Page 33 of His Dark Delights

I struggled to retain my composure as Lord Brandywine attained her for the second dance. A man whose only redeeming qualities were his wealth and support of the war. When his arm encircled her waist in a manner too familiar, too intimate, an unconscious snarl ripped through my chest.

How dare any of those unworthy peacocks dare to touch her? To preen and brag in her company as if they had anything worth her attention?

They didn’t know of her love for honey cake.

Of her affinity for nature and her joy in being outdoors with her toes in the dirt.

Or her bond with that silly cow, of the hours she spent in the garden with Millie.

They would never know about the hidden constellation of freckles on her shoulders and the almost imperceptible ones dappled across her nose.

How her eyes shone almost silver at night, or how her skin glowed under the moonlight.

Those fools wouldn’t notice the scrunch of her nose when she laughed, of the dimples in her cheeks when she smiled. The way her breath hitched right before a peal of giggles. They wouldn’t know, and they wouldn’t appreciate those subtle intricacies.

Every ounce of my being howled to stride across the room and beat them back, to grab her and mark my territory right there in the middle of the grandeur.

But I had to have faith that Lilly could hold her own, and that she knew who she belonged to at the end of the day.

She was a woman of will and strength, her presence in the castle, that night, proof of her adaptability and natural charm.

Perhaps on some level I was pleased with her and the ease with which she wove through the bleating aristocrats.

Maybe even proud of how far she’d come since her days on the farm.

Yet all I could focus on was the way she shone so brightly, brighter even, in the company of others—of men that weren’t me.

Lord Brandywine leaned into Lilly near the end of the dance. The leash on my restraint snapped and my patience unraveled as that one knot came loose. I ignored whatever Rhydan was droning on about beside me, hardly hearing a word he’d said all night, and propelled forward through the crowd.

A figure of pearls and satin blocked my path. Lady Orla, a former conquest of mine, curtsied low, her dark eyes lingering on mine. Her practiced seduction had worked on me once, the act now as transparent as glass.

“Your Majesty,” she purred, placing her hand on her obscenely low neckline, “you look so dashing this evening.”

“Thank you, Lady Orla,” I replied, as detached as possible.

The white and blue beehive of hair precariously balanced on her head blocked my view of the dancefloor. I craned my head, looking around her to track the movement of the object of all my wants.

“And the palace,” the lady continued, placing a hand on the crook of my arm, “is as resplendent as ever. Grand Duchess Cecily hosts the most wonderful events. She invited me personally, you know.”

My lip curled as her lashes fluttered, utterly unaware of my disinterest. Or maybe she didn’t care.

“Though it cannot compare to the beauty of the king.” Lady Orla pressed in closer, her breasts blatantly rubbing against my arm. My gaze was already drifting back toward Lilly’s last location.

I spotted her, our eyes locking at the same moment. She hung on the arm of another younger lord. Yet when she noticed me, her eyes dropped to Lady Orla’s hand on my arm and the nonexistent distance between our bodies.

Her attention whipped back to the younger lord. Her head flung back as a peal of divine laughter breached her lips. That pompous young prat placed his hand on her lower back, far too low for comfort. My jaw clenched so hard my teeth clicked.

I wrenched my arm free of Lady Orla, dismissing her without a second glance. My boots clicked on the floor, steps measured and deliberate as an insensible sickness provoked me into action. Lilly continued to dance, wrapped up in the delight of the music and amenable company.

The young lord spun her out as the music hit a crescendo.

I snapped out, striking, catching her wrist before he could spin her back into his embrace.

She gasped, and the lord faltered, eyes nearly bugging from his head as he noticed me.

And her enchanting eyes lit up with something, a confusing combination of relief and defiance.

“Mind if I cut in?” I asked, less a request and more of a command .

“Of course, Your Majesty. Please,” the young man sputtered. He practically stumbled over himself in his haste to bow and flee.

Lilly’s expression melted, dropping into something masked and unreadable. Her hand was warm in mine, her body perfectly melded into the grooves of mine as if she was made to fit against me. We moved into the dance and I internally glowed as her steps moved with mine in astounding synchronicity.

“You seem to be enjoying yourself,” I gritted out, tone dripping with my jealousy.

Lilly’s eyes snapped to mine, hardening. “Isn’t that exactly what you wanted? To show me off and let all the stuffy nobles get an eyeful?”

“I wanted them to see what’s mine and know they could never have you. Yet there you were flirting with every lord that even glanced your way,” I replied, struggling to speak below the music.

“And what of you? Letting the ladies of the court fawn over you and drape themselves across your chest. What am I here for when you could have any one of them?”

The challenge in her eyes incensed me. She doubted my affections for her. Was her faith in my feelings so poor that one mistaken moment could tear us apart so quickly?

Before she had a chance to bite, I spun Lilly toward the shadow-heavy corners. She startled but allowed me to drag her through the barrier of towering curtains and escape outside onto the balcony unseen.

Away from the lights and noise, we were now completely alone with the pitch-dark sky and dim lights of the kingdom far, far below.

So high in the sky, that balcony overlooked the wide stretch of the kingdom, where the dark horizon melded with the inky depths of the sky rippling with stars darting like silver fish in a black sea.

“You, Lilly, you torment me.” I collared her throat, backing her up into a column between the wide windows.

On the other side of the glass, ladies giggled, and lords boasted nonsense.

A hint of the music reached us among the silence of the night.

“All night, all fucking night, you were the only thing I could see. I watched your every movement, every dance, every time you opened your lips and laughed at another man.”

“I only did what was expected of me. What I was taught to do.” She peered up at me under heavy lashes and licked her bottom lip as the space decreased between us. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“No, I want you. Only you.” My voice came out harsher than intended. Yet I felt her heartbeat flutter against my palm all the same.

Tension hung, thick and alive, between us. That living essence of our shared lust coiled tight and drove us into one another’s orbit—again and again. This time was no different, only stirred anew by the night’s jealousy.

“Ren.” I stole the breath from her lungs, tasting the bittersweet flavor of my name whimpered on her tongue. She tasted like bubbling wine and whined in the back of her throat, and she licked my tongue when I plundered her mouth.

Frenzied and animalistic, I rucked up the silky layers of her gown.

It billowed around her hips, a cloud of green floating above her bare, creamy thighs.

Voracious, as if malnourished and she was a meal, I consumed her, devoured her mouth and ravaged her.

One swipe from my empty hand revealed her lack of underwear and the slick arousal weeping from her exposed cunt.

“Fuck, Lilly. So wet and ready for me, aren’t you?” A vicious shiver rolled through her, accompanied by a reedy moan. “Be a good girl and spread your legs.”

She obeyed.

Using the column as leverage, I trapped her where I wanted her, grinding into the softest part of her body. Open-mouthed, she keened against my lips as I hooked a hand beneath her knee and hiked it around my waist. Closer and closer, but never close enough.

“What—what are you doing to me?” she whimpered.

“I think I’ve made my intentions clear enough.

” My free hand unlaced my trousers, and I freed my length, throbbing and hard for her.

She sighed when I grabbed her waist and guided her down onto my cock.

Her cunt slipped over the head, lower lips parting to welcome my girth.

Lilly bodily quivered as I impaled her in one greedy thrust.

“Ren. Oh, Ren,” she repeated, her lust-drunk mantra.

Buried to the hilt, I ground slowly against her, urging her to feel every inch of me intimately buried within her. Hot, tight, wet, and always so welcoming for me. Her pussy wept for me, and for me alone. I looked into her eyes, willing her to see my need and urgency for her.

She made a strangled, wanton sound in the back of her throat as I plunged into her again.

“You like that? ”

Lilly nodded. Her eyes drifted shut as she succumbed to the pleasure in her core.

My sense of urgency increased as I recalled every man who had laid a hand on her for the past several hours.

All those dances, all those subtle yet lingering touches.

I needed to erase the stain of them from her body, from her mind.

My hips snapped into hers, speeding up and intensifying. Rough and brutal, punishing her for the attention of others. Her nails dug into my shoulders and sweet little “ ah ah ahs ” flitted from her sensual lips.

Lilly buried her face in my neck before nuzzling lower into my shoulder. She pressed harder, attempting to muffle the symphony of pleasure rising from her chest. I couldn’t have that.

“No, no, sweet girl. I want to hear those pretty sounds you make for me.” I kept one hand on her hip and tipped her head back with the other.

“Ren, your guests will hear us—”

“Good,” I gritted out, fucking into her harder. “Let every poor sod in the kingdom hear you calling out my name, so they know who you belong to.”

“Ren!” Her cunt pulsed along my length, reacting to my words even if she would deny it. Her legs trembled around my hips, a sure sign her climax neared.

“You know you’re mine, don’t you?” My thrusts slowed, staying buried as I rocked into her clit to drive her mad.

Something akin to a warbled half-moan, half-sob escaped her. Her throat clicked as if she balanced on the cusp of wailing. “Yes,” she admitted in a rasp.

“Good girl,” I crooned, loving how her cunt fluttered on my cock when I praised her. Twitches in her lower half and the shaking in her thighs warned me of her impending release. “Just like that, Lilly. Come on. Give me what I want. Let me feel you come for me.”

“Ren, I’m— oh! ” Lilly shattered, rendered apart with a moan so vibrant and erotic it triggered my climax.

Her inner wall contracted around me, sucking me deeper where I emptied inside her.

That perfect, perfect cunt fluttered through the aftershocks of her orgasm as I pounded my seed deeper where it belonged.

“You did so good for me, Lilly. Always so good. So perfect.” I peppered kisses up and down the column of her throat, tasting her erratic pulse and the sugary sweet sweat on her skin. Another song started in the ballroom and a round of laughter dropped me into reality.

Lilly tensed, turning her head away. I licked my bottom lip and drifted away from her. She fidgeted with her dress, smoothing it back into place without looking at me. I cleared my throat.

Her head snapped up, and her throat bobbed.

“Lilly, I—”

Her eyes widened, cutting to something in the open sky behind me. The hairs on my nape rose, and a warning spider-walked down my spine. I whipped around, chest heaving in search of the unseen threat.

Nothing stood out, so I turned back to her. I reached for her, and she flinched before my palm contacted her shoulder. I dropped my hand, curling it into a fist at my side.

“What’s wrong?”

She shook her head, coppery pink curls dancing around her shoulders. “Nothing. I thought I saw… nothing.”

I wanted to smooth the frown from her lips, to trace them with my fingers and lift it into a smile.

But her smiles weren’t for me unless I was fucking her senseless.

Was that my penance for taking her from her home?

Had I doomed us to a life where she wore a mask around me, and I remained reluctant to let her go?

“Go dance, Lilly,” I spoke softly, encouraging her. She peeked up at me, expression widening once again. “Have some wine. Enjoy yourself.”

“What—”

“We’re going into the city tomorrow.” I held her gaze, imparting the fathomless depths of my feelings for her. “I promised, remember?”

Her eyes lit up, and she smiled at me, for me, finally. I wanted to grab her, to hold on to her all night. Yet I still watched her walk away.