Page 17 of A Petal in the Crown

He pulled her flush against his front, needing to feel the erratic beat of her heart as he proved to himself that she was real with his hands and his lips and his cock.

Their kiss morphed into a clash of teeth and limbs, a groan leaving Gray’s throat as he speared his fingers through her long, golden hair. His knuckles scraped on the thorny moonflower vines making up the crown on her head, but he hardly noticed as Lea's hands wrapped around his biceps, her fingernails digging into his arms. He welcomed the bite of pain, savored it, even.

It was proof that this wasreal, that she had somehow returned to him.

"You’re really here…" Gray whispered, his lip still pressed to Lea's. She broke away, her chest heaving. As her eyes met his, Gray was once again struck by how utterly Fae she looked, how her human exterior had crumbled away once her primary magic had fully revealed itself, burning through the last bit of glamor from the potion her mother had given her to hide her true identity.

Lea didn't answer him, instead, placing a hand on his chest and firmly pushing him backward until he was flat on his back on the bed. Gray’s shadows caressed her body, unable to stop touching her, even for a moment. They floated across her breast, driven by the need to feel her heartbeat, the steady, rhythmic rise and fall of her chest.

Lea wrapped her shadows around Gray's wrists, pinning them to his sides. Staring him directly in the eye, she grabbed the hem of her shirt, slowly lifting it up her torso and pulling it over her head. She tossed it to the floor, never breaking eye contact, and Gray’s cock stiffened, the sight of her golden, freckled skin, flushed with color—with life—making him feral with need.

He tried to free his arms, pushing back against Lea's shadowy restraints, but she held them firm. Gray stilled, knowing he could break through them if he wanted, that he could have Lea in his arms in lessthan a second—her warm body under his as he made her moan with pleasure—but he stopped himself, sensing her need for control. She ripped open his shirt, revealing the puckered skin of his own scar, the jagged evidence of the chunk of flesh he’d cut from his own body.

"It's gone," Lea said, her voice cracking. "Gone."

Gray winced, the pain in her words as agonizing as Alaric’s sword slicing through his sternum. Gray's eyes slid to just below her collarbone, to the faint scar where her own mate mark had once tattooed her chest.

"Forever, Gray. It's goneforever," she hissed, her shadows twisting tighter around his arms, pinning his legs in place against the bed so that he couldn't stand. There were no tears in her eyes, no hint of anything soft or gentle. There was only anger, dark and hard, and so intense, it made Gray's heart ache.

"I’d do it again," he said. There was no bite to his words, but she needed to know the truth. He hated that he’d been forced to sacrifice himself. Loathed the fact that they no longer had the mate bond between them, that Lea felt hurt and betrayed. But he didn't regret it. He couldn’t. It had been the only way to grow the moonflowers, and it had saved their entire army.

It had saved her.

At least, until she’d recklessly and selflessly followed behind him and found a way to save them both. He would make the same choice now, even knowing what it had cost them. Because they were alive. They were together.

Lea's eyes darkened. "Never again," she said, her voice nearly a growl. "Never. Again." She was so angry. Absolutely furious. He wanted to rush to her, fold her in his arms and show her with his body how much he loved her, show her the grief he’d been feeling, the pain and despair that had consumed his every waking moment since he’d returned without her.

He thoughtagain about forcing his way through her shadows, but instead, he just nodded. "Never again," he agreed. "I swear it."

Lea's breath rushed out in one fell swoop, and she closed her eyes, her shoulders falling slightly, but her shadowy chains didn’t ease. She stalked forward, pulling her hair to the side as she knelt in front of him.

A memory flashed through his mind.You serve no one, especially me,he’d said after finding her on her knees scrubbing the floors of his hall. It had infuriated him. Made him want to rip out Alaric’s throat for assigning her as his maid. But they had come so far since then. She was his queen. His equal, and the sight of her kneeling in front of him made the most primal depths of his soul crave more.

Placing her palms on his knees, Lea slid them upward, slowly, torturously, until they reached his waistband. A long trail of shadow floated from her fingers, unbuttoning his trousers and sliding down the zipper. Lea stared him in the eye, straight into his soul, and finally moved her hands, pulling his cock free from his pants.

He fell hard and thick in her hand, pulsing as her fingers danced across the sensitive skin. Gray's chest heaved with ragged breaths as she leaned down, never looking away from his eyes, and swirled her tongue around the tip of his cock. He groaned again, his hips bucking, needing more. Lea wrapped her fingers around the base of him, squeezing him gently and gliding up and down before sliding her tongue from base to tip, closing her lips around his thick length.

"Gods, Lea," Gray hissed as she moved faster, the warmth of her mouth and pressure of her tongue further igniting his need, almost driving him mad. Gray’s shadows pulled her hair over her shoulder as he once again pushed against the restraints on his arms, desperate to thread his fingers through her hair, but Lea held him firmly in place.

"Let me touch you," he growled, the need to feel every inch of her body so intense it made his skin ache. He needed to kissher, to hold her, to bury himself inside her until they were so entwined it would be impossible to separate them again. He’d thought he lost her forever, had broken her heart by breaking the bond. To have her kneeling before him, pleasuring him and not receiving anything in return? It didn't feel right.

Lea ignored his pleas, sliding her lips down again until he hit the back of her throat. His cock twitched as she worked him harder, faster. But this wasn’t what he wanted. What heneeded.

His heart thundered, his shadows mixing with Lea’s and begging them to release their hold.

"How does it feel to have no control?" Lea asked, pulling back and rubbing her breasts against his legs.

"Never again," Gray repeated, forcing himself to not break through her shadows, even though the need to touch her was threatening to kill him. She needed the control. Needed to make her point. "I swear it to you, Lea. I will never," his shadows reached out, grabbing her chin and forcing her to meet his eyes. "I will never, ever leave you again. Not in life, or in death. I will not allow us to be separated. Never. Again." He reached forward, pushing against Lea’s shadows once more, and this time, they relented, setting him free.

A growl ripped from his throat as he sank to the floor, grabbing her by the waist and throwing her onto her back on the bed. This time, he heldherdown with his shadows as he fumbled with her pants, ripping them off and spreading her legs open wide. Lea moaned as his tongue found her center, a rumble leaving his throat as he tasted her. No—feastedon her.

He splayed a palm over her stomach, holding her in place as she arched against him.

"More," she begged, her breaths ragged and her skin flushing. It was almost his undoing. He pressed a finger inside her, then two, his dickpulsing as he moved them in and out, her body squeezing against him tighter and tighter.

He leaned back to look at her, at his fingers claiming her, the way she writhed and bucked against him. Just the sight was enough to make him come, and he leaned back in, nipping at her thighs before once again finding her clit with his tongue.

It was as if he was starving. As if she was cold water after years in the desert. He pressed the pad of his tongue against her, hard, and Lea cried out, her body going taut beneath his hand. His shadows snaked around her thighs, holding them down as he worked her through her pleasure, her body spasming as her orgasm crashed over her in waves, his name a prayer on her beautiful, plump lips.

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