Page 70 of The Cursed and the Broken
When I’d finished massaging his hair, I swept my fingertips down his chest, his stomach, until I gripped him in my hand, working his cock, sliding my thumb over the head in teasing strokes. He closed his eyes, folding his arms behind his head, a happy sigh escaping his lips.
I quickened my pace, pumping him faster, tightening my grip ever so slightly. His dark eyes snapped open and he stared at me hungrily, a moan escaping his lips as he watched me work him.
My core thrilled to see the lust in his eyes, his cock throbbing beneath my touch. He grabbed my waist and reeled me in, crashing his lips against mine as he came, his body jerking, his moan whispered against my lips.
I kept kissing him, stealing small kisses as he held my cheeks in his calloused hands, his fingers sliding to the base of my skull. He drew me closer, cradling my head to his chest and I revelled in the beating of his heart, the flushed skin.
Alive.
We lay there for a while, simply enjoying the quiet and the warm embrace of our bodies folded together. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so safe orwantedto stay still for so long.
He smiled as I leaned back—a lopsided but happy grin. I studied the man before me, looked into his eyes.
All traces of cockiness or the haunting glimmer of his past were gone. He was the most relaxed I’d ever seen him, his arms resting on the bath’s edge, his legs sprawled out lazily either side of me. And that smile, that gaze?I might have drowned in those eyes. His walls were crumbling, allowing me to see the man beneath. Bearing his true self. Could I say the same for my own defences?
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I pushed down the strange fluttering in my stomach. A mixture of emotions flooded over me. Everything I was. Everything I couldn’t be. Hysteria bubbled in my chest as I dropped my hands. “What’s wrong?” he asked, pulling me into his arms.
Trying to push past the knot lodged in my throat, I tried to speak, tried to give voice to everything I was feeling. But if I told him the truth, could I come back from that? Could he? “I …”
“It’s okay.” His chest rumbled against my cheek as he spoke. “I’m here. You don’t have to tell me now, but I’ll be here for you when you’re ready. I’m not going anywhere, Freckles, I promise.”
But I am.Sobs wracked from my chest and I burst into tears, allowing them to flow in rivers down my cheeks. Cleansing my soul of yesterday so I might have the strength for a tomorrow.
He held me silently until I was ready, cradling me in his arms, protecting me from the world. His hand stroked my hair idly, and I focused on that simple motion to get me through. I hadn’t shared such rawness with someone besides Eszter and my mother for the longest time.
Hadn’t been hugged by a friend, shared promises or secrets. No one except perhaps Erika had ever bothered to get to know me—the real me—the fragile girl beneath the hot-headedness, the fire, the magic.
As if sensing where my thoughts had gone, he lifted my head gently, placing his palms on both of my cheeks. “I see you, Kitarni. I see you, and I’m staying.”
A fresh wave of tears pricked at my eyes and he swiped his thumbs across my cheeks tenderly, all the care in the world lighting in those brown eyes, in the golden ring that seemed to glimmer in my presence.
“Kiss me,” I breathed.
He obeyed, one hand sliding round the back of my neck, the other tenderly cupped around my jaw. His lips were bliss as he kissed me, not fiery or passionately like before, but gentle, searching. His tongue swept in tentatively and I opened to his touch.
My heart flickered in my chest and I placed a hand over his own, the rhythm pumping steadily, gloriously.“I see you. I’m staying.”Something inside me shattered at those words, freeing a girl with the wilds in her heart and adventure in her soul. A girl who had been overlooked for so long she hadn’t known what it felt like to be seen and heard.
For someone with eyes only for her.
That girl cracked free from a mould that day, opened her wings and shifted her eyes to a new world, one where she would be unapologetically her.
Fierce and free.
TWENTY-NINE
Dante walked me through thestreets of his town and, the more I came to know of Mistvellen, the faster I fell in love. The cobblestone streets were bustling with activity, townsfolk coming and going as they went about selling their wares or running errands for businesses.
The streets nearest to the castle were clean, with boxed tulips in pinks and creams blooming from their nests and wisteria creeping over the stoned walls of manors and odd shops. Everyone bowed and smiled as Dante passed, many glancing at me with curious gazes, their eyes lingering on my attire.
I ran a hand over my skirts, smiling to myself. I was a vision today, so I couldn’t blame them. After running around in pants for much of my life—a fact Caitlin had despised and fellow witches had turned their noses up at—it was nice to wear something feminine and well made.
A tour of Dante’s quarters after our bath had made me gasp in shock?and I wasn’t so easily surprised. He had a dressing room lined with storage chests which had been teeming with the finest silks and velvets, furs, cottons, and taffeta, and that was just for him. But on the other side of the chamber, he’d arranged a set of storage chests, each filled with gowns for all occasions, gloves, furs, boots and, even better, a storage chest filled with gear for training and battle.
“Fucking hell. You have—you have a dressing room?” I’d remarked, eyes wide as saucers as I’d stared at all the finery in the one room. More than I’d ever expected to see in one place.
Dante had laughed. “If you’re going to be a magical entity, you may as well milk it. We might not answer to the Kingdom, but we reap its rewards. My father offers certain … benefits … to the neighbouring kingdoms. Black market, of course, but his deals barter gems and coin, silks and the like in exchange for certain spells and tonics our witches can concoct. His connections spread as far as the Middle East.”
I’d blinked several times. “Certain spells?Whatever could you be offering that’s worth that amount of coin?”
