Page 83 of Peasants and Kings
The rain began to pour, beating against the glass. The sound of it resonated in my chest.
I wanted to tell him. To share it with him.
“It was the waves,” I said softly. “Below your home.” I peeked a glance at him.
His expression didn’t change as he let me go on.
“When I was a kid, my mother used to read me a story about the last unicorn in the world. The unicorn didn’t know where all the other unicorns had gone, so she went on a journey to find them. They’d been pushed into the sea. Captured by one lonely, unhappy king who thought if he owned all the unicorns in the world, his heart would be happy.” I shook my head wishing I hadn’t said anything at all.
I hoped he would put the car into gear so we could continue on our way. I hoped he’d forget that the tears spilling down my cheeks were temporary, and that we could return to normal if we just ignored the moment.
But Hadrian was no ordinary man.
“King Haggard,” he said finally.
My gaze flew to his.
He nodded. “I know the story.”
“Did someone read it to you, too?” I asked.
Hadrian paused and then said, “A girl I used to know.”
His expression was shuttered, like he wanted to lock down every feeling that threatened to bubble to the surface.
We stared at each other and something like understanding, mingled with compassion, bloomed between us. Neither of us pressed the other to say more, and I was glad for it.
He finally put the car into gear again, and we headed straight toward the mountain. There was no road in front of us and it looked like we were about to crash. I was about to scream when a door slid up, Bat Cave style. Suddenly we were in a tunnel that opened into a well-lit garage with stark white walls. Six other luxury cars were parked next to each other, all spotless and ready to roll at a moment’s notice.
I glanced at him and he shrugged like it was nothing.
He cut the engine but left the key in the ignition. Hadrian unlatched his racing harness and got out of the car. I was slower to move, and Hadrian came around to help me. Once I was standing outside the vehicle, he closed the door. He lifted me up and set me down on the rear quarter panel of the wet muscle car and then pressed up against me.
“I need to touch you,” he said, voice low.
I nodded in agreement. Whatever passed between us in the car during the rainstorm, whatever unspoken burdens we’d shared, neither one of us wanted them to linger.
Touching each other was the easiest way to put us back on ground we understood.
His hands were everywhere, tugging at zippers, diving into my panties. I somehow managed to get his pants undone and then my hands were on him, too. I clasped him in my grip, making him groan.
Hadrian felt like steel and silk.
“I hate you in pants,” he growled against my mouth. “They’re too hard to get into.”
I chuckled against his lips but wanted him naked, too. And suddenly, I felt like I’d die without being able to touch the skin of his chest and feel him moving inside me.
Somehow, I managed to push him away. He looked annoyed and thwarted, but when he saw me quickly trying to undress, his grin returned and then he did the same.
When we were naked, he raised my legs to hook them around his waist, and then he thrust inside me while my back was down against the rain-splattered car.
Our eyes met and I breathed him in as he leaned over me, wanting him deeper, needing him there.
He moved slowly, like he had all the time in the world to make it last. And he did. We did. Because there was nothing but that moment.
But when I clawed his back, he quickened his thrusts, using his brute strength to overwhelm me.
His hand slid down between our bodies and teased me until I came. I shuddered around him, clenching hard. My nails dug into his skin as I rode out my pleasure.
