Page 30 of His Dark Delights
Lilly
His Majesty emerged at the edge of the clearing. My skin went tight, and my cheeks flushed at the sight of him.
Rhydan assessed the short distance between his body and mine before straightening up and peeling himself further away. The immediate reaction pulled a soft gasp from my lips, and I whirled around to face the king.
Simmering jealousy glared through Soren’s stormy eyes, rivaling the gleam of the golden crown resting on his brow. He glanced at me with ownership and daggers at his friend. I didn’t miss his fingers flexing near the dagger strapped to his hip.
Soren Carnifex was indeed the ruthless, cruel creature he claimed to be if he entertained the thought of reaching for his weapon against a friend over a fit of jealousy. Absurdly, against all reason, my heart skipped at the deranged sign of his possession.
Rhydan made a show of rolling his eyes and huffing. “Nothing, my friend. Well, aside from joking at your expense.”
Soren’s hand drifted from the weapon at his hip. “Hm, normal for you then.”
“I was just leaving.” The knight slapped the king’s shoulder on his way past. At the edge of the garden, he shot me a smirk accompanied by a wink.
His absence left me alone with the king. An unnerving prospect now that Soren and I were facing one another under shafts of midday light. Far away from the darkened corners of the palace. Although the garden walls protected us from stray eyes, I felt left out in the open with His Majesty.
Hours ago, I wanted to thank him for the gesture. I was truly grateful for what he’d done for me, but the conversation with Rhydan distracted my thoughts. It centered my mind on the war and the state of the world once again.
“Did you enjoy your surprise, Lilly?” Soren asked hopefully.
“More than I can express. I’m grateful.” Then I solidified my resolve and stepped closer. “Although it might have been better if I’d been sent home to tend to them myself.”
The Fairy Butcher’s eyes darkened instantly, and the budding smile on his face dropped. He cast his gaze across the sky while licking his bottom lip, thoughts churning through the moment of silence.
“All morning, I thought of nothing else but you and the kiss you’d reward me with for this. Instead, you speak of going home.” Soren reached out, curling his fingers around my shoulders. “I did this to make you happy here. Happier with me again.”
He dipped his lips to mine.
I pulled away, avoiding his lips by a fraction. My breath hitched at the warmth of him radiating against my mouth. A frustrated groan grated through his chest. His grip on my shoulders increased.
I held influence over him, and I needed to grasp hold of it.
“Ren,” I spoke the name I loved him by, hoping he’d notice, “you sit within a sapphire tower plotting war with your honeyed lips. For that, you will receive no reward from me.”
He dropped his forehead to mine, and his breath skimmed my lips. My heart quivered from the pain of leashing myself back and not allowing the kiss. The king was vulnerable here like this, with his eyes closed and thoughts tormented by me.
“Again with this? I went to great lengths to have your creatures transported here to ensure your happiness.”
“I told you I would not be happy if you continued the war. Bringing me a piece of home doesn’t change that. I will not sit here in the garden with Millie for the rest of my days while you’re off butchering fae,” I replied, placing my palm over his pounding heart.
“It wouldn’t be for the rest of your days. Just wait until I win the war, and you can stay by my side as my—”
“No, Ren, I won’t. As long as you continue your savagery, I will not keep myself here.” Peering up through my lashes, I locked eyes with the king. “If you leave for another crusade, you will return to find me gone.”
His head dropped to my shoulder, and his furious exhale against my neck caused a shudder down my spine. My eyes closed at the delicious sensation of his warmth permeating my dress and heating my skin.
“Lilly, you can’t ask me to end the war. You can’t.”
“Why not? Why are you like this?” I stuttered over my words when Ren placed a kiss on the fluttering pulse in my throat. My hands flew up and tangled in the front of his shirt.
He moved his mouth, speaking between delicate kisses.
“I was born a bastard of the king. When His Majesty and all his legitimate heirs were dying of plague, he had his oldest male bastard brought to the palace. One look at me and he signed a decree to legitimize me upon the death of his last true heir.”
I gasped, reeling out of his grasp. Losing my balance, I stumbled back until my bottom hit the stone bench once more.
“I had no idea,” I balked, going ashen. Things I’d overheard in the palace fit together with Rhydan’s comments like settling pieces of a puzzle.
Soren followed my path, staring down at me with pure wretched disdain for his past haunting his gaze.
He dropped to his knees before me, bracing his hands on my thighs.
“I was a soldier in the ranks at the time, already bent on my revenge. Truthfully, I didn’t care about meeting my father or half-siblings.
Taking the throne was a way for me to achieve my goal. A means to an end.”
“You became king for revenge?” I almost laughed at the lunacy of it, but my heart broke for him, too. “What about your mother? ”
Soren’s fingers dug aggressively into my thighs, and his lips peeled back into an enraged grimace. “ They took her from me. Murdered her. So, yes, I wear a crown heavy enough to break my back so I can seek justice for what they did to her.”
A fae killed his mother, and he wanted revenge. Being legitimized and made king gave him the reins of an army bound to his service. The council handed him the keys to the kingdom, and he would use it as a weapon for vengeance.
I gaped down at Ren’s dark hair and the errant curl over his forehead. My heart surged and dipped for him and his loss as it had an eternity ago on my farm. I felt his pain as if it were my own, cleaving through my heart and drawing us close once again.
The king parted my thighs and moved until we were chest to chest. His heart hammered and my breath sawed past my lips. My heaving chest and parted mouth stole his attention. Some of the fury lining his expression lessened, swept away by increasing desire.
“I’m sorry,” I began.
“Don’t be. Just kiss me.” Soren drifted closer, intent on sealing our mouths. With a mighty effort, I pulled away, placing my hands on his shoulders to stop him.
“I thank you for your gesture today. It was a lovely surprise, but I cannot.” I smoothed my hand up his neck to cup his cheek. “I’m sorry for what you experienced, but it’s no excuse for your continued cruelty. Your misfortune doesn’t justify an extinction.”
The Butcher glared more fiercely than he ever had before. I didn’t think his bold, angered stare was aimed at me directly. He hated the situation I’d put him in and the truth of my statement. While he had the capacity to be a cruel man, I believed he could see reason with the right encouragement.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he pushed through gritted teeth.
“I know you’re a madman, a butcher, but that you still crave love.”
While he grappled with my words, his hands moved mindlessly, restlessly, tugging up the hem of my dress. He hiked the endless layers of pink gauze onto the bench around my hips. There was such a stark, determined storm gathering in his eyes that my heart stuttered.
Fresh air kissed my bare thighs as Ren shoved them apart. I vented a sharp breath as anticipation coiled through my lower belly.
“What are you doing?”
A voice scraped through him, hoarse and ragged. “You won’t kiss me, but I am going to taste you, Lilly. Right now.”
Ren used intimacy as a diversion. The wild mania of chasing pleasure and ecstasy with another intruded on his responsibilities, stopping him from facing his deeper feelings. Simultaneously, he used sex to form bonds of passion.
His defenses lowered when we were together. In the vulnerability of wanton flesh, his heart opened, making room for the feelings he’d otherwise not face in the light of day. That seemed to be where his love stemmed from.
He hooked his hands in the fabric of my undergarments and briskly removed them from my legs. His Majesty dipped his head between my thighs, breathing hotly against the tender skin. The short layer of scruff growing along his jaw scraped my inner thigh before the king sank his teeth into my flesh .
The shock of pleasure-pain caused me to arch my back, parting my legs further. I braced a hand behind me on the bench, curling my fingers over the stone. My other hand reached for Ren’s head, weaving my fingers through his dark hair beneath his crown, and guiding his mouth to my quivering center.
A firm pressure glided over my folds, provoking a moan from my lips. My sex opened for his tongue, and he lapped me up, devouring me like a starving man. He rumbled with his satisfaction, always eager to taste me and pull my climax with his tongue.
I rocked my hips into his mouth, following the surge of pleasure rippling through my lower belly. Each time, my thumb skimmed over the crown adorning his brow. Golden warmth cascaded through my stomach, my core, my limbs, as Ren teased out my orgasm.
Soren lifted his crowned head, gleaming like gilded fire in the light, and licked his sinful lips. “You always taste so good for me, Lilliana. You’re like my personal dessert. I could feast on you all day long.”
I grasped the back of his hair, tugging his head back. An indignant pride flared in his eyes, but so did a wicked, delighted storm. His throat bobbed as he swallowed, drawing my gaze to his sharp jaw, the shadow of his incoming beard, and the pulse kicking up in his neck.
“If we lived in a time of peace, His Majesty could have me at his pleasure day and night. How unfortunate for you that you’d choose the poison of vengeance instead.”