Page 27 of Queen of Ever (Curse of Fate and Fae #2)
Chapter 27
Tarian
I mogen opened the door on a plain but well-furnished room, which was more than I’d expected for an underground hideout. The floor was a kind of polished stone, the bed a fourposter, draped with tapered blue curtains, and I was satisfied to see it clothed in velvet. At least they’d kept her prisoner in relative comfort.
‘Sit,’ she said, leading me to an armchair. ‘I’ll run the bath. They have plumbing and everything,’ she called over her shoulder as she slipped through a door to an adjoining room. I frowned at the comment. Clearly, this rebel cell had been established here for some time if they had plumbing. What exactly were their objectives? Sometimes groups like this wound up with dreams too big for reality and thought they could overthrow one of the courts. Up until this point, I hadn’t thought this was one of that variety. I’d thought they were just the type of group that wanted to lash out and cause chaos, as evident by the attacks they’d staged, which had been messy and ill-conceived. The exception being in their kidnapping of Imogen. But if they called themselves a court and had a queen to boot, perhaps they were of the more idealistic and therefore dangerous sort. Lesser fae rebellions always ended one way. If they were deluding themselves in thinking otherwise, then I didn’t like to think what their intentions were for Imogen, and I definitely didn’t like the idea of her getting caught up in their fantasies.
After several minutes, Imogen reappeared, and I watched her greedily as she sifted through drawers in dressers. I couldn’t stop looking at her. I wanted to imprint her image in my mind, keep it there in perfect condition for me to see when I closed my eyes. There was this razor-edge of fear gnawing on me, fear that my time with her was finite. It made me tense as I sat in my chair.
She straightened with a frustrated huff, closing the drawer she’d been rummaging through in the bedside table. ‘I can’t find anything that will fit you.’
I laughed, finally realising what she’d been about. ‘I didn’t expect that you would.’
‘You can’t just get back into your dirty clothes after a bath.’
I rose from my chair, going to her. ‘I had no plans for getting dressed again. Don’t worry about me, Imogen. Sit.’
She twisted her mouth but did as she was told, dropping onto the bed. I knelt before her and carefully removed each of her shoes. Ran my hands up her calves, enjoying the way her legs looked in the supple leather pants, caressing the backs of her thighs. She threaded her fingers through my hair as I gazed up at her. It felt like looking up at the night sky, looking at her. The wonder and whirl of it. The spray of glittering stars. And here I was at her feet, like she was the altar at which I would eternally kneel. At which I would gladly kneel. I was almost giddy with the rush of it, of touching her, of having her safe with me. I’d been terrified that something would happen to her when she was taken. That terror still fluttered beneath my skin, in my chest.
‘Why are you looking at me like that?’ she asked, running the backs of her fingers over my cheek. ‘You look so lost. Like you’re afraid I’m going to disappear again.’
‘I keep getting these glimpses of what happy could be with you,’ I murmured, the words getting stuck in my throat. ‘And then you’re snatched away.’
‘I’m safe here,’ she said resolutely. ‘We’re safe here. I promise. I trust them.’
‘You trust more liberally than I like.’
‘Which is a good thing, or I might still be running from you.’
‘Haven’t you learnt by now that running doesn’t mean you get away?’
I slid my hands higher up her legs, gently parting them so I could be closer as I turned my head, pressed a kiss to her palm, her wrist. Lifted her shirt. She raised her arms, letting me slip it off her, and I left it discarded on the floor. I kissed the smooth skin below her naval and listened to her breath stutter. ‘You promise I’m not about to find any injuries? It would be better to pre-warn me.’
She huffed a soft laugh. ‘I’m aware. You don’t have to keep asking. I promise you won’t find anything else.’
I slowly kissed my way up her stomach and when I reached her bra, she bent down and tilted my mouth to hers. My fingers found the clasp at her back, unhooking it, following the straps off her shoulders, down her arms, moving to caress the curves of her breasts, savouring the sound she made against my mouth as I traced the tightened peaks of them.
I drew back, dropping my hand to the buttons of her pants. ‘I like these,’ I said, unfastening them. ‘I don’t like that anyone else saw you in them though.’
‘Why not?’ Her eyes were so dark, lids hooded as she watched me pull down the zip.
‘They’re very tight. It’s too easy to imagine what your bare legs look like.’
‘No one has been imaging what my bare legs look like,’ she protested as I drew the pants down her hips.
‘I was.’
She bit her lip through a smile, leaned back on her elbows as I freed her legs and let the leather join the rest of her clothes on the floor. ‘Well, you’re a fiend.’
‘A fiend who wants the image of you like this all to myself.’ I paused to take her in, devouring the way she looked up at me through her lashes, one leg hitched up on the mattress and a wicked gleam in her eyes, like she was doing something she shouldn’t.
‘You’re the one who’s covered in muck. Why am I the one almost naked?’ She pushed herself up, took hold of my shirt. ‘Take this off.’ I did as I was told, and she ran her hands up my stomach, over my arms, before rising to her feet. ‘Come on.’
I watched her walk into the adjoining room in nothing but her underwear, my gaze running down the planes of her back, clinging to the sway of her hips, before discarding my pants and following her. She was already below the waterline, swirling her fingers through the sudsy water as she watched me through the steam.
I lowered myself into the tub, sinking below the milky waterline, the heat easing the tension I’d been carrying since she’d been taken. I watched her as she drifted towards me, ran fingers up the slippery skin of her legs, feeling almost wary of her and the way terror had eaten me up when she’d been taken. Wary of what I would have done to get her back if the rebels hadn’t been willing to give her up. Wary of that aching warmth that filled my chest when I looked at her.
‘What’s wrong?’ she asked, hands sliding up my arms.
‘I’m just thinking about how dangerous you are,’ I said, caressing the insides of her thighs.
An impish smile pulled at her mouth. ‘Dangerous?’
‘Wholly treacherous.’ Hooking my hands around her thighs, I drew her closer. ‘With just a crook of your finger, you’ve lured me into a rebel hideout and thrown me off my guard.’
‘That’s all it takes? A crook of my finger and you’ll do whatever I want?’
‘Doing it while naked doesn’t hurt. I’d do just about anything for you while you’re looking like this.’
‘So I can order you around all I like? Maybe I should test this power out.’ A light blush warmed her cheeks that had nothing to do with the water and her teeth sank into her lip as she contemplated her next move. She was learning to be bold with me, which I found divinely exciting. ‘What if I told you to touch me?’ she finally asked, her voice soft.
‘I’d ask you where,’ I said. ‘And be very specific.’
She took my hand, guided it up her slippery stomach, splayed my fingers over her breast. ‘Here.’ I ran my thumb over her nipple as she found my other hand, drew it up her thigh, dipped it between her legs. ‘Here.’ This time, the word came out breathy, her back arching as I stroked at her, slipping a finger inside her when she let out a quiet cry. The steam curled around her, flushing her cheeks as I watched her fluttering eyelids, fixated by the way she took her bottom lip between her teeth as she pressed into my hand, fingers digging into my shoulders.
‘Like this?’
‘Yes.’
I leaned in to kiss her chest, to lick the hollow at the base of her throat as her breathing quickened. ‘What else?’
Her hands were skating down my chest, reaching below the water to glide over my stomach and then lower still. She traced her fingers down the length of my cock, igniting white sparks of pleasure as she shifted closer, taking hold of me.
I gripped her hips, stilling her. ‘Use your words. I can’t obey you if I don’t know what you want.’
I fucking loved the way she licked her lips as she thought about what to say next, loved the struggle between her inhibitions and her desires. Revelled in coaxing her beyond all those little points of resistance that kept her from being exactly who she was and demanding exactly what she needed. I prized most the little flicker of thrill that gleamed in her eyes right before she said something dirty.
‘I want you inside me.’
I hooked my hands beneath her knees, drawing her in closer, spread her wider. ‘You want me to fuck you?’
‘Yes.’
She gasped as I lifted her onto me, slid into her until our bodies were flush against each other.
She kissed me as she began to move against me, her tongue tangling with mine, gripping me hard. The water began to slosh around us, pouring over the edge of the tub to splash to the floor, but she didn’t seem to notice, and I didn’t care, because my hands were gripping her hair, holding her in place as I kissed my way down the curve of her neck, drunk on the way the water made her skin smell. I wanted to collect every sound she made as she ground against me and keep them, so I could look back and know I made her moan like that.
I dropped my hands to her ass when the tension began to build and coil, holding her still. ‘Slowly,’ I murmured.
‘I thought we were supposed to be doing what I want.’
I dropped a hand between our bodies. ‘Do you want this?’ I asked, caressing her clit.
‘Yes.’ She whimpered, biting her lip, shifting her hips.
‘Then I’m still obeying the rules.’ The way she chased movement was fucking enthralling, rocking against me even as I held her still, her breathing coming in shallow gasps, snapping each strand of my self-control as need stole through every muscle in my body. Because I needed to own her like that. And when she tightened around my cock, coming apart with her back arched and her legs trembling and her lips parted in a wordless cry, I finally gave in. She was still flickering when I turned us until she was clutching the side of the tub and I was behind her, face buried in her neck.
‘Now I want you to do that again,’ I murmured. I sank into her, pulling her hips tight against me, and she moaned, eyes closed, knuckles white as she gripped the porcelain. She was so tight and the way her back arched made me want to bite her and then my hand was winding round her, seeking out that place between her legs that would make her whisper fuck, fuck, fuck as I drove into her, chasing that exquisite promise of release while trying not to reach it. Because I really wanted her to orgasm again, wanted to feel her as she came apart again with my cock inside her. She was trembling and threaded taught and if I strummed her just right, I’d get to watch her, feel her, shatter.
She cried out again as her second climax struck, and the last of my control snapped. With a groan, I erupted, buried deep in her, holding her still as shards of euphoria tore through me, curling around her, mouth to her neck, breathing in the smell of her hair, completely and utterly losing myself to her.
We slumped back down into the water, limp and panting. Imogen turned around to lean her back against the tub and consider me with eyes still slightly glazed. ‘They are going to wonder why there’s water all over the floor.’
‘I don’t think it’d take long to figure it out,’ I said, a smirk twisting my lips.
‘Well, that’s a bit awkward.’
‘Doesn’t bother me. I’d rather everyone know how thoroughly and completely mine you are.’
She shook her head, though the smile at her mouth revealed she was more pleased by that than she’d own to. She rose and tried to climb out of the tub but failed, sliding back down.
‘My legs don’t seem to be cooperating,’ she laughed.
Climbing out myself, I scooped her up. She shrieked, flinging her arms around my neck, but she relaxed when I kissed her.
‘ Now I’m going to check over every inch of you,’ I said.