Page 56

Chapter fifty-four

T rust. Dimitri knew better than to linger on such soft and fragile emotions, but love… It was elusive and dangerous. Catastrophic and blinding.

By the blood, he wanted it.

Craved it.

His lips met Astrid’s again. A whispered promise strung with rotted lies. He knew his little wife didn’t love him. Knew she kept him close like the daggers decorating her flowing black hair.

But his neva wanted him. She might never admit it, but he had an eternity to shape her desire into love.

“Trust flows both ways, Princess,” Dimitri murmured before pulling away from her. “Why am I leaving?”

Astrid studied him and he wondered if she scrutinized her prisoners the same way—while she decided which parts to cut off first.

“I have plots in motion,” she said finally.

Malice enveloped his heart. “There is nowhere, in all of the kingdoms, where I won’t come for you.”

He expected her to fight him. To leave. He imagined crushing that slender throat beneath the cage of his hand.

Instead, she squeezed her thighs over him, inching closer. “I am destined for the Serpents’ Crown and you, dear husband, will rule beside me.”

A truth and a lie—but a truth he wanted more than anything.

A vicious female who could never be taken from him.

“Will we have winged heirs?” he asked, painting his imagined future with her.

“That will be a bargain. One you’ll have to strike centuries from now.”

Because she didn’t really want him.

Astrid touched two fingers under his chin and lifted his face. She smiled at him, her midnight gaze glittering with amusement.

“Don’t look so disappointed,” she teased. “Our reign will last an eternity. Or were you planning on dying, my lord?”

“Death and I are old friends.” But she hadn’t answered his question. Her words danced around the subject. She dangled things she valued in front of him, which gave him a glimpse of what she wanted.

She coveted her crown, her kingdom, and her Death Spirit weapon.

Dimitri wished he could see into his neva’s mind. He would give her all those things and lay the stars at her feet, if she truly wanted him.

“If I’m to trust you won’t leave me, then you’re plotting to free your mother,” he said simply.

Astrid’s eyes widened momentarily, and she hid her reaction, leaning closer. Her forehead touched his and he drank in her affection.

It was a lie. A charade to push him away from her mother. And he didn’t care.

“You could have asked me,” he murmured into her hair.

Her shoulders tensed and she pulled away. His wife met his stare, and there he found rancor glittering within the depths of her midnight eyes.

“I did,” she bit out.

By the blood, her rage made his cock hard. “Ask me nicely,” he purred.

Her eyes held their maniacal luster, but her voice sweetened and turned pleasant. “Dimitri, please kill the guards and escort my mother to Clorea.”

“And ruin months of planning for you?”

Astrid snatched a tapered, golden stick from her hair. She unsheathed it and had the point biting into his throat before he could stop her.

“I’m going to skewer your organs and hang them over our bed,” she hissed.

“You say such sweet things, neva,” Dimitri said. He leaned into her, ignoring the stiletto slicing into his throat. The tension on his neck subsided and Dimitri smiled, tasting her lips. “I’ll leave the day after I receive my target.”

Astrid started to protest, and he quelled her with a second kiss. “I’ve never left the day he’s given me a target and I’m not starting now.”

Dimitri lifted her against him as he stood and gently set her on her feet. “Strip. Unless you want me to rip that dress off you.”

The edges of her eyes tensed, and his little wife hid her aversion to orders. When she unlatched her corset, Dimitri began undressing. He folded his clothes along with her dress before placing them in the hamper.

Astrid watched him from their bed. Her gaze left his face to linger on his chest, before roaming lower. He chuckled and opened the nightstand drawer, retrieving their suede box.

“Are you coming to bed?” she asked as he strolled passed her.

He placed the box on his desk, flipping the lid open as he took a seat. Astrid studied him but made no move to leave their bed.

“Join me, wife,” he purred, lifting a delicate gold chain.

Astrid sauntered toward him. Her midnight gaze never left the gold dangling from his fingertips. “Another bracelet, my lord?”

He took her hand and guided her to straddle him. Astrid climbed onto his lap and sat back on his knees. The corner of his mouth lifted into a smirk as he pulled her flush against him. She startled but recovered quickly. She should know he wouldn’t allow her to be so far from him.

Dimitri leaned closer, trailing his lips along the point of her ear. He took her hands and crossed them behind her back before murmuring, “This gold isn’t for you to wear.”

He threaded the chain through her bracelets and clasped the link.

Astrid twisted in her bindings and eyes found his. “Dimitri.”

“Yes,” he answered, softly stroking the backs of his fingers between the swell of her breasts.

“Untie me,” she breathed, leaning into his touch.

Dimitri palmed her soft curves, pinching her nipple until her breath shook. “You’re mine, neva, and I want you tied,” he said, tugging on her tight peak before kissing the hurt.

He opened the tin of lube and dragged his index and middle finger through it.

Astrid shifted against him, following his hand then meeting his gaze when he reached behind her.

She leaned in, meeting his lips in a soft kiss.

Dimitri groaned as she opened for him. Her tongue swept over his and he smiled against her lips.

Affection consumed him but nothing would save her from what he’d planned. His wife broke their kiss as he reached lower, liberally coating her ass as he circled it without penetrating her.

“You’re going to ride my cock while I use our toys to fuck you here. I’ll stop when you’ve made me come,” he said, nipping her bottom lip. “Or you beg for my cock in your ass.”

Astrid stood on her knees and twisted away, causing the head of his cock to slide against the soft heat of her pussy. Dimitri groaned low in his throat.

“I’d rather have you tied,” she whispered, lowering herself onto his cock. The heat of her cunt squeezed the head and she rocked her hips, taking him deeper.

“You have nothing that could hold me,” Dimitri rasped.

“I have my words,” she said, rising off his length before lowering again. “If I asked you to hold your wrists behind your back, would you?”

Dimitri spread the remaining lubricant over the metal replica of his cock and caged her in his arms. “If you were my wife in more than just name, I would obey every syllable.”

Astrid rose to her knees, molding her breasts against him in her shortsighted means of escape.

“Take it, neva,” Dimitri said at her throat. “I’ll work it in slow before I fuck you with it.”

His little wife shifted against him, caught between the chair and his arms. He applied more pressure and Astrid moaned as the tip sank into her.

“I can scent how wet you’re getting for me.

You don’t need to pretend you don’t like this,” he said as he worked another inch into her. “You’re allowed your pleasure, wife.”

He kissed her throat as she panted, grazing his teeth over her pulse. He fucked her ass with the tip, and it wasn’t long before Astrid tentatively rocked her hips. She took his cock and the toy a little deeper.

“Good girl. Take it for me.”

Astrid rose and fell on his cock taking the toy deeper as her breaths turned shallow. She leaned back and Dimitri lowered his head, sucking on her tight nipple.

Her body tremored and she went still with a strangled cry on her lips. Her cunt rhythmically squeezed him, and Dimitri lifted his head.

“You’re riding me too slow, neva,” he said, savoring the salt of her perspiration. “Do you need to be reminded of how I fuck you?”

He withdrew the length of metal and thrust it back in.

“Dimitri, it’s too much,” Astrid cried, arching her back.

He stroked into her ass harder and whispered, “Take it.”

“Dimitri!”

“Come for me. I want to feel your cunt squeeze my cock.” His shadows engulfed her, and the honeyed taste of her soul crested his tongue. And something else. Notes of warmth, but not the heat of her temper.

Astrid came with a scream and his focus shifted to her. He continued his harsh rhythm, grating, “Give me one more.”

“Dimitri, please, it’s too much,” she cried.

“One more and I’ll fuck you slow the rest of the day.”

“You’ll fuck my cunt slow for the rest of the day,” Astrid clarified. “Is it a bargain?”

“A bargain,” he promised.

Astrid moved with his shadows, frantically meeting his strokes. Her lips met his in a desperate kiss. The taste of her, the heat of her body, her scent of wildflowers and honey—all of it intoxicated him.

Burgeoning pressure rose through his shaft and Dimitri didn’t fight it. He let his head fall back and groaned, “Fuck.”

He came a moment before she did, emptying himself deep inside her. Astrid bit into his shoulder to muffle her screams. Dimitri smiled at the burn and held her close, smoothing his hand over the small of her back.

He wasn’t sure how much time passed but his neva sat up with a moan. He reluctantly loosened his grip and gazed up at her. The blood coloring her full lips, hardened him in an instant.

Her hand closed over the front of his throat.

“No. We have a bargain.” He raised his brows, and she continued, “You’re going to carry me to the shower so we can clean up.

Then, you’re going to lay me on our bed and fuck me slow.

” She leaned into him, kissing him greedily before dragging his lower lip through her teeth. “Slow. The way I like it.”

Dimitri stood, carrying her with him. “Anything, wife.”