Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 186911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
He guided me onto the pillows, our bodies and mouths still connected. I’d never drunk to excess before, though I had to believe this is what it was like. My head spun. Pulse raced. Breaths quickened. I felt clear and silly at the same time. Like I was about to jump off a cliff without wings, but the joy of falling through the air was worth the end.
His tongue tangled with mine, inviting me to play. I moaned as he caressed me, his hands trailing up and down my body, and I was suddenly sure that this was nothing like being drunk. If wine gave this feeling, no one in the land would set down a bottle.
Fingers tickled me, skating higher along my thigh and slipping between. I dropped my knee, making clear what I wanted him to do.
Breaking from me, he brushed a kiss on the tip of my nose. “You are perfection, intelligence, and ferocity itself. To bask in your presence is to be humbled. To delight from your lips is to slip between the veil and walk through the meadows of Meya itself.”
“Ug—” I got out, throat restricting. What did one say to words so beautiful? And what did they say when those words came from their terrible, beastly husband? Did he mean them?
Did I want him to?
Alisdair brushed over my lower lips, and kept going—chuckling at my grunt of irritation. He seemed to just want to touch me. Soak in every inch of my body.
Her body, a quiet voice broke in. It’s the famed beauty of the east who he admires. Not the little wretch from the Gutter.
“Don’t frown, my queen,” he said, trapping my gaze. “When you do, I’m forced to remove that frown by any method necessary—usually sexual.”
I giggled, making him laugh in return.
“That was easy.” Alisdair lifted his hand and a starflower appeared on his fingers. He tucked it behind my ear, smiling at me. I couldn’t say how I knew, but it was a true smile.
Alisdair bent and kissed the ghost of a laugh still on my lips, then he kissed my cheek, my nose, my lids, everywhere—dropping sweet gifts on my soft skin.
My skin started heating, beading sweat on my neck and stomach. My breaths came too fast, heaving my chest, and straining to contain my pounding heart. What was this? How was he doing this?
Alisdair captured my lips again and I moaned, limbs melting like ice in a land with sun.
Breaking away, Alisdair rose up on his knees and draped my legs over his thighs.
I pressed my palm to his heart, wondering if it beat as hard as mine. Wondering if it beat.
But there was nothing there. He hadn’t returned his heart to his chest. He was still keeping it far away from me.
“Another frown?” Alisdair gently smoothed the line between my brow. “I will banish it for good.”
He kissed me again—hard. The sudden fierce and fiery kiss sent my heart galloping away, chasing a moan from my lips. I broke from him gasping. My vision spun as his mouth moved lower, leaving nipping, teasing kisses down the valley of my breasts to my tender stomach. Alisdair flipped me over, continuing his path one by one, kiss by kiss down the ridges of my spine. I arched like a cat—pleasure rippling goose bumps over my skin.
My excitement built as he moved lower, lower, low—
Growling, Alisdair buried between my legs—tasting me with abandon. I gasped on a cry, eyes rolling up in my head.
Alisdair both took his time and chased me to a high. His tongue probed, and rolled, and flicked my tortured nub, waiting until my cries grew hoarse to stop and start all over again. I was a sweaty, limp mess in no time at all.
“By the A-All Mother,” I stuttered, feeling the fire burning through my veins. One more and I’d—
Alisdair flicked the nub and I exploded—spasming on the bed, coming so hard white spots danced on the wall.
He draped himself over me, humming as he bit the shell of my ear. “I will fashion a paradise for you, my queen. I’ll burn all of Elva down, and remake it in your image.”
My pants tickled the back of my hand, but I couldn’t move it. Alisdair laced his fingers through mine.
“You will want for nothing for the rest of your days, and not as a discarded decoration,” he whispered, nipping my ear. “You will have books, and tutors, and university.”
My eyes popped open—shock parting my jaw. How did he know that’s what I wanted more than anything?
“You will be all of the incredible, enigmatic, troublesome things you are meant to be,” he said, making my eyes fill.
Alisdair dropped a kiss on my shoulder. “Although, I confess, it escapes me how you plan to improve upon perfection.”
My heart thundered so hard, it thrummed louder than the howling wind. Cold ripped through our exposed bedchamber, but I was warm. Warm from his body heat. Warm from the lingering aftershocks of my orgasm. And warm... from him.