Page 85 of Until the Stars Fall

I growled.

Why did she have to be so stars-damned stubborn?

Without warning, I stopped in the middle of the hallway, maintaining my hold on her arm. I wouldn’t put it past her to try and run away from me if given the chance.

Lowering my face to hers, I scanned her deep blue eyes for any hint that she cared one bit about the risks I’d taken to keep her alive. Of course, all I found was the same bitter pride I’d seen there time and time again.

“I told you to stay,” I said, coating each word with anger.

Lieke tilted her head slightly and licked her lips. A wave of heat rushed through me. My annoyance rumbled in the back of my throat. She smirked. “Last I checked, Wolfie, I’m not a dog. You are.”

As she said the last two words, she laid the palm of her free hand on my chest. My body warmed under her touch, sparking an entirely unwanted desire. Without thinking, I snatched up her wrist and forced her to stumble backwards until her back hit the wall.

A memory flashed in my mind—a dark room, my hand at her throat—but I swept it aside as I pinned her arms against the stone by her head. Turning my hips, I angled my body so she couldn’t strike me with her knee. Then I pressed my body as close to her as I dared.

Her scent threatened to overpower me, but my anger was too amped up. I bared my teeth and snarled at her. Her eyes flashed down to my lips and lingered there for longer than I was comfortable with.

“Look at me!” I growled. When she obeyed, another rush of lust swept over me, and I cursed silently to myself. “So you can listen.”

She pulled her head away from the wall and brushed her cheek against mine until her lips hovered over my ear. My eyes drifted closed against my will as her breath teased me. “Oh, I can be a good girl.”

Fuck!

I slammed her wrists against the wall again, as if that could possibly help me regain control of this situation. Lazily she rested her head on the wall and stared at me with a haughty, bored expression.

“You will stay in your room. You will do as you’re told. Or I swear to the stars, I will drag you to the gallows myself. Do you understand?”

She turned away from me.

“Do you understand me?” I growled the question again.

Flicking her eyes to me, she cleared her throat and angled her head slightly. It took me too long to realize she wasn’t about to answer me; she was informing me we weren’t alone.

A curse echoed in my head as I picked up on the extra heartbeat in the hallway.

Here we were, supposedly a betrothed couple madly in love, and I was angrily shoving her against a wall and yelling at her. I couldn’t risk someone running off to spread word that our relationship was more toxic than loving.

Thinking fast, I pressed close to her, struggling to ignore how her breasts heaved against my chest with her next breath. I mimicked her earlier move, inching my lips closer to her ear, and whispered as quietly as possible, “Play along.”

Releasing her wrists, I gently interlaced our fingers and lowered our clasped hands to our sides. When my lips tickled her skin below her ear, she shuddered against me, and I prayed to the damned stars that she wouldn’t give me grief for how my body instantly responded to her. As I kissed my way down her neck to her shoulder, I desperately tried not to let myself enjoy the way she smelled and tasted and whimpered softly in my ear.

This wasn’t real.

She wasn’t mine.

I didn’t want her anyway.

Slowly she pushed me away, whispering, “They left.”

I straightened and risked a glance down the hallway before pulling away fully and dropping her hands as if they were hot irons.

“Get back to your room,” I said firmly.

“Yes, Your Highness,” she said sweetly, but she didn’t move to leave. Instead her eyes drifted lower, trailing down my body. She pursed her lips and gestured toward my waist with her hand.

No. Lower.

“You might want to take a moment before you go anywhere though,” she said, smiling. Before I could say anything more, she was lifting onto her toes, planting a kiss on my cheek, and strolling away.

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