Page 41 of Crowned

But her touch feels like adoration.

“Then we’re a good match, you and I.” With my fist still tight in her hair, I sink my mouth down over hers in another brutal kiss. Every drop of anger, every impulse to murder Lilia with my bare hands, is now driving me to possess her with my entire body. I crave her taste after months of aching for her. To prove she’s mine, along with this baby.

“I need to see you,” I breathe, feeling for the buttons on her dress. I want to tear it open, but the memory of what she’s been through tonight makes me pause, and I look up at her.

She stares at my fingers and realizes I’m asking for permission.

That realization seems to daze her more than walking in here and finding us in her home. Slowly, she nods.

I pop the buttons open one by one, the fabric rustling. The sound is loud in her silent apartment as we stare at each other. There’s fear in her eyes, but longing, too. No one’s ever looked at me like that, and I feel like I’m drowning in her eyes.

I peel the blood-soaked dress back from her shoulders and toss it aside, revealing Lilia’s body in a black-lace bra. Her dusky nipples are tightened into points, just glimpsed through the rose-patterned fabric. There are smudges of red adorning her flesh.

No panties.

“Did he rip them off you?” I ask through my teeth.

She nods slowly, and I feel my blood boil.

Reaching behind her, I unhook her bra and, with my forefinger, drag it down her arms and let it fall to the floor. Lilia takes a breath, her body trembling, and her eyes huge.

I let my gaze travel down her body. She stands before me like Aphrodite, dressed only in blood, blonde hair cascading over her luminous shoulder, and her breasts full and heavy.

But it’s her belly that draws my attention, rounded and perfect. I can’t stop staring at her.

Every man craves to see the woman he’s obsessed with full of his child.

Our heads are bowed together and our breaths mingle. My heart is lodged in my throat. I’ve never seen anything more beautiful in my life.

Lilia squeezes her eyes shut. “Don’t look at me like that, please.”

“I’ll look at you how I choose. You’re my everything.”

I scoop her up in my arms and carry her into the bedroom. Gooseflesh has broken out on her body. I feel like I’m burning up, and I clasp her tightly, sharing my heat with her. Her bed is narrow and the space in here is scant, but there’s room enough in here for the two of us as I lay her down.

With her blonde hair gleaming on the pillow, she gazes up at me with wide eyes, her hands pressed against my chest. For the moment, all the anger and poison in my life melts away, and there’s just us.

Her and me.

She strokes her fingers down my cheek. “This doesn’t feel real. Where did you even come from? How did you get here?”

As if that matters right now as I stroke my fingers down her bare legs.

Lilia closes her eyes. “I’ve compared every man I’ve met these past few months to you. To all of you.”

“What, ordinary men? Nothing men? Why did you even bother?”

“Their hearts are ten times your hearts. Their honor is a hundred times your honor.”

My lips curve into a smile as I push her knees apart. “My wicked heart is what you crave. My twisted honor is all you ache for.”

“No,” she cries softly, closing her eyes but arching her back.

She can protest that I’m wrong all she wants. I move down the bed and swipe her sex with my tongue.Fuck. Her flavor bursts in my mouth, making my cock stand to attention.

“Milaya, you make me lose my goddamn mind.” I run my tongue over her again and again, and she cries out in pleasure.

I remember how I felt about Lilia all those months ago when I pushed her to her knees and humiliated her in front of my men and all the women of the pageant.If you behave around a woman like she’s a flawless, bewitching goddess, then she’s going to start thinking that she is one.

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