Page 75 of Contested Crown

I wrapped a hand around his cock, tugging on it, using the precome to make it slick enough that it didn’t hurt. He cried out, his eyes opening, finding mine.

He came all over my fingers, and I saw in his face something I didn’t even want to admit to myself. Trust. He trusted me.

I groaned, bringing my hand to my mouth, licking his come off my palm. His ass gave another twitch, and I thrust in, unable to resist the tight pressure.

He fully relaxed into the bed, come cooling on his stomach, and watched me with hooded eyes as I kept going, pressing into the give of his body.

My own orgasm overtook me suddenly. One moment, I could offer him this, keep going forever; the next, he licked his lips and smirked, and I was there, shuddering into his body, bracing both hands on the bed so I wouldn’t collapse on top of him.

I gasped, pleasure spiking up my spine almost like pain, my entire body tensing as I came. For a moment, the only thing I felt was my heart still racing, my breath short. My head was empty, no thoughts, no worries, just now, just Cade.

Reaching up, I loosened the belt from around his wrists, and he slid his hands out, running his fingers up my arms and down to my own wrists.

Carefully, I let his leg slide off my shoulder, and he wrapped both arms around me, urging me down on top of him until my weight covered him completely.

“I can take it,” he whispered into my ear.

I shuddered again, my cock giving another twitch because in Cade’s hoarse voice, his throat ruined from taking my cock, that was the hottest thing anyone had ever said to me.

When my heart rate slowed, I eased back, pulling out of him. He made an unhappy noise.

“We should get cleaned up.” His words were casual, but he glanced significantly at the bathroom.

With enough steam, that would give us some time against whatever listening devices they had. And after the show we had just given them, I had no doubt it would give us a little bit of leeway.

We stumbled to the bathroom, waiting for the shower to blow billows of steam into the air before Cade released his magic, muffling the spells. Stepping into the shower, I took the washcloth first, but Cade gently pried it from my fingers, lathering it with soap and beginning to wash me.

“What are we going to do?” I asked. “It would be so much easier if?—”

“I can’t. I can’t give you up.” Cade pushed the washcloth across my chest, stroking it over my neck and forcing me to raise my chin so I couldn’t see his eyes when he asked, “Why can’t I give you up?”

“You should. You should give me up.” I closed my eyes as the washcloth stilled, dropping away from my skin. “If you give me up, you’ll have your crown.”

“I don’t want it,” Cade said fiercely. “I don’t want it, not if it costs me you.”

I gasped, almost choking on the spray from the shower. My eyes found his, and how could I have ever thought they were cold?

They burned, searing into my skin as though he could give me a tattoo by sight alone.

“Then we have until sunrise to get out of here,” I said. “We’d better move fast.”

ChapterTwenty-Five

Cade didn’t have enough magic to teleport us off the property. I remembered back when his skin crawled with tattoos, so thick that his pale flesh was nearly invisible. Now, a blackberry bramble grew on his chest, thorns dark and sharp. A dagger was sheathed by the vines, and all of that wasn’t enough to move us more than a couple of floors.

“If you give me some magic, I might be able to use that to push through the wards, make a hole.” I gestured to my arms, reminding Cade of the gauntlets he’d given me at the forger’s apartment.

“Maybe.” Cade rubbed his face. Condensation from the shower dripped down his nose, and I wiped at the moisture. We were running out of time to plan.

“Or we could see if someone here would help us,” I said. Cade looked up sharply, and I pinched my lips together. “We can’t gettothe wards without help.”

“Who?” he asked.

“Larissa.” I paused. “Or Summer.”

We had little time. They would be watching us so closely, and the listening spells going off would be a big red flashing sign that we were up to something. Soon, Elizabeth would come through the door, our postcoital shower going too long for her, and then we wouldn’t haveanytime.

“Larissa,” Cade said.