Page 15 of Tarnished Queen

My head is fuzzy with pleasure, and his words feel out of place with what I’m feeling now. It’s the real world encroaching on this moment that I just want to last.

His hand shifts to my collarbone, his thumb drawing a line over the fragile bone. “What caused the accident?”

I squeeze my eyes closed as I squeeze my thighs around his hips. “I’m close,” I pant. It’s my way of begging him to let this go. To let me have this.

His thumb shifts into the hollow of my throat, and I tip my head back, surrendering to his touch. I roll my hips and shiver from the delicious friction. Nikolai growls, a deep, sexy sound. Then he curls his fingers around my neck.

I moan, leaning into his hand. The strength in him paired with the gentle way he’s touching me is almost enough to send me over the edge. I’ve never let someone touch my throat before, but I trust Nikolai. I like his hands on me. On every part of me.

His grip tightens, and I swallow with slight difficulty as the blood rushes in my ears.

“Like that,” I whisper, still bucking against him. “I’m going to… I’m going to…”

Before I can climax, all at once, my air is gone. Nikolai’s hand clamps around my throat so tightly I can’t breathe. I jolt, trying to move out of his hold, but the movement sends another bolt of pleasure through my body. This combination of panic and pleasure is a new high I’ve never experienced.

I come like that, with Nikolai’s hand squeezing the air out of me, his cock hard between my legs. My eyes feel like they’re bulging as it tears through me mercilessly. When it starts to recede, I tug at his hold on my neck, telling him to let go.

But Nikolai doesn’t budge.

Instead, he leans forward until his breath is hot on my skin.

“Tell me the truth before I choke it out of you: how long have you been working with Xena?”

6

BELLE

Blackness creeps into the edges of my vision. I’m seeing stars, and I’m not sure if it’s from the pulsing orgasm still ripping through me or the lack of oxygen. Probably both.

I claw at Nikolai’s hand, too panicked to focus on his words. Too desperate for air to consider how bad it is that he knows.

He knows.

“How long have you been lying to me?” he hisses.

I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. No exhale, no inhale. The black edges of my vision are stretching towards the center, tendrils of darkness blotting out the image of his face, clenched and angry in front of me.

There’s more black than color now. I can’t breathe. I certainly can’t speak. All this way we’ve come and it’s going to end like this—the way I thought it would end from the start. He’ll kill me right when I finally started believing that that was the last thing he’d ever do.

Blacker, and blacker, and blacker—

Then, all at once, he lets me go.

I collapse against him and suck in air. My head is splitting in two as blood surges back in place.

Weakly, I try to move off of his lap, but Nikolai holds my legs firmly in place. “No. You don’t get to run away again.”

“I’m not. I just…” I can’t feel his erection between my legs and think clearly at the same time.

“How long have you been working with her?” he growls.

His cold detachment makes sense now.This is about you.

“How did you find out?” I touch my throat with tentative fingers. The heat of his grip is still imprinted there. “Did Xena tell you?”

“So it’s true?”

“Yes, but—but it’s not what you think. She wanted me to be a double agent. To give her information. But I didn’t—”

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