Page 39 of Hostile King

All my life I've searched for a place, a feeling, a chance…for acceptance…forthis.

My eyes roll into the back of my head and an extraordinary climax rips through my core, rendering me awestruck. His breathing is heavy by my ear, the rhythm becoming a rope to stop me tripping into insanity. He ravages me with ecstasy.

After a few floundering heartbeats, he growls like a savage animal captured in the callous teeth of a trap. His muscles go rigid, and he falls headfirst into bliss, coming inside me and pumping me full of his virility.

Together, we blend breath, quietly connected in the sticky aftermath. I could stay like this forever. Neither of us require confessions of love or proposals for marriage. We simply need to exist in the other’s presence. Two lost souls who are inexplicably entwined in a depraved universe.

A starry explosion had sucked us into a vortex and left us confused and raw. But right now, facing him, I catch a glimpse of the chronic brokenness he suffers and feel blessed that he’s found his medicine within me.

Messy fingers dig into my cheeks, our lips close enough to kiss, only far enough away to tease.

“I can’t let you leave again. I won’t.” His lips tease. “You’re in my bloodstream now, and I’m in yours.” Dark disbelief strangles the tone he uses.

I jerk at the sincerity he uses to bite out the claim. My insides flutter with chaotic fireflies, the sensation bursting with sunlight as his ebony eyes flash.

“Prepare yourself for what’s going to happen next.”

I frown up at him. “What are you going to do?”

Withdrawing, he staggers a step backwards, bends to snatch his shirt and dabs his face with a clean section of material. His shadowed jaw clenches while he continuously wipes his hands.

“I thought walking down the aisle with a stranger would be straightforward.” The edgy laugh scraping free of his throat meets a vicious smile. “But I don’t want her anywhere near me. Never did.”

“Tomás!” Bianca calls him from the corridor, her voice shrill and angry. “What’s going on in there? Are you with that woman? I know you’re in there. Let me in or I’ll shoot your goddamn soldier in the face with his own gun.”

“Christ,” he groans, immediately dragging his phone out of his back pocket. Tapping the screen, he presses it to his ear. “Shane. Gather a team of discrete soldiers in the corridor by the women’s restrooms. If anyone asks where we are, tell them Bianca and I are getting to know each other.” He listens, his posture reverting to kingly as it was the very moment I’d met him. When he decided I was worth protecting from his father—worth defending.

“Not yet. Act cool,” he requests with deadly calmness.

Ending the call, he returns the phone to his pants’ pocket and blinks at the devastation we’d created. My heart races. I move a little closer, scared by the diabolical aura snaking around him like a cloak of death.

“What’s happening?” My skin prickles, his unhallowed mood no longer vibrating with lust. “You can’t murder all these people. You’ll end up in prison…or worse. They’ll kill you, Tomás. Please…think of another solution.”

In one powerfully dominant stride, firm hands cup my cheeks, and heartfelt lips press lightly to my forehead.

“My men will detain Bianca, so she doesn’t run to Morales. I’ll escort you to my suite where you’ll wait for me until we’re ready to leave.” The discord to his tone seizes my heart.

“While you do what exactly? At least tell me what you’re planning.”

Impatient nostrils flare, his bare-chested torso stained like a bloodthirsty Viking fresh from a victorious skirmish. His godliness reaches all four corners of the room—the air he breathes is colder, the stance he takes is superior, the expression he offers me switches to ruling.

“This is business. The Souzas are at war.”

I close my eyes and take a slow breath. “There has to be another way.”

“There isn’t.”

“You're a strategist. There must be something else you can offer them without putting everyone in danger.”

His eyes drill into mine—black and imperial. “Don’t be so naive, Carina. You know better than to expect a truce. I listen to my gut and make informed decisions. That's exactly how I intend to rule my kingdom. Bloodshed is unavoidable.” The soft haze of light daring to touch his skin can’t change the shadows haunting him. “You’re the piece of me I wish I didn’t need. But I do.”

He rubs his hand over his heart.

“This is who I am. If you decide it’s not the life you want, then you’d better get as far away from me as possible.”

He pushes back his shoulders and fixes his essence-soaked dick into place, the zipper making a hateful sound in the thick silence. A brewing snowstorm whirls behind his alarming gaze.

“But the second you reappear in my territory, I’ll snatch you away again and punish you for thinking you could leave me. When I join you in the suite later, you’ll give me your answer.”

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