Page 15 of Love Bites Harder (Mated to the King #3)

fifteen

CLEMENTINE

To my disappointment (but not surprise), Kai ignored the hell out of my magic. He spent the hours working on his phone and reading his dad’s journals while I was gliding peacefully through the pool.

We still hadn’t gotten to the sex-out-of-bed point in our relationship. It was a purely a night thing, when he couldn’t hold himself back.

Which was… fine.

Yep.

Fine.

No , it didn’t feel like he was my babysitter while he watched me swim.

Not even a little.

…

Fine, just a little.

But I couldn’t ask him to swim with me. He wasn’t a siren, and obviously didn’t like the water as much as I did. Plus, he had things to do.

So yeah.

I was still fine.

Totally.

Fine.

Super cool for my mate to ignore my magic pushing him to screw me, and just have his way with me at night when there was no chance he could pretend he didn’t want me.

Maybe I was a little salty about it.

Or a lot.

I slipped out of the pool, but my mate didn’t notice the water dripping down my abdomen or thighs.

Or the plethora of bare skin I had on display, since he’d cleared out the room to give us privacy.

He didn’t even notice my boobs.

Come on.

I grabbed my clothes off the end of the lounge chair he occupied, biting back a snappy retort and forced magic into my voice as I said with fake cheer, “Alright, I’m ready to go back to the realm.”

“There’s been a change of plans,” he said, his gaze still on the journal in his hands. “The kings want to have a meeting in twenty minutes about the ball they’re throwing. I’m supposed to help. I was going to pull you out of the water soon.”

“Most of them don’t call themselves kings.”

“Doesn’t change the facts.”

We agreed on that, I guess.

“I don’t have a towel, so what do you want me to do here, your highness ?” I put a hand on my hip.

He must’ve heard the snark in my voice, because he finally lifted his gaze to me.

Or to my boobs, rather.

He lowered the journal over his lap, apparently having decided he was against asking me to help take care of his obvious erection. “There are towels in the bathrooms.”

“Of course there are.” I dropped my clothes on the end of his chair and strode back to the bathroom, anger and hurt battling to decide which would win out.

I tried to fuel the anger. I liked it more than I liked feeling hurt.

Kai was waiting next to the bathroom door with my clothes in his hands when I emerged with one towel around my middle and one wrapped around my hair.

He handed me my clothes, all of which now had wet spots. “You’re upset about something.”

“Am I?” I held the bundle of clothes to my abdomen and strode toward the doors. Kai grabbed his stuff off the chair, and caught up to me easily. That was a benefit of stupidly long and muscular legs, I guess.

“Clementine,” he said, an edge to his voice.

“Kai,” I countered, mine just as sharp as his.

“What happened?”

“Nothing happened.”

That was the problem though, wasn’t it?

He only fucked me at night because I’d stepped in to make it happen. And I understood his hesitation, and his worry. I really did.

But what kind of life would we have if I was nothing more than the girl he screwed in bed at night?

It wasn’t like we had a real relationship outside of that and the small amount of vulnerability he’d shared.

I’d let myself start to think we were something more, which was clearly untrue. Trying to force my way into his heart was exhausting—and it wasn’t right.

My mate was supposed to be my Prince Charming.

He was supposed to love me.

I wasn’t supposed to have to slowly manipulate him into caring about me.

“That’s obviously not true,” he said.

“You don’t want to know what’s wrong. It’ll just hurt you, and I don’t want to do that, so don’t ask,” I said bluntly.

He was silent until we got to our room, and stayed that way as I pulled on a dry pair of jeans that had so many rips in them they were almost more tear than jean. A skintight, white long-sleeved cropped shirt with strategic cutouts followed. No bra. Bras were for wimps.

And people with big boobs, unlike my pretty little pancakes.

It wasn’t until I made it back to the door, ready to leave, that his hands finally caught my hips and turned me around so I was facing him.

My hands landed on his chest.

He walked me backward three steps, until my shoulder blades met the wall.

“I’m not afraid of getting hurt, Clementine. We’re not going anywhere until you tell me what’s wrong.”

“We’re going to be late,” I said flatly.

The world shifted around us as he teleported us into our bedroom in the castle—and pinned me to one of the walls in there, too.

“Now we have two hours.”

I glared at him. “Let go of me.”

“Tell me why you’re angry with me, and I will.”

Fury boiled in my veins, but I didn’t answer him.

Admitting the truth would just make him realize he had even more power over me than he thought, and he already had more than his fair share of that.

His thumb stroked the bare strip of skin at my waist lightly.

In a way that made my thighs clench.

“Stop,” I hissed, and he stopped.

But he didn’t move his hands.

And the damage was already done, because the bastard had already made me want him even though I was pissed off.

I didn’t bother trying to use my magic to make him release me. He’d felt it so many times at that point that he could usually control himself despite it.

“Just let go of me. I don’t want to have this conversation right now,” I said, finally leaning my head back against the wall.

I really, really hoped he’d walk away.

But of course, he didn’t.

“You drive me insane.” I shoved a hand through the top of my hair, pushing it out of my eyes.

“And you think you don’t do the same to me? I haven’t lost control of myself enough to have sex in decades , Five. I stopped looking for a mate just as long ago. I?—”

“What do you mean, you stopped looking for a mate?” I interrupted.

He let out a harsh breath. “I looked for a mate for about twenty years, without success. About fifty years ago, I stopped.”

“You wanted a mate?”

“Of course I wanted a mate. I’ve never had anyone. But it became apparent when I looked, that no one I was even semi-interested in had any desire to mate with the king.”

“No one wants your throne,” I said.

“No, they don’t.”

And mating with him came with the throne, whether they—or I—liked it or not.

“Did you ask them questions? Like my sheets?”

“Of course I asked them questions. I wasn’t going to tie my life to someone I barely knew.”

“Until you did that with me.”

“I heard every word you told my men, and watched you for weeks. I knew exactly who I was binding my life to.”

“Then I’m sure you can see why it’s so frustrating for me to know so little about you, Kai. You don’t include me in the fae stuff. You don’t want to swim with me, or even have sex with me unless your vines give you no other choice at night. Every tiny step forward we’ve ever taken in our relationship is because of me, outside of the bit where you suddenly made me your mate. And even though we’re mated, I still feel like I’m alone. I want a real partner—not just someone who had to mate with me to prevent a war.”

“Is that why you think I claimed you?” There was something in his eyes that told me to think very carefully about my next words.

Of course, in my typical fashion, I was already responding before I even figured out what his gaze was telling me. “I have no idea why you claimed me, Kai.”

His grip tightened on my waist as he stepped back and turned me around. My ass was against his cock—it was still hard—as he walked me straight into the bathroom.

Taking in our appearance was… well… a little overwhelming.

The top of my head didn’t even reach his shoulders. I was small and slim, and though I wasn’t weak, I definitely wasn’t built strong.

Kai, on the other hand, was pure muscle.

“Look at your eyes, Clementine.”

I focused on the blue orbs. “They’re just eyes.”

“They’re not,” he growled. “They’re full of fire. Passion. Excitement. Energy. Hope. When things get bad, you look for the good. When everything falls apart, you hold yourself together. When you find yourself trapped in the fae realm and forced to take a mate, you do everything you possibly can to pick the best one.”

“You cancelled out my pick.”

“You weren’t attracted to any of those bastards. The morning you were supposed to choose one, you were crying my name, in my bed, letting me pleasure you. If I was an option, you would’ve picked me. And you did.”

“I didn’t have a choice,” I whispered.

“Like hell you didn’t. You knew I had to return you to Earth before someone declared war on me. If you refused, I would’ve had to find you someone else. You wanted me.”

“Sexually. Not permanently.”

“You knew damn well that I didn’t do casual sex.”

“Fine,” I said, putting my hands on the bathroom countertop and letting out a frustrated breath. “I wanted you . I don’t know how the conversation even got to this subject, but?—”

“You wanted to know why I mated with you. I mated with you because I was so fucking in love with your personality, I couldn’t handle another man touching your body. You felt like mine. You wanted me too. No one else could have you then, and no one else can have you now.”

I stared at him in the mirror, eyes wide and heart pounding.

Had he just said…

Holy shit.

He had.

He was in love with me. Or my personality, at least. Which was me, wasn’t it?

And heaven knew I was in love with him. Maybe I had been since the moment he found me in the forest. Or maybe it had started when I made him kneel for me in front of his throne. Or maybe it had been a slow, rolling snowball of a bunch of different emotions that somehow turned into attachment, then love.

But it was love.

There was no denying that. Not for me.

It didn’t make sense, and it wasn’t exactly healthy, but maybe we could figure it out. Maybe we could get there.

Kai let out a harsh breath. “I don’t know how to be a good mate. I don’t know how to be a good anything , Five. I can’t stop the eclipses. I can’t save my people. I couldn’t fix my dad, or the mess he made. I don’t know how to do relationships at all. I’m fucking terrified I’m going to hurt you, and I seem to thrive at doing exactly that every time I try not to. I don’t?—”

I turned around, putting my hands on his face and pulling his mouth down to mine. He didn’t kiss me back immediately, but when I parted my lips with his tongue, he finally got the message.

Our mouths moved together in a familiar, intense dance.

He tasted like nature, the way he always did.

And I loved that.

I wanted it.

I—

Kai suddenly snarled into my mouth, lifting me onto the countertop and opening my legs. The head of his cock was pushing into me a heartbeat later, and I gasped as he filled me.

That was good.

Really, really good.

But… what had just happened?

He hadn’t even been sure about kissing me a minute earlier.

I pulled my mouth from his. The moment I saw his eyes, reality hit.

And boy, it hit hard.

His eyes were redder than I’d ever seen them.

Much, much redder than they’d been during the last eclipse.

I grabbed his shoulders, trying desperately to balance myself as he drove into me again, and again.

No amount of willpower could’ve kept me from enjoying it—not that I wanted it to.

I hadn’t been expecting the ride, but I was completely and entirely here for it.

His vines opened me wider before teasing my clit, and I gasped out my first climax.

He captured my lips again, kissing me brutally.

Desperately.

Wildly.

Like he was in love with me.

I wanted to feed from him, to see if that was what he really felt, but I couldn’t risk it. Not in the fae realm during an eclipse. He was the one who had told me my magic was basically poison for an out of control fae, and unlike usual, he had clearly lost control.

Not that I was against it.

It was actually a lot of fun.

I moaned as his mouth and teeth moved down my throat, nipping and sucking.

I needed to tell him to take me back to Earth.

That we had a meeting to go to.

That there was shit to figure out, and there were fae to get into the water, and?—

I cried out as the tip of one of his vines found my back entrance, making me arch hard against him.

Holy hell.

Yeah, reality could wait a little longer.

He drove into me as his vine swelled larger in my ass.

“You’re going to scream when you come for me, Clementine,” he growled against my throat, still driving into me without slowing. “Prove how much you like having my cock in that pretty little cunt.”

My response came out garbled.

Needy.

Desperate.

And when I finally went over the edge, he got exactly what he wanted.

“You didn’t—notice my boobs,” I panted as I came down from the high. “When I got out of the pool. You didn’t notice them.”

“Of course I noticed them. I didn’t let myself stare at them, because you were going to be wearing my release all over them like it was fucking lotion if I did.” He sucked my throat hard. “Your lips, too.”

I cried out, digging my fingers deeper into his shirt as the vine in my ass grew thicker. “We need to go to the meeting.”

“We have time.”

“You have no idea—uhhh.” I gasped as Kai tilted my hips, changing the angle so his cock hit my g-spot perfectly.

“Stop talking and come for me,” he commanded.

Pumping inside me again, and again, he set me off just like he wanted.

I was so lost to him, it was ridiculous.

But at the same time, I didn’t regret it. Not even a little bit. He might’ve been shitty at romance, but he was in love with me.

So one way or another, we’d find a way to make things work.

…Assuming we survived the eclipse.