Page 112 of The Ever King

Livia tugged my trousers down a little more until she had a firm grip on my hard shaft. Her eyes widened with curiosity and heady want as she dragged her thumb over the smooth skin and explored from root to tip.

“Show me,” she whispered. I barely heard; my head was too lost in a fog. “Show me how to do it.”

Her fingers were silk. They’d brought me to the point of pain if I didn’t release soon. Still, the innocent sincerity in her blue eyes brought my hand around hers. I squeezed until her palm added more pressure. I covered her hand as I guided her in slow, long strokes to the tip.

Her thumb brushed over the sensitive crown and I had to brace on the wall when my leg threatened to give out. “Dammit. There, right there.Gods.”

“If I cry your name,” she whispered against my lips. “Then you better shout mine, you bastard.”

This woman.

I bit down on her shoulder. Livia sucked in a sharp breath when the point of my tooth snagged her skin. I licked away the droplet of blood and she repaid me by adding her other hand to create an endless stroke on my stiff cock.

“Livia,” I let her name slide over my tongue like liquid gold. Heat gathered too low. “I’m . . .shit!”

Hot, white ropes spilled onto her fingers when the release claimed me from the back of my skull to the pit of my gut. My head fell back against the wall as she stroked and pumped the last drops without a hint of shame.

The rich blue of her eyes was black when she pulled away, gaze locked on mine. The smallest curl of a grin played at her mouth. I couldn’t catch a breath before Livia lifted her coated fingers to her mouth, then licked what was left of me off her skin.

My mouth parted. I knew she had little experience, but I’d never seen anything more intoxicating, moreseductive.

I curled a palm behind her neck, pulling her close. “Get in my bed.”

Livia grinned like she’d won some grand victory and backstepped toward the bedchamber.

A knock came to the door. “Highness, are you in there?”

“Leave,” I barked.

“My King—”

I was going to murder whoever was outside my door. “Leave. Now.”

“Forgive me, My King, but you’ve received a missive. We believe it to be from another house lord.”

Dammit. It could be from Gavyn. He was readying to barricade Livia’s people from ever finding her, and all I could think about was pressing her body against mine and having those beautiful legs wrapped around my waist. I was a bastard.

“Go.” I pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “I’ll get rid of them. I did warn you this happens the moment I enter the palace.”

“Yes.” She folded her arms over her chest. “And I told you I was willing to get sand up my ass.”

Without a word, she spun around and closed the door to the bedchamber.

I knew little about love. Distant memories of a beautiful mother who told me she loved me each day, but everyone else looked at me with fear or disdain. I had a blackened heart, one driven by power and restoring a shattered kingdom, but in this moment, whatever jagged pieces I had to give, I wanted them to be Livia’s.

Bring my destruction. Ruin the kingdom from my weakness, but perhaps this was the emotion Livia mentioned—where empires and worlds didn’t matter so long as she lived. Preferably in my arms.

Mutely, I tucked my half-hard cock back into my trousers and practically ripped the door open. “What the hells do—”

A steel bolt skewered the air. I’d been trained well enough to be swift, always expecting someone to be preparing to slit my throat. Blade in hand in another instant, I rushed into the corridor as a man donned in black scrambled to escape through one of the windows.

My blade was rammed through his shoulder in the next breath. He roared his pain as I tore back the black fabric shielding his face. Young, strong, with eyes like a violent storm.

“Not the cleverest attempt at assassination.” I sneered, twisting the hilt of the dagger. He gritted his teeth and puffed out brisk air to keep from roaring his pain. “I’ll make this swift if you talk. Keep quiet, and I have countless ways to draw this out. Tell me what you’re after?”

The bastard laughed. “What will you be without your pet, Bloodsinger?”

It happened too quickly. He maneuvered a slender bit of steel from his sleeve, hand-shaved into a point, and rammed it into the side of his neck.