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“No idea how badly I wanted this.” He loosened his grip somewhat, allowing my feet to fall back to the ground, so that his hand could slip more easily between my legs.

I gasped as his fingers plunged inside of me, the resulting pleasure that throbbed through me nearly making my knees buckle.

“As badly as you wanted it, too,” he said, huskily, “judging by this sweetness pooling between your legs.” He withdrew hisfingers and brought them to his mouth, licking them clean with the same enthusiasm I’d devoured the cupcake frosting with earlier.

He dropped to one knee. Lifted one of my legs and balanced it over his shoulder, opening my thighs so he could press his face between them. My hands tangled in the waves of his hair, gripping tightly as he worked his tongue against me—slow, languorous licks and gentle breaths before darting it more fully, more forcefully inside.

I was melting into the wall, oblivious to its cold roughness. Arching my back, despite the sharp bite of its bricks, trying to pull him in more deeply. Bracing one hand against the palace while the other stayed in his hair, trying to maintain balance among the waves of heat and ecstasy rocking through me.

He started to draw back minutes later—just as I felt the beginning of a release and started to chase it—and I gasped out a series of curses in response.

The wicked gleam returned to his gaze as he straightened back to his full height, cupping my chin and tilting my gaze up to his. “Are we already getting impatient?”

I replied by taking his hand and leading him toward the lounge, easing him back onto the cushions.

Crawling on top, straddling his body, I leaned down and claimed his mouth with mine. My hair loosened further from its clips, falling in a messy curtain between us. He shoved one hand into the waves, gripping my head and pulling me harder against his mouth, deepening our kiss. His other hand smoothed its way down my back, over the curve of my ass, cupping me between the legs. His fingers stroked, pinched, and gently prodded until they were fully coated with my arousal. Then both of his hands were gripping me, guiding my hips lower, dragging my center across his hard length.

The first brush against him nearly had me collapsing into a quivering heap against his sweat-slicked chest. But I stayed upright, rocking my hips, chasing more. As I increased the pressure, he sucked in a sharp breath, and the sound brought me perilously close to release once more.

I drew back, wanting to make this last as long as possible.

I kissed a trail from his neck over his chest, taking the time to press my lips against every scar. Then lower, down across the hard ridges of his abdomen, before finally letting my tongue dance across the tip of his cock. After a few teasing lashes, I took him farther into my mouth, my eyes lifting toward his face to watch his reaction.

It was an incredible thing, that reaction.

His head tilted back. His eyes fluttered shut, his normally tense brow relaxing as his lips parted slightly.

I’d never seen him look so close to…surrender.

His fingers tangled in my hair once again, holding me in place as he rolled his hips, pushing himself deeper into my throat. After a few more thrusts like this, a sound somewhere between rapture and ruin tore through him. He grabbed my face in his hands once more, dragging me up across his body, bringing my mouth to his and into a sloppy, savage kiss.

Then his arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me against him, keeping my knees on either side of his thighs as he sat upright and planted his feet on the floor.

I settled into his lap, somehow fighting the urge to immediately start moving my hips once more.

As we balanced there, a tangled mess of pounding hearts and throbbing need, he paused, swiping the hair from my face, tucking it behind my ears. He looked mesmerized, almost. He began to kiss me more slowly—everything he could put his lips on. Every inch of heated skin he could taste. My face, my throat, the hardened peaks of my breasts.

“You lost our bet earlier,” he murmured in between kisses against my neck.

“I did.”

“Which means I’m due another prize.”

“It does, doesn’t it?”

“Mm.” He dug his fingers into my backside, tightening his grip, pulling me more firmly against him. “And that means this ends with me inside of you.”

“…Somehow, I don’t feel like I’mlosingin that scenario.”

He smiled, lips back against my neck once more. “Now, I just have to decide how I want to take you.”

My breath caught and my eyes fluttered shut, imagining the possibilities.

“I’ve thought about bending you over almost every piece of furniture in this palace…” He lazily traced the shapes of my breasts before letting his touch trail down my sides, then lower, sweeping it along my legs, which were still tucked beside him. “But I like you on your knees like this, too.”

With no more warning than this, his hands slid under my thighs, jerking me up into a more upright kneeling position.

I draped my arms around his neck. While I balanced above him, he wrapped a hand around his erection, stroking it and teasing it across my entrance before slipping just the tip inside of me.