Page 41 of Crownless King

Voron lifted my feet from the seat and placed them on his lap, sitting down next to me.

“You’re bored, so you came here, hoping I’ll entertain you?” I smiled.

He rolled his head my way on the high, padded back of the seat. “Could you? Please?”

I laughed, rolling my eyes. “Why don’t you just say you missed me?”

“That too,” he confessed.

Slipping a hand up my leg and under my skirts, he leaned over for a kiss.

I met him halfway, eager to feel his lips on mine. Grabbing me around the middle, he drew me closer, but I shrank back, pulling the knitting needles with my work out from between us.

“Careful. You’ll hurt yourself. These are sharp.”

I tossed the whole thing—the needles, the scarf, and the ball of yarn—onto the seat across from us.

Voron narrowed his eyes at my long knitting needles.

“These are handy weapons for a lady.”

“Right. To defend myself against the naughty men with wandering hands,” I quipped, pressing my legs together to trap his hand between my thighs.

He leaned over me, making me sink backwards into the seat cushions.

“There’ll be no other men, Sparrow. Only me,” he said firmly. His serious expression no longer matched the light mood of our conversation.

Next, he untied the ribbon in front of my dress, freeing my breasts.

“But that’s not the way of the Elaros Court, Voron. When you move back to the Sky Palace, will you change the rules and impose monogamy on them, too? The nobles won’t like it.”

He sat up, not releasing me from his arms. Hiking up my skirts, he made me straddle his lap, facing him.

“I don’t care about the others. They’re free to do as they please. But you are mine now. And always will be.”

He claimed me so blatantly, a shiver tingled through me at his words.

“How about you, Voron? Will you be only mine, too?”

He arched an eyebrow. “You know I will.”

Right. He had no choice. Sex with a fae carried a risk for him. But was that all there was between us? Just sex?

His gaze slid down my chest, stopping on my right breast.

“The image of another man’s mouth on your body is haunting me.” He kneaded my breast gently, rubbing his palm over my nipple, as if trying to erase every memory of King Tiane’s touch from my skin.

“You gave me to him.”

“I know. Which made it so much worse.” He drew me to him, burying his face in the side of my neck. “I forced myself not to care. I kept repeating that you weren’t mine. I believed I simply felt responsible for your wellbeing and wanted you to find something or someone to make you happy in this new world. But I always wished it were me who made you happy, Sparrow. You weren’t meant to be mine, but I ended up taking you, anyway. Now, you belong to me and only me.”

“I wish for no one else,” I breathed out.

He kissed my neck down to my breast, then lifted it to suck the tip into his mouth. He raked his teeth over my skin, kissing and sucking so hard it almost hurt, erasing every sensation of the other man touching me before.

I sank my fingers into his unruly hair and kissed the top of his head. “I am happy to be with you, Voron.”

The words and feelings he’d kept to himself in Elaros were pouring out of him now. “You seemed to be willing and content with him, Sparrow. I had no right to stand between the two of you. But I did. I kept Tiane away from you for as long as I could.”

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