Page 79 of Essence of the Throne

My breath catches as his lips find my neck, causing an intense fluttering to shoot straight down to my core. “Caspian…”

“Let me give us what we both need, angel,” he murmurs against my skin, and I lose all sense. My hand latches around his throat before dragging his mouth to mine—something I cannot seem to get enough of.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Ariella

Warm hands grip my thighs as Caspian lifts me and stumbles over to the bed. Something digs into my backside, and I break our kiss to find the footboard just behind me. The prince smirks, adjusting his hold on me before I’m flipped around, my face shoved into the bedding. I protest, attempting to push up, but he tightens his grip in my hair until I’m grinding my teeth. I freeze when fingers brush up the back of my thigh and over my hips.

I’m entirely exposed, having donned nothing but a shirt—one that only reaches to my low back in this position.

Half my body is shaking with the need to fight back and force his submission, while the other half is curious about what he’s planning.

“Something wrong, angel?” he taunts, his voice low. A knee-crumbling feeling of euphoria washes through my throat, down to my lower abdomen, and I swear I’m going to punish my traitorous body for loving this side of him.

I adjust my head to the left, sucking in lungfuls of air before speaking. “What exactly did you do to the prince? I wouldn’t have expected such officious tendencies from you.” A thumb presses into the base of my spine before dragging up, lifting my shirt along the way. It takes everything not to squirm.

Caspian leans over as his palm drags over the side of my breast, his lips next to my ear. “I suppose you won’t make that mistake again,” he whispers, and my pulse flutters in too many places. Standing once more, he releases my hair to grab both hips, and I no longer wish to move, despite my instincts. “I keep wondering when the day will come that I find you in a position in which you are not the most beautiful thing I have ever laid my eyes upon.” I gasp as his foot kicks my legs open, baring me further. “Today is not that day.”

There’s a thump, and before I can move to check that he’s okay, his tongue runs up my center, a long, torturous moan escaping me. His voice hums against my swollen skin. The footboard digs into my hips, though not even the Angel could pry me from this spot as the prince levels every thought in my head. He devours me so thoroughly, and it’s divine.

But over too soon as he pulls away, nipping at the surrounding skin before standing. “I have a surprise for you, if you’re open to it.” I prop up on my elbows when I hear shuffling, finding Caspian digging through one of the packs we traveled with. His lip quirks as he finds what he’s looking for, pulling out the odd device that the persistent man gave me in Meridian.

I blink. “That’s the surprise?” A laugh falls from my lips, dying when the prince gives me a pointed look. “Your mouth is a far better surprise than whatever the fuck that is.”

“As delighted as I am to hear how much you love my mouth, angel, you will not be confessing such things in a moment.”

“And why is that?”

He smiles as his fingers twist over the device, the buzzing starting instantly. “The merchant may not have explained what this is, but I have a theory.” My forehead creases—what the fuck? Has the man drank an entire bottle of cider?

I’ve no chance to respond as I’m shoved back down to the mattress with a gasp as Caspian drags the device over my backside. “What do you think you’re doing?” I’m genuinely confused, but threats die in my throat a moment later when the device is pressed up against my center. An embarrassing noise leaves me as my body jolts away from the onslaught of sensation.

“You were saying?” I do not have the capacity to respond as I'm immediately thrown over the edge to a place only the Angel should know about. My vision wavers, and I struggle to be aware of the prince talking me through whatever the fuck is happening to my body. “That's it, darling. Sounds like I was right.”

An eternity later, I shove my face into the bedding, using the lack of oxygen to slow my breathing. Only when I feel stable enough to speak do I address Caspian. “Are you trying to kill me? What in the Aether was that?” He hums before grabbing my legs to flip me over. I let him. I doubt I could even dare to stand at the moment.

“I am not privy to the name of the device, but I did hear a couple of women speak of it in Meridian.” His pleased smirk falters at the incredulous expression on my face. “Did you not like it?”

I did—I'd have to be dead not to. “How could you trust random words from strangers? That thing could have burned me, or poisoned me, perhaps.” His response is a breathy laugh, and my fingers curl into the bed to keep from choking him.

"Nothing you haven't experienced before, then." The prince's eyes look behind me before his palm lifts, two fingers pointed out, effectively weaving his kinetic strand to drag me to the center of the bed. He joins me a moment later, settling himself between my legs—ones I do not seem to command any longer. "I think you can give me another."

Caspian uses a hand to drag the vibrating device around the most sensitive parts of my skin while lifting the other to push my shirt back up, exposing my stomach and breasts. The motion introduces cool air to my already hardened nipples, burning them a bit. I bite my lip as he rolls the device over my clit before returning to the crease of my legs. I feel his smile just below my navel as he flattens his tongue and trails it up to the spot between my breasts. My fingers reach into his smooth hair and massage the back of his neck in time with each kiss he places toward my mouth.

I could lose myself in him for days and still want more. There is nothing in this realm that could compare to the feel of him against me.

His teeth grab onto my bottom lip before his breath consumes mine, our tongues working together languidly. The device shifts and my jaw drops as he slides two fingers inside me while circling the vibrations around my clit. This is the most exquisite torture. I can't discern whether I never want it to stop or never want to feel it again. It's too much and not enough at the same time.

Embarrassing noises fall from my throat as my prince's hand undulates, and I know I'm moments from a second orgasm. That shouldn't be physically possible, considering I just had one. But I'm proven mistaken when his teeth rake down my neck and I shatter. I curse my very existence as my thighs attempt to crush the man between them. By the time I relax beneath him, my body feels as though I've trained for weeks nonstop. But I can't. There's a flutter in my chest, a need to wrap my arms around him and hold us together until we die.

He chuckles against my mouth when he attempts to use the device again, and I reach my hand between us, snatch the brilliant thing, and fling it across the room. The fingers he's yet to remove pull from me with a purposeful slowness. I know before he does it that he'll demand I clean him off again.

Before he can speak, I grab his wrist and hold his gaze while I suck every drop of my arousal from his skin. His eyes watch every movement of my lips and tongue, darkening when I pull his fingers from my mouth with a pop. "I believe that was mine, angel." His voice is breathy and low, a muscle rippling low in my abdomen from the sound.

I hum and shove him back, rolling us until I'm straddling his legs. "As if I care—I'll take anything I want," I drawl, reaching for the buttons at the top of his pants in point. My hands are quick to flick them open before I lean forward, sliding one under the fabric to grab his cock.

Caspian reaches back for a pillow to rest his head on, both hands clasped behind his head as he smirks at me. "You may proceed," he states when I pause. "I just needed a better angle to watchtheSilver Wraith willingly get on her knees for me." I press my lips together, struggling to hold back a laugh.

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