Page 32 of Tarnished Queen

You’re a part of me now.

But I don’t say any of it.

I slide my hand down her stomach to cup the warmth between her legs. She’s damp, aching for me to claim her. When I slide a finger inside, she bucks into my touch with a soft moan.

“That sound,” I growl, adding a second finger just so I can wring it from her again. “It’s pitiful.”

“It is. I’m desperate for you. Now and all the time.”

She kisses me hungrily. I bite her lower lip just as a way to pin her down and keep her in one place. With every passing second, it feels like we’re in a car with no brakes.

Fuck knows I have more than enough tension to release, but this shouldn’t be anything more than that. Just sex. Just fucking.

Except as I pulse two and then three fingers into Belle’s aching core, and she bucks so hard she is coming off the mattress, I know damn well that that’s a bunch of shit.

This isn’t just “more.”

It’s everything.

And when she throws her head back and cries out, “I’m coming. God, Nikolai… I’m coming,” I know it beyond the shadow of a doubt.

“You are so fucking beautiful.”

Our movements are frantic and needy as she reaches for my length and presses me to her opening. I sheath myself all the way inside of her like it’s the last time I’ll ever get to do it.

“Don’t leave,” Belle whispers against my neck.

With slow, shallow motions, she grinds herself against me. I grab her hands and press them into the mattress above her head. Then I start to glide in and out of her wetness.

I want this to last. This universe we’ve created, just the two of us, wringing pleasure from each other… I want to stay here as long as I can.

But when she starts writhing up to meet me and makes thatsoundagain, that sexy fucking sound, I can’t hold back.

I drive into Belle as hard as I can, stay there, and empty my soul inside of her.

Belle presses a long kiss to my neck when I’m finally empty. She murmurs against my skin, “I’ve never felt… It’s never been like this with anyone, Nikolai. And that means something, doesn’t it? The way we are together. It’s… it’s perfect.”

Her words are running away with her. Just a few minutes ago, I would have nodded along, delighting myself in the tight way her body gripped me.

But now, in the cold aftershock of my orgasm, I see this all for what it is.

A mistake.

I roll away from her and grab my jeans.

“Nikolai?” Her voice is soft and weak. “You can stay, you know. If you want.”

I shake my head. “I have to go.”

She pulls the blanket over herself, trying to cover her body even though I just explored every inch of it. “Are you mad at me?”

When I walked through her door, I was. Underneath it all, I was still angry.

But now, I see the truth.

I’mthe problem.

Because I can’t bear to let her go. I prioritized Belle when I should have prioritized my Bratva. The only reason Arslan is dead is because he was splitting his loyalties between the Bratva and her. Because he was following my lead and trying to do both.

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