Page 31 of Tarnished Queen

“We decided to make a run for it. Arslan pushed me through the window and told me he was coming out after me.”

When I close my eyes, I can still feel him grabbing my ankles and catapulting me out the back window into the grass.

“‘Run, Niko. I’m right behind you!’he said. But he wasn’t. When I made it to the top of the embankment, I could hear Arslan yelling on the other side of the building.”

Belle’s fingers are digging into my skin. “They caught him?”

“No, not right away.” I shake my head. “He took off running through the front door to draw their attention away from me so I could escape. He let them catch him. He got arrested and booked into jail for the night.”

“He sacrificed himself for you?”

For a second, I see Arslan pale and bleeding on the ground at my feet. He rode into a shootout on a motorcycle with nothing but his pistol.

“Yeah,” I whisper. “He did.” Then I clear my throat. “I paid bail, took the alcohol to the party, and they finally cut him loose halfway through the party. I made sure to tell the girl what happened when Arslan arrived, and she made sure to repay him in full.”

Belle sits up and looks down at me warily, eyebrow arched. “She had sex with him, didn’t she?”

I grin. “Took his virginity. And it only cost him one night in jail.”

“I suppose people have done a lot worse for sex,” she sighs.

“Especially Arslan.”

We both laugh. It feels good. For the first time since I walked away from my best friend’s body growing cold on the ground, I feel lighter.

Belle’s fingers stroke down my arm. When she whispers, I feel the warmth of her breath on my neck. “I’m sorry for your loss, Nikolai.”

She’s everywhere. Touching my arm, her heat sinking into my skin, her words rattling around in my brain. All of it has energy buzzing through my veins. My dick strains against my pants.

She must sense it, because without another word, Belle straddles me. I slide my hands up her thighs and beneath the material of her nightgown. My thumbs hook around the inside of her legs, and when I brush over the delicate material of her lace panties, Belle winces in desire.

“Are you already wet for me,kiska?” I ask, stroking her again.

She bites her lip and nods. “I was wet the moment I woke up and saw you standing in my room.” Her hands drag over my abs and higher.

“There are too many layers between us.” As I speak, I hook my fingers in the waistband of her panties and yank. The material comes apart with a loud rip. Even in the dim light, I see Belle’s gaze turn molten.

She drags my shirt over my head and tosses it aside. As soon as I’m bare-chested, she bends down and works her mouth down my neck and over my collarbone. She tastes me inch by inch, licking and sucking her way down my body. When she finally undoes the button on my jeans, I’m painfully hard. It takes no encouragement at all for my cock to spring free.

Belle settles between my legs and wraps a hand around my base. As she leans forward, mouth puckered in a perfect ‘O,’ she glances up at me.

It’s the single most seductive thing I’ve seen in my entire life.

The only thing that tops it is when she actually sucks me into her warm mouth. “Fuck,” I groan, fisting a handful of hair at the back of her head.

She sucks and swirls, working her tongue along my underside and then teasing my tip. Her hands stroke and tease the whole time.

After a few minutes, I drag her away by her hair before I explode in her mouth way before I’m ready to finish. Her lips pops off of me, still puckered in that devastating ‘O.’

"Was it not good?" she worries.

"We're always good together.”

I pull the night shirt over her head and press her back onto the mattress. There’s more I want to say.

Sex has never felt like this with anyone.

Since the moment you dropped down in the seat next to me on that plane, I haven’t been able to think about another woman.

---