Page 123 of Crownless King

He eyed me with the same hunger I’d looked at him.

“Gods, you are a sight to see, Sparrow.” He licked his lips, his throat bobbing with a swallow. “I need to touch you, sweetheart. Please.”

He inched closer, but the handcuffs stopped him.

“Patience, my darling.” I ran my hands down his chest, then over the tight squares of his abs. His muscles rippled under my palms. His hard-on bobbed, practically leaping into my hand when I reached for it.

He released a long breath as I wrapped my fingers around his hard length.

“By the wings of the merciful God of Death,” he exhaled under his breath. “I didn’t even dare to dream about having your hands on me again.”

I trailed my fingers up his hard cock. It was as beautiful as I remembered, as if sculpted by a skilled hand of a master.

A bitter thought slithered into my mind. None of this would have happened had Voron gotten his way when he’d ordered me gone. I would’ve been worlds away from him right now.

The more I thought about that, the hotter the blood bubbled in my veins, the harder I squeezed him, making him hiss. The higher the old anger rose.

I loved Voron. Passionately, desperately. I’d walk through fire for him and fight his demons for him. I would annihilate anyone who dared hurt him.

Yet I wished him hurt.

I wanted him to feel the pain of rejection. The helplessness I felt when he cast me off without even a word of goodbye. The anguish that followed for months after.

I wanted him to feel the loneliness of carrying our child without having the man I loved at my side. Of giving birth to the baby without his father being there or even knowing about him. I wished he knew my fear of losing the roof over our heads. The constant, heart-wrenching worry about not being able to provide for my baby or to give him the life he deserved.

My touch became rougher. I gripped his length in my hands, digging my fingers into his tender, silky skin.

Yet he moaned in bliss, thrusting his hips into my hands. He tossed his head back. My name fluttered from his lips like a prayer. His mouth slackened, his beautiful features tensing as his climax neared.

I wished I could join him in pleasure. It used to be so easy for me to do before.

Before he betrayed me.

Taking my hands off him, I sat back on my haunches. I left him needing, wanting me, his cock engorged and weeping with just a single drop of seed glistening on its tip. I didn’t let the rest release.

“Sparrow, please,” he groaned, thrusting his hips up in search of my hands or my mouth. In search of my mercy. But I wouldn’t grant him any.

“How does it feel, Voron? To be denied something you wish for so badly it hurts?” Because it must hurt, judging by the state of his dripping, straining dick.

Yet when he slowly opened his eyes and found mine, his expression was calm.

“I learned what it feels like long ago, sweetheart.” His voice remained gentle. “You know that, too. You’ve read how I felt when you weren’t with me. You know I lost everything without you, from my sleep to my sanity.”

I inhaled a shaky breath. Everything inside me reached out to him. I wished to hold him, to comfort him, to erase his pain.

Only it washewho had caused the pain in the first place.

“Guilt racked me,” he confessed. “I should have never let you out of my sight.”

“Exactly. You shouldn’t have,” I echoed, bitterly.

“I should have married you that very day and proclaimed you my queen.”

Would that have been the solution I wished for?

I shook my head with a sigh. His position on the throne was so unstable back then. The many attacks against him that followed proved it.

“Chances were we both would’ve been killed if you did that,” I admitted reluctantly.

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