw them on.

Alysha stood silent until it hung heavy in the air.

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