Page 27 of The King’s Man (The Kingdom of the Krow #3)

~ DIADRE ~

I’d always told Yilan you could tell a great deal about a man by his kiss. I’d been guilty in the past of judging a fumbler, and slapping an aggressor. But Jann’s kiss was… divine.

Breath shaking, hands gripping, he pulled me into his chest. And instead of the jolt of fear, my body answered his touch with a breathless joy.

A shudder rocked through him and he inhaled sharply, pulling me hard against him, tilting his head and taking the kiss deep. The desperation in him pulled something from deep within me.

I was plastered against him, the heat of his skin burning through his clothing. I found myself wanting to strip down and warm myself at that fire, and the thought shocked me so badly, I pulled out of the kiss. But not out of his arms.

His eyes flew open and something powerful flooded through me, that pulse I’d felt under his skin, but now inside mine.

“Jann…”

The world disappeared . The tent was gone. The distant sound of voices and the rustle and rumble of a camp full of men simply vanished.

There was no sight, but of him. No sound, but his breathing, and his voice. No feeling but utter dismay when his eyes shadowed.

He began to retreat from me, rasping, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”

“No!” I grabbed for his shirt and refused to let him pull away.

Jann froze, his eyes snapping back to mine. His breath shallowed.

I swallowed hard. “Don’t… don’t go anywhere,” I breathed, alarmed at the tingling in my skin, the push.

I ached to have him closer, which made no sense, and every sense in the world.

He stared at me, wide-eyed, as I slipped a hand up to the back of his neck, stretching to cup my hand at his nape and pull him down.

He lowered his head slowly, his breath growing harsher.

But when his nose was an inch from mine and our twin breaths mingled in the air between us, he hesitated. And no amount of pulling forced him closer to me.

“Diadre…” he croaked. “I… I want you. But I cannot… to touch you, to kiss you—”

Something in my chest unfurled at those words. Need exploding within me.

“—but then to stop… I don’t think I’m strong enough. You need to be safe. I can’t… I couldn’t live with myself if I hurt you—”

“I’m not scared of you, Jann. I don’t understand what’s happening. All I know is… I don’t want you to leave me.”

His pupils dilated and his hand slid into my hair, fingers tightening to a fist and pulling against my scalp so that goosebumps washed down my spine. I gasped and he froze again. A trembling wave rippled through him as if he fought himself, deep within.

“Touch me,” he growled. “Put your hands on me. Show me, Diadre. Show me what you want.”

The deep, ragged tear of his voice made my mouth dry. My fingers trembled as I let go of his neck and dropped my hands to his chest first, both of us sucking in sharply when that crackle of energy sang between us. Jann groaned and his eyes half closed.

“You’re going to fucking kill me, Diadre,” he muttered hoarsely.

“No,” I whispered, shaking my head as best I could with his grip in my hair. “That’s not the deal.”

A question rose in his eyes, curiosity with a hint of confusion.

I smiled, but it was shaky. “The deal was, I get your warmth and strength. And you get to feel alive… right?”

His breath rushed out of him, washing over my face. “God, yes.”

“Then…”

He searched my eyes, waiting as I grabbed the two lapels of my jacket. Pop, pop, pop, pop the buttons slid through the well-worn leather. And when the last was unbuttoned, I shrugged off the shoulders and let it drop behind me.

Jann’s eyes darkened and his breathing grew louder.

I almost lost my nerve then.

For one second, the world rushed back in—sunlight on the tent, the thud of running footsteps, distant voices raised. For one breath, I tensed and remembered where I was and why.

But Jann grunted, “No.” He leaned closer, looming over me, filling my vision, his eyes searching mine, back and forth, those worry lines deep in his forehead. “Nothing else. No one else. This is between you and me,” he rasped. “Make your choice, Diadre. I will honor it. I will honor you .”

I bit my lip and with shaking hands, reached for the first button of my shirt.

Jann’s eyes dragged down to where I slipped the top button free, then the next, and the next, and the next, his gaze growing darker and his breathing harsher with every inch of skin revealed. But I didn’t draw the shirt off… yet.

When I grasped the sides of it, but didn’t move, Jann’s eyes snapped back up to mine and he waited.

He fucking waited.

I could feel the steel length of him brushing me with every breath. His entire body trembled with restrained heat. The man wanted me like a starving man wanted food. But he fucking waited.

Poised, a mating bull, straining against the rope, but not breaking free.

With one more shaking breath, I smiled. “Kiss me,” I whispered.

Jann descended on me, but I put my hand up flat, catching his soft lips and stopping him. He froze again, lips on my palm, body quivering, torment in his eyes.

I shook my head, then slowly dropped my hand to my shirt again. “Not there… here,” I breathed, and pulled the linen back to reveal my breasts.

I watched, fascinated, as this towering, mountain of a man, this legendary warrior, and now General of the largest and most powerful nation in the world, let go of my hair and dropped to his knees at my feet.

Groaning like he’d been offered a feast, he opened both hands on my ribs, holding me easily, and pulling me forward as he opened his mouth on my nipple and sucked.

The jolt that sang through me weakened my knees. I threw my arms around his shoulders and sagged into him, arching my back to give him the best access as he laved, and sucked, and teased me with his tongue.

I whimpered when he slowly dragged off that breast, but then sighed and let my head fall back when his hands slid to my back and he pulled me further forward, taking the other breast in his mouth and laving that one too.

The tingling, torturous pleasure of being enveloped in his arms, the warm steel strength of him was intoxicating. He was strong enough and large enough that if he chose to throw me to the ground, I couldn’t do anything about it.

But instead of that sinking, chittering terror I felt around the other men here, I fucking prayed he would.

Then Jann kissed his way to the center of my chest, whispering something I didn’t catch against my skin there, then slowly moved down as he started on the buttons of my leathers.

I leaned into his touch, trembling with anticipation, head rocking back as he kept kissing, open mouthed, tongue teasing, teeth grazing, dipping his tongue in my navel, then tipped his forehead against my chest and whispered through his quick, heavy breathing.

“Tell me, Diadre. Tell me what you want.” His hands had stopped on my buttons, his breathing rushing low against my belly.

Frantic because he’d stopped, I tipped my hips forward, inviting him. He grunted, and placed another kiss on my stomach, but didn’t move further. “Tell me,” he growled.

“You, Jann,” I whispered, pulling up his chin and making him look at me. I was panting with need, my head spinning, but I was clear on one thing: “I want you.”

A deep, resonant groan broke in his throat as he opened his mouth on my breast again, at the same time he tore frantically at my buttons, getting my leathers open and sliding his hands into the waistband and down, calloused palms traveling down my hips, my thighs, almost to my knees before the trousers puddled around my ankles.

Without missing a beat, Jann rasped, “Hold on.”

I gasped when he slipped one thick, steel arm around me and lifted me off my feet, using the other hand to whip my leathers away and toss them aside.

Before I could think, he’d carried me to the bed, but instead of laying me down as I expected, he sat me on its edge.

There was one second when the air went cold because his warmth left me.

He planted that hand he’d used to ground me during the Council on my knee again as he lowered himself to kneel on the ground.

For that moment we were apart, the light, the sound, the world sucked back in and I froze.

What the hell was I thinking? I couldn’t jump into bed in the middle of the day with the man who—

All thought fled when Jann pulled my knees wide, buried his face between my thighs and licked me with his glorious tongue.

I cried out, hips bucking, Burying my fingers in his hair and gripping hard because I’d never felt anything like it.

His tongue was thick. Then he growled, his deep voice vibrating against my most sensitive skin. My head dropped back again and my breath shook on the exhale. Pleasure washed through me in waves that rippled out from where his tongue lapped and flicked and teased and dove.

My body no longer belonged to me. My limbs ceased to listen. I had no control as he pressed and tasted and laved, each lap so quickly driving me closer to the normally elusive release of a climax that I wanted to retreat.

I couldn’t think.

Then, as quickly as the onslaught had begun, chill air washed against that slick skin and I twitched.

“God, the taste of you, Dee.” Jann’s voice was honeyed gravel as his head came up, his hair disheveled and lips glistening, gaze near black with need.

Fingers still in his hair, I sat up straighter, intending to lean down and kiss him, but then he stroked me with a thick, calloused finger, so gently, but insistently, that it felt as if my flesh swelled to meet his touch.

Tingling pleasure radiated from his fingers, raising goosebumps on my thighs and drawing a whimpering sigh from me, sending me back again until I was twitching with each stroke.

“That’s it… that’s it…” he rasped as I tipped back, panting, rolling my hips to meet his stroking, my breath growing shorter as he entered me first with one finger then, groaning, with a second.