Page 25 of Vows to a King
“Tell me what interferes with the need I sense in you and I will banish it to the ends of the earth.”
“I think you’re getting the hang of this whole king thing, Prince.”
He grinned but the solemnity didn’t leave his gaze. “I want no doubts between us, Jemima. Not when it comes to this.”
She looked into his electric blue eyes and made another leap. Being forced to be vulnerable had made her grow an abundance of prickles but being asked to bare it so that he could soothe it away…was a new experience. And she had a feeling this man would never mock her for her own shortcomings—real or imagined or forced on her by the world.
Feeling more than possessive, she grazed her nails over one flat nipple and then lower. The rippling contractions of his abdominal muscles, the soft graze of the sparse chest hair…everything about him was a study in sensuality. “You’re perfection, Your Highness. A Greek god among us mortals. And I’m not beautiful or sophisticated or experienced, measured by any standard or scale.”
He leaned further down and Jemima felt cool air brush her bare skin before she heard the rip of her flimsy silk dress.
She could feel her heavy breasts rise and fall, the nipples eagerly peaking under the nude lace bra. Her belly was soft and round, like the rest of her, a testament to her snacking late at night and comfort eating.
Of course when she had first been engaged to Adamos, the palace team had added a nutritionist and a trainer and a weight loss expert to her team. Jemima had never been so angry in her whole life. “I like my body just as it is,” she said now, feeling compelled to defend herself. “But the world is tiresome, constantly telling me that I could and should look thinner and better. Whiskey and chocolates… I’ll never give them up.”
She heard his soft laugh at the end.
“Open your eyes, Jemima.”
Her eyes flew open to find him studying her with naked desire etched on his face. Spine arching into his touch, she eagerly followed the lazy trails his fingers drew over her belly and lower. Her flesh quivered under his nakedly admiring gaze.
“Give me your hand.”
She did.
“Do you trust me in this?”
She nodded and added, “I do. In the end, it has been that easy.” If she sounded baffled, he seemed to understand that too. For he gave her a swift nod. The same sense of awe she felt was reflected in his expression.
Her breath came in sharp pants as he brought her hand to move down his chest, past that concrete slab of his abdomen and then to rest against his…crotch.
His length was hard and throbbing already. She gasped as it grew impossibly harder under her curious fingers. Desire pooled at her core, making her lace panties damp. Emboldened by his sharp exhale, she clasped him fully and squeezed.
A pained grunt fell from his luscious mouth. “You cannot doubt my body’s reaction to you, Princess. You rendered me so even all those years ago with one kiss.” Something flashed in his eyes and she sensed his reluctance and then resolve. “Remember that time when I came to meet Adamos in Paris two, three years ago?”
It was the one trip where she’d been allowed to accompany the Crown Prince, not that Adamos had liked the idea. But the Queen had insisted that they start presenting a united front to the world.
“At that charity gala,” Adonis continued, his gaze far off, “you wore a rust-colored dress that hugged your curves. I was so jealous of Adamos and disgusted by myself. I turned hard as stone when you slipped on the steps and I had to catch you. One brush against you and I was nothing but pure want. It was another nail in the coffin of not returning to Thalassos.” A sound that was nearly beastly emanated from his throat, snatching him from her in this moment. “I coveted the relationship he had with my father, maybe even his crown, and then his fiancée.”
“No, come back to me, Adonis,” she whispered, pushing onto her elbow and kissing his jaw. The blond scruff on his cheeks tickled her lips. “Adamos’s death has nothing to do with you. Surely you know that.”
When he didn’t respond, her chest ached and her courage flared. With her breasts rubbing against his arm in a wanton gesture, she captured his lips with hers. Then swept her tongue inside the warm cavern of his mouth.
His fingers tightened on her flesh. And in a matter of breaths, she got the hungry Adonis back.
She arched deeper into his touch when he pushed her bra down and cupped her breasts. “You’re gorgeous, Princess.” The hard nipples prodded and poked at his palm, eager for attention.
Then it was his tongue dancing and swiping and licking at the peak before he sucked her breast into his mouth.
Pleasure shot through every nerve ending as if she had been electrocuted and she was nothing but spiraling sensations and cavernous need. The more he stroked and nipped and licked, the more the flames grew and the emptier her core felt. She wanted the climb to the peak but God, she craved the free fall at his hands desperately.
The rasp of a zipper barely registered and soon, she had his shaft in her hands. Her eyes widened and an unbearable ache unspooled in her pelvis as she ran her fingers over the thick, veiny length of him. Then there was the perfect V of muscles leading to the throbbing length. Her throat worked as she tried to form the words. “I’ve never been allowed to explore a simple want or desire or my sexuality in any way. Which means I don’t have the expertise I like to have in everything I do, Prince.”
His answer was a quick nip of her lower lip. “All that matters is that you want this as much as I do, Princess.”
She nodded vigorously. “And you do?”
“Everything about my reputation is not true, Jemima,” he said, tweaking her nose. “Being a daredevil is my brand, yes, and that attracts a certain kind of attention. I don’t push it away when it gives me free publicity. Like the expectations placed on you, the media fuels as much as it feeds the public.”
