Page 4 of Vicious Princess
With adrenaline coursing through my veins, I charge deeper.
I can’t see. I can’t breathe. The smoke forces its way into my throat. It burns. My eyes sting.
“FANE!” I shriek. “QUINT!”
I press my fists to my ears, as if I can block out the fire.
The truth.
“No. No. Please.”
I yell until my throat tears. The hot flames lick at my skin.
“MOM!”
The only sound in my ears is the roar of the blaze. The hiss of wood turning to coal.
No, no, no. Maybe they escaped. Left before the fire escalated. Maybe…
I make my way towards Fane’s bedroom. Finally, a different scent. The sickly sweet of burning flesh.
More desperately, I call for my dad, and my mom, and my sisters.
But nobody answers.
In that moment, something inside me burns to ash, too.
I. BEFORE THE DAWN
CHAPTER ONE
Present
A moan slipspast my lips, and I arch my back. Each masterful flick of Vasquez’s tongue over my clit coaxes me closer and closer to the edge.
I run my fingers through his curls, silky smooth against my skin. My hips roll, like the waves of the Nightmare Sea we’ve been sailing through for months. V grips my hips, pinning me in place.
His tongue is wicked, mouth relentless as he sucks and licks my throbbing clit.
“Oh, fuck,” I gasp when his fingers slide inside me and curl, caressing that sensitive spot.
A breath hitches in my throat. My toes curl as warm tingles travel up my ankles, knees, inner thighs…all the way to my burning core.
I’m thrown over the edge into the sweetest oblivion with such intensity, every muscle in my body seizes, then starts trembling uncontrollably.
V doesn’t stop tasting me right away. His tongue slows down as I descend the heights of my climax, until with one long, lazy slide, it stops. The gentle kiss he plants on the inside of my left thigh leaves tingles in that spot.
We’re surrounded by darkness in V’s quarters, the captain’s quarters, with just a few streaks of early daylight coming in through dirty glass windows above the bed. The sound of the waves crashing into the ship put me at ease.
V kisses his way up my body until our lips melt together. The taste of me on his tongue is intoxicating. I fist the hair at the back of his head and pull him closer to me as our mouths slide from one kiss onto the next.
“What a way to say good morning,” I whisper.
He chuckles against my cheek. “I wanted to make sure your last morning with me is memorable, sweetheart.”
I sigh. Something inside my chest twists into a knot, weighing heavy on me. With one last peck on his cheek, I wiggle from under him and get out of bed.
V gives me time and space to get fully dressed in my leather pants, white shirt, leather waistcoat, and even my gloves before he lights the oil lamp next to his bed. When every inch of my scarred skin is hidden away from the curious eyes of the world, I turn to face him.
