Page 94 of Crown of Steel

For commoners.Fuck, does that thought annoy me even more. I growl, then jump out of my seat, and stride for his door. With a loud knock, I bang on it once, then twice.

“Régis, open up.”

Of course he doesn’t listen. When does he ever listen to me?

I shouldn’t care. I should be fuckinghappythat he’s out of my way. That he is not the rival I made him out to be. He lost, helost. But the entire world now knows that the rules to this game have changed. Everything has changed. I have too. And I will win against the other two competitors, of that I’m sure. My little stepbrother definitely had the best presentation tonight. And that thought alone fucking pisses me off. He deserves better, but then, we all know that this life isn’t about what we deserve.

I bang again on the door, ignoring my brother’s attempt at soothing me.

“Go away!” He yells back.

Nope, not going to happen. “Open the door for me, Régis.” I will get in his fucking room.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Wrong.

Lifting my leg, I kick it with full force against the newly-built door, grinning when I hear a yelp from inside his room. “I’m coming for you,chaton.” I kick the door again, the sound of splintering wood like music to my ears.

“Arthur!” My name leaves his mouth in a rush, and when I push my hand through the hole I created and open the door from the inside, it takes me exactly three seconds to locate my little stepbrother. My heart lurches as it starts to pump frantically.

He’s still on his knees by the cage, hands connected to metal.When he watches me making my way inside his room, he struggles to get up, but he’s not fast enough.

“Not so easy when you’ve been sitting on your knees for the past hour, is it?” I spit, fury and sorrow intermingling. Regretting that my family convinced me into giving him space on his own. His traumatic past, together with this unhealthy obsession I have for my little stepbrother, create acid, and it’s making me vicious and fast as I chase him through his room.

“It’s time to take your loss like a man,chaton. Let is go. It’s done.” He jumps up the bed and digs himself over to the other side. Grabbing hold of his ankle, I drag him over the sheets and back to me, but his ferocious kick against my chest is more than I bargained for. He catches me in surprise and I let go, watching him dive onto the ground at the other side of the bed before I run around it.

“Oh, no, you aren’t,” I growl when he reaches for the door. The door that is broken, might I add, and I don’t want to know what kind of amusement we’ve created for the depraved souls of my brother and cousin. “You’re going to stay here and fucking talk to me.”

“I don’t want to talk to you!” He runs forward, but right when he reaches out for the knob, I jump and catch him by his wavy, golden hair. As I pull him back he yelps, then tries to get away, but his sadness doesn’t stand a chance against my madness. I haul him by his arm and turn us around, then throw him onto the bed, pinning his hands with all my force above his head, forcing him to look at me. He writhes beneath me, both our chests heaving from the exercise, and despite the gravity of the situation, my cock roars to life, filling with a need to claim, to fucking own this guy.

His eyes are large and wet, and the deepest of blue. Tears still roll down his puffy cheeks, dribbling down to the corners of his mouth. When his tongue snakes out to lick them away, I dip my head and capture it with my own. He startles, and I dive further,forcing him back into his mouth, with my tongue curled around him. Régis stops fighting me a little, and with one hand I grab both of his wrists and keep them above his head, while my other drops, fingertips brushing past his soft, golden curls as they descend to his cheeks. They feel hot and cold at the same time, accompanied by the wetness from his grief. Stroking his tears away, I cup his chin, using it as leverage to tilt his face in the angle I want, and continue kissing him. Slow and demanding, the proof of who owns him. Who gets to know what happens inside that beautiful mind of his. Régis lets out a sweet mewl that has my cock weeping in my pants. It takes all my fucking willpower to pull back, especially when he chases my mouth, brushing his over mine, not ready to separate.

“Régis.” My voice sounds gruff even to my own ears. He slowly blinks as his gaze travels up to meet my own. “Your presentation was amazing.”

Fresh tears roll down his cheek, and I need to force myself not to lick them away and claim that luscious mouth of his again, and again. “It wasn’t amazing enough,” he breathes thickly.

“Yes, it was. But a world like this wasn’t made to be changed.”

His tongue darts out, licking his own salty tears as he takes in my words. “Why not?” He finally asks, sounding so innocent and young that it makes my chest flutter. “Why would we? We have everything we want. Power, money, we have it all. Why would we want to change that?”

And now I want you.The words echo too loudly in my head, where they repeat themselves like a broken record.

Want you. Want you.

Fuck, it makes my cock burn with the need to claim him. Again and again, until he realizes that he’s not going anywhere without me. The thought is…disturbing, and strangely soothing at the same time. Weight falls off my shoulder at this admission that Régis is, like I always knew he would be, a problem. A threat to my future, yet, also… a soothing comfort. He is. Because I want to take care of him, protect him from anyone. Keep him closely tucked to my heart. Will he let me? Tonight will reveal that to me, I guess.

A knock on the door startles both of us and we look up from where we lay on the bed, we catch two amused pairs of eyes.

“You okay there, little stepbrother?” Louis asks, the tips of his lips curved into a smirk as his gaze finds mine.

“Yeah, yeah, we were just—talking.” I don’t need to look back at him to know that his face will be bright red.

“Exactly,” I add in feigned annoyance, “And you were disturbing us.”

“That so?” Gaël drawls, his blond hair tucked away under the hood of his cloak. “Well, we’re sorry to ruin the party, but we’ve got a bigger one waiting for you.” He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively, and under me, Régis snorts.

“We’ll be there in five,” I say.

“Okay. Someone will repair the door when we’re out, so it should be fixed when we’re back, for your next uhm…conversation.”

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