Page 143 of Fall of Ruin and Wrath

“It would be a hundred times more if I stayed inside you.” He eased us onto our sides. “It would drive you mad.”

I might have already been a little mad as he stayed with me, petting the curve of my hip, my thigh, and the swell of my ass. He stayed with me as every small, delicate muscle inside me spasmed, and I held on, my grip on his hand never slipping. His hold on mine never waning. Not even when I finally went limp, exhausted and sated. Our hands remained sealed.

And my mind remained quiet.

“No,” I protested halfheartedly.

Thorne grinned from where he was nestled between my thighs.“Yes,” he murmured, parting my swollen flesh with a swipe of his wicked tongue.

The low moan that rattled from my chest was only one of many I’d made since we left the gardens.

The Prince of Vytrus was insatiable when it came to giving pleasure.

I didn’t remember much of our return to the manor, but from the moment we reached his quarters, time had become a sensual blur. We’d bathed— or more accurately, he’d bathed me, washing the dirt and blades of grass from my body as I’d washed away the blood from his skin once before. He made me come then, with his fingers, and when we made it to his bed, our bodies still damp, he’d started a slow exploration of my body, kissing a path along the curve of my jaw, down my throat, and over my breasts. His tongue had been wicked there too, swirling over my nipples just like his tongue now swirled inside me.

Thornefeasted.

My fingers balled into the sheets as his tongue dipped in and out. I hadn’t thought I’d have the energy in me to move, but I’d been wrong. I lifted my hips to his thrusts, and his answering growl of approval inflamed me. A faint golden glow edged his bare shoulders as he shifted, working a finger inside me. I groaned.

Thick lashes lifted. Eyes a brilliant shade of blue dotted with silvery stars met and held mine. “Don’t look away,” he ordered. “I want to see your eyes when you come.”

I shuddered, trembling all over.

“I want to see your eyes when you come, screaming my name.” His finger curled deep inside me. “Understand?”

“Yes,” I panted.“Your Grace.”

He nipped at my flesh, drawing a ragged moan from me. There was a flash of a grin along his damp lips and then his mouth closed over my clit. My back bowed and my hips lifted from the bed. I didn’t look away. Our gazes remained locked, and I did scream when I came, his name spilling from my lips as I quivered.

I was boneless as he crawled up the length of my body, dropping a quick kiss on my navel, at my rib cage, the swell of my breast. As he settled beside me, his lips pressed against my temple.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Mmm-hmm,” I murmured. He’d asked that when we’d been in the gardens, when the aftershocks had finally begun to ease. The question had caught me off guard then. It still did now. “Are you?”

Thorne chuckled. “I am.”

I turned my head toward his. Our mouths were scant inches apart as I lifted my hand to his chest. I splayed my fingers across his chest. “But you didn’t . . .”

“I don’t have to find release to feel pleasure.” The hand resting on my stomach glided up, folding over the swell of my breast. “The most exquisite kind of pleasure is derived from bestowing it upon another.”

“You . . . you really aren’t a mortal man then,” I said.

He laughed, the sound light and causing my heart to skip. “If you’re truly just now realizing that, I’m not sure what to tell you.”

I huffed, eyes drifting shut. The silence that fell between us then was warm, companionable, and nothing like I’d experienced before with anyone I’d been with. There was always this need to speak, to fill the quiet either to stave off the inevitable awkwardness that often came or to keep my mind from slipping in another.

But the Prince was nothing like I’d ever experienced.

“I leave in the morning, by the way,” Thorne said eventually.

“I remember.” A pang of unease sliced my chest. Did I not want him to leave? Or was it something else? “When will you return?”

“I believe it will only take a few days.”

I tried to decipher the feelings inside me. Shouldn’t I feel relief that he’d be gone for a few days? I didn’t. There was just unease, and maybe a little . . . sadness. Oh gods, I realized it was likely because I would miss him.

I needed help.