Page 170 of What Lies Within Blood & Heirs

How many times had he said those words only for them to be ignored? Like something meaningless. Thrown away. Surrounded by laughter while they forcibly explored his body. While he was beaten. Broken. Left for dead. How many times had his mind screamed them when his voice could not?

But with Alora, he could.

“Get down here, clever girl.” He wasdonewaiting. Done letting fucking memories control him.

She grinned but remained unmoving. “Patience, High Prince.” In a steady movement, she continued her tease and removed her upper armor, revealing a black sleeveless undershirt, and his shadow hand misted away.

Hanging by an outstretched finger, Alora dropped the leathers by his feet.

Her teasingwastorture for which he craved to carry out delicious retribution. Knowing he would, if free, consume the wicked grin and have it wide open and moaning from unleashing himself inside her. Garrik shifted his hips and cocked his head like an animal stalking its prey.

Starsdamn.He couldn’t stop looking at the white-hot embers in her eyes. Seeing her like this… Emanating sheer authority and control… She wasn’t a damsel needing to be rescued from a lion. Shewasa lion. And he would gladly let her devour him whole.

Alora hummed, stalked closer, and crouched over his thighs. “Tell me, mighty prince. If I let you go, what would you do?”

The words released that thin tether. Garrik growled, “Don’t you dare untie me.” He lunged forward, desperate to gain as little as an inch. The bonds snapped tight. “I will not be able to control myself.” He felt himself unraveling with every brush of her fingers that resumed drifting down the curves of her body.

Warmth pulsated into his chest as she laid her hand on it, rendering him breathless from its searing sting.

A memory flickered in his mind. A flash of a daggered hand. Garrik’s strangled breath groaned, “Wait?—”

Concerned, her face lowered. Alora withdrew her intense heat, then flashed apologetic eyes. Shestopped. Waited.

He whipped his head to the bonds.Ropes. Not chains. And when he quickly tore his gaze away, it was white hair, blue eyes, and a warm touch waiting. It was his Alora.

And she had withdrawn the moment he had needed it. An act so unlike the cruel hands that plagued his every waking moment. An act that soothed him and pulled him back to the present. To her.

Still, her hand did not leave his flesh. “Is this okay? I didn’t mean to,” forcing a swallow, “torment you.”

“Alora.You could burn me alive and I would gladly hand you a torch to do it.”

Her lips parted, hitching a breath. Leathered thighs fully lowered to his, straddling him completely, but Garrik needed her closer. He slid his boots back, bending his knees with a jerk, causing her to fall forward and plant her hands on his solid chest.

His cock pressed against her core, and she stiffened.

In a gentle movement, Alora rolled her hips and ground against him. “Do you like this?”

Words were beyond him. He gripped the ropes around his wrists and unleashed a moan from the depths like a wild, deprived beast. He did not dare twitch. Did not dare move. He may have been bound to the tree, but one word—one mere thought—his Smokeshadows would release him. And he wouldlungefor her without abandon.

“Do you want me to stop?” Her nose teased his jawline as she braced her hands on either side of his face, rubbing her chest to his.

Never stop.His face dropped to her neck, blowing an icy chill against her skin that peaked her nipples through the thin fabric. Garrik pictured them in his mouth, but her position rendered that impossible. Settling for her neck, he nipped the soft spot of muscle.

Alora whimpered and rolled her hips.

Releasing a deep, pleasured growl against her lips when her hands pulled his face to hers, they collided together in breathless desire.

Easing against his cock in a slow rhythm, her warm hand threaded through his hair, pulling his lips impossibly closer.

Garrik could not stop himself from groaning, working his lips desperately against hers. Savoring the way she tasted. The way she felt so perfectly warm against him.

Longing was too simple a word for how desperate he felt. Like her absence would rip his useless heart into its final beat. Nothing in Elysian had ever made him drop all sense of himself as she did.Nothing.Nothing had every piece of himburningthrough a dying heart and bloodstained soul.

Silver widened when Alora kissed the hard lump at the center of his throat. Her warm tongue traced idle circles on it, and he hummed, reverberating his growl into her mouth. Every muscle in his arms went taut, pulling his bonds, veins bulging as he rolled his hips with her.

Garrik’s cock ached for her, and he met her stroke for stroke with a slow rhythm. Alora moaned in a way that reminded him of her warmth tightening against his fingers, and how her slickness tasted after.

She licked him long and slow, down until she played at the dip of his neck.

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