Page 26 of The Princesses of Ruin (The Princesses of Ruin #5)

Chapter twenty-four

Adrik

I pull Emillia into the tent and kneel before her. When I look up there’s hunger in her eyes, matched only by reluctance. The expression on her face is one of pain.

“It’s just your boots,” I say, grabbing her left foot.

Her hand comes to my head for stability. She runs her nails through my hair, and I sigh, relishing the scrape of them. I’ve never felt something so right, and so necessary. I work the laces as she caresses my temple down to my jaw. She grabs my chin and turns my head to meet her gaze again.

Her eyes are severe, a pinch of anger in her brows. “Don’t. Get. Attached. ”

I swallow my plea for her to let me love her. She’ll think me pathetic and this night won’t happen. But if I can show her how good I can be, that I can fill her needs, she’ll want me the way I want her. Need me how I need her.

I slide her foot from her boot and place it on my knee. “I won’t.”

Not any more than I already am, however much that is.

I press my fingers into the arch of her foot in circular motions. Her hand grips my shoulder and she groans, bending slightly at the knees .

“Bad?” I ask.

“So good. Please…”

She trails off and doesn’t say more, so I continue. I work my way up to the ball of her foot and then squeeze her toes softly with one hand, while the other massages her heel. Her fingers dig into my shoulder, and the sensation of her anchoring herself to me is better than any other.

I keep my attention split; most of it on massaging Emillia’s foot, but a portion focused on the fire and keeping it in check.

I dug down and made a ring of stones to help contain the wandering embers, but a few have already escaped.

I snuffed them with a burst of cold before anything could catch, but the concern is still there.

I wouldn’t want to burn our tent down mid… mid wherever we get to tonight.

She takes off her coat, throwing it aside and drawing my eyes up to her chest. Her fingers pop the buttons on her thick vest one by one, and I’m entranced.

I hardly know what my hands are doing as I get lost in the motions of this goddess undressing for me.

She stops when she reaches her thin, tight undershirt.

It clings to her skin like a lusty embrace, revealing the peaks of her nipples but not their color.

Her breasts are full teardrop shapes, bulging at the bottom to create a delicious crease I want to run my tongue along.

She arches an eyebrow at me, and I realize my hands have stopped their massage.

I put her foot on the ground and unlace the other boot.

She watches me with feral impatience, like a bear that knows it’s about to eat.

She licks her bottom lip into her mouth and bites down as I place her right foot on my knee.

I stare up at her, watching every micro expression on her face as I work out the aches of the day.

Her eyes trace my mouth, my throat, then up to my hair as she runs a hand through it.

She’s learning my features and craving them.

I’ll let her drink me in, need me, and then I’ll let her take what she wants.

Instinct moves my hands to her legs when I finish with her right foot.

I follow the flow of her curves up to her trousers.

I unbuckle her belt and pull on her pants, my gaze still locked on her face.

The reluctance in her eyes gives me pause, but the tightness in my chest is assuaged when she takes a hand from my shoulder to help me.

I draw the pants down her legs and let my eyes wander. She’s tanned and scarred. Some scars are deep and long, others shallow nicks, some new, but most old. There’s one on her knee that looks to be the oldest of all. It’s rough, and patchy, like she tripped on stones while running as a child.

My cheeks flush with heat and I lean forward, placing my lips on the mark. She sucks in a gasp and her legs lock together.

“Adrik.”

My name whispered from her lips is the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard.

I look up the expanse of her body to her eyes and speak the mother tongue. “ What is it, my goddess? ”

A smile quirks the corner of her mouth. “You know I speak Seterian, right?”

“ It’s not going to stop me from worshipping you. ”

I grab her knees and pull them gently, asking her not to hide from me. Her legs relax and she sighs, watching me with guarded desire. I kiss her knee again, then move on to the next scar. Each raised mark is unique and beautiful, a story for me to trace with my mouth.

She fists my hair, whispering curses of increasing severity the closer I get to her center. Blood throbs in my cock at the sound of her need. My nose drifts across the hair of her core as I switch legs, and I take a moment to breathe in her scent .

I’ve heard men describe women’s nethers as a bouquet of flowers, sweet as honey, and fine like wine. While I wouldn’t ever equate her scent to flora or food, it is intoxicating. It’s meaty, and tart. It makes my mouth water.

“Adrik.” She says my name in panic and I stop, pulling back.

Her eyes are red, unshed tears wetting her lashes. “I don’t love you.”

The admission is a small pain, but an honest one.

I plant a kiss on her pubic mound, my gaze locked on hers. Her chest heaves as her eyes glisten.

“I’m not asking you to,” I say. “I’m not asking anything of you.”

She grits her jaw when she smiles. “You won’t come running down the dock screaming my name and begging for me to stay?”

I pull back, my brow scrunched playfully. “That sounds like it’s happened many times. Should I be concerned? Are you a secret siren?”

She giggles and a teardrop slips from her lashes onto my face. The sound is not a laugh like all the times before, but a delicate thing that’s soft and just for me.

She thumbs away the drop on my cheek. “It’s said there’s selkie in the Wol royal line…”

I kiss the smooth bit of her inner thigh and hum in interest.

She huffs out a heady breath, holding onto me tighter. My hands rove up her hamstrings to her rear. The tight muscle under her scars brings more blood to my groin.

“My singing voice is quite good,” she says, the tension melting from her body as I kiss my way back to my destination.

“Now I’ll need a song,” I say, my breath raising goosebumps on her skin .

Her voice is raspy. “I thought you weren’t asking anything from me?”

“Just this one thing.”

I lean into her, lifting her leg to rest on my shoulder as I cup her ass.

She gasps, gripping my hair to the point of pain.

I groan and turn my face into the smooth expanse of her thigh.

I want to feast on her. Bite her. Mark and claim her.

Devour her in every way until she’s just mine and everything there was, or will be, is gone.

“I can’t give you what you want,” she whispers.

I shake my head against her leg, rubbing my nose across her thigh in painterly strokes. “Yes, you can. You can , but you don’t have to.”

My teeth graze her dark skin in a gentle nip, and I look up at her. Her throat works as uncertainty returns to her eyes.

“ You don’t have to love me. Just let me love you. ”

Her shoulders fall and a pitying look pinches her brow. She loosens her hold on my hair and her other hand cups my cheek.

“Adrik…”

“ I’ll never ask for more than you can give. ”

“How is that fair?”

“ Life isn’t fair, my goddess. ”

She bites her lip and tears well behind her dark lashes once more.

I kiss her leg tenderly. “ Show me how you need to be loved. ”

Teach me how to be worthy of your affection. I’ll earn it.

My kiss turns into a soft bite and her nails prick my scalp.

“ Show me. Guide me. ”

The hand cupping my cheek moves to my chin and she pulls me to her center. Her breasts thump in time with her heartbeat. Anticipation has my mouth watering. I lick my lips, and she parts hers. Her grip on my hair remains constant: no pull, no push.

“Look,” she says, her cheeks flushing.

I drop my gaze to her exposed pussy and swallow my ravenous hunger.

Look , she said. Not touch. I know how to play by these rules.

She spreads her fingers wider, showing me all her beauty.

Her clit is plump and swollen, begging for attention, but I keep inspecting.

I trace the lines of her inner folds down to her glistening opening.

The urge to push my tongue inside her is almost too great, but the firm grip on my hair reminds me that I’ve asked her to show me how to love her, and that she’s in control.

Just the way I want.

I look up at her. “ What now, my goddess? ”

“Taste,” she whispers. “Gently.”

She guides me closer, and I tilt my head to watch her face as I kiss her core for the first time.

My tongue touches her opening, and I flatten it down, covering as much of her as I can.

Her eyelids flutter shut as I give a slow drag up her center to her clit.

The taste of her has my cock aching painfully, but both of my hands are occupied, and so it’ll stay right where it is, pinned against my thigh.

I complete my first taste and she pulls me back, her eyes locking on mine as I come out from under her. Her shoulders heave as she assesses me, her gaze darting down to my mouth, then back to my eyes.

“Now, eat.”

Finally .

I dive into her with a groan, pushing my tongue into her opening. Emillia yelps, her hand clutching my shoulder for support as her knee buckles. I drag her flavor up to her clit with another flat tongue, then tighten the tip to a hard point that I flick over her, side to side.

She whispers a curse to the gods and I can’t help but smile as I work, repeating the process.

Down to her opening, spear inside and curl.

Flatten my tongue so that covers her entirely and glide up to her clit.

Finally, sharp, precise flicks against it for several seconds.

Again and again, I repeat the process meticulously, thoroughly, until she’s moaning with abandon.

Her knee buckles again. “Down,” she cries. “Lie down.”

I press her hard against my face as I pull her to the ground with me, untucking my legs as I go.

Her knees dig into the bedroll beside my head, and I stare up at her while I feast. She moans, spreading her thighs wider so she can sink down on me farther.

The pressure of her pussy grinding against my face is almost enough to make me come.

She grabs one of my hands and pulls it up her stomach and under her shirt, inviting me to touch. I graze the underside of her breast and groan at the softness of her skin. She pulls on my wrist, placing my fingers over her stiff nipple.

“Pinch,” she demands, and I do as I’m told.

I want to start gently, but the roughness of her thrusts on my nose and mouth drives me to reciprocate the same to her. She keens, her thighs trembling against my ears. I hold her ass in my other hand, bucking mindlessly as we drive her toward orgasm.

“Adrik, look at me,” she moans.

I hadn’t realized I’d closed my eyes. When I open them, the sight of her face contorted in pleasure makes my aching cock flex. She sucks down a deep gasp, her mouth falling open. She grips my wrist tighter, begging with her eyes, yearning for that tumble into the deep abyss of pleasure.

I groan like a beast and flatten my tongue for her to ride.

“Oh, fuck!” She falls forward, her hips coming off my chest. I pull her back down, grinding her against me until I feel her muscles tighten in fluttering waves. She screams, writhing and flexing and—

Fuck.

I’m coming.