Page 21 of Heir to His Court

Renaud. . .I was not so sure of him.

“I needed time to myself,” I said.

“Then you should have stayed in your bedroom.” He nipped my skin a little harder, massaging the breast he'd pinched. “Or you could have come to the palace. The grounds are the most secure in Everenne. You would have been protected, and undisturbed.”

“Why would I want to voluntarily come anywhere near you right now?”

“You can be angry with me and still maintain basic security protocols. If you cannot, then I will treat you like the child you're behaving as.”

My snarl started deep in my chest, a hissing feline sound born of anger, frustration, and deep-seated offense. My nails lengthened, and if he hadn’t had me so thoroughly trapped, I would have raked them down his face.

“Do youreallyhave nothing better to do than monitor my movements and hunt me down?”

“Hunt,” he said. “Yes. You have no idea how badly I crave the hunt. As you were dancing like you sought trouble, shall I give you some?”

He pinched my nipple again. I gasped, instinctively tilted my head to give him access. To bite. He obliged, sharp teeth grazing my neck, hovering just a hair pressure above breaking skin.

“Raniel. . .” I couldn't stifle the longing. “Please.”

A dangerous word. It gave blanket permission for any liberty he desired.

The hand fondling my breast with such delicious cruelty slid down my body, slipping under my pants and unerringly heading to my center. I bit my lip and shuddered when those fingers moved, hissed as he laughed at me, knowing I loathed my response.

I wanted to bleed out under him as he fucked me. I could think of no better execution.

Careful,Darkan crooned.Do not offer the monster your neck, or he will tear it out.

Renaud stiffened against me, the tension of someone holding themselves in check. “Let me tell you the second way you offended me this evening. You allowed a strange male to touch you.”

“When? Not once today did I—” ah. He meant when he'd touched me and I'd said nothing, simply accepted the subtle flirtation. “I knew it was you.”

Perhaps for a time I'd pretended the arms wrapped around me were a safe stranger's, but I'd known better. No one felt like him, dared like him, smelled like him.

“No one is you. No one is my Raniel.”

I could say this because I wasn't raging or screaming or crying or curled up in a corner grimly downing hard liquor over this new reality, muting pain and betrayal with oblivion as I submitted to the inevitable.

It did not matter how much he'd hurt me, I wanted him. I needed him. I'd craved his presence and his touch since I'd been a girl. I would never escape him, and self-delusion was not the Fae way.

“Yours,” he murmured. “Yes. You will be punished, Princess, if you allow another to touch you. Unless blood on the ground is your wish—but there are safer methods of achieving that, other than weaponizing my temper.”

He trailed his fingers up and down my slit, spreading my folds and diving into my body, the kind of deft mastery that reminded me that he was certainly no journeyman when it came to feminine pleasure.

“That goes both ways, Prince,” I said, my incisors lengthening. The dark, wild thing deep in my well rose, shoving Aerinne aside. I twisted my neck in a painful angle, meeting his gaze. “I may be a lowly halfling, but I will claim the throat of any you take to your bed in my place.”

Maybe before, I would have been able to play the game of resistance until I escaped. But not now. Not when I knew he was Raniel, and Darkan.

I despaired. This was—and was not—what I had always wanted. Such a Fae fate, to be offered both daydream and waking nightmare in the same cupped hand.

He turned me around, slamming my back against the tree and captured my mouth, hot and hard, his fingers as rough and angry as my words. I moaned against his lips, my hips moving as he fucked me. Careful, I must be careful. Our feelings entwined, our barriers against one another so thin. My anger fed his, his desire increased mine.

Both of us hungered.

“Foolish girl.” His voice dipped, a musical enchantment. “From the moment I felt the first spark of your life, the butterfly wings of your embryonic mind on the Dark plane, I have wanted no other.”

I bit his bottom lip, wanting to taste blood. As it flooded my mouth, I climaxed in a rush, wetness between my thighs, almost breaking my nails as I dug my fingers into his shoulders.

I wrapped my hands around his neck, riding his hand as my body shuddered, my back arched. A snarl ripped from his chest, reminding me that this was no simple Fae warrior.

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