Page 44 of Waves (Tangled Crowns #6)

Raj

T he following month made me rethink my impromptu decision to give my ring to the queen. Not for any major wishes but because of the constant annoyance. Of course, every time I thought about wrenching her finger off her hand, I made myself sick because I couldn’t even stand the idea of hurting her.

It was something I never would have tolerated before. Never would have even dreamed I wanted. But now that I had this connection with her, I wasn’t giving it up. Not even when she was a hair-pulling annoyance.

Avia summoned me on a whim, each time with more wishes intended to tie my hands so I couldn’t attack her or pepper me with queries to ask how I'd managed to undermine her tournament.

"Who did you work with?" had frustrated her since I'd shrugged.

"A few fools that I didn't bother to learn the names of," was apparently not her desired response.

Another time, I'd appeared in her bedchamber as the full moon brightened the sea all around us as we stood in front of a floor-to-ceiling window. Behind us, in the shadows, I was certain Keelan or Felipe had lurked, but I liked to pretend they didn't exist whenever possible.

That night she'd asked a better question. "Who have you killed since you've been down here?"

Taft hadn't surprised her. Valdez had, though. She'd inhaled, those doe-eyes of hers widening, a strange feeling like a startled bird taking flight rolling through my limbs.

"He didn't betray me then," she murmured.

"He was about to. And I killed him for it."

Her shocked stillness made me grin and lean closer. "I'm a vicious bastard. But I'm your vicious bastard. And I know a secret.” I’d reached out and tucked a loose strand of golden hair behind her ear. “You like it."

Her heartbeat had kicked up faster, undermining the shake of her head, and so I hadn't minded when she'd wished for me to disappear a second later.

I hadn't even minded when I'd been escorted to the dungeons by guards and put into the cell I spent each night in.

Hadn't minded at all, because less than twenty minutes after I left that night, my pulse was racing, and beads of sweat were forming on my brow.

Hadn't minded because my dick was swollen and twice as sensitive as usual—perhaps because two hearts pumped blood through my system.

Or perhaps because I knew that naughty queen up in the castle was panting, thighs spread, her tiny hand flickering over her clit as one of those buffoons tried to please her...and she imagined me instead.

I grinned up at the stone ceiling.

The queen liked my devilry, and she couldn’t hide that fact from me, no matter how she tried. No matter the facade she wore, the good girl persona she had with everyone else didn’t work with me.

My Avia had a penchant for darkness.

And I could feel it. I absorbed it. And then, somehow, it turned into an even hotter blaze that burned between us.

That night, I had the best orgasm I’d had in a millennium because all of Avia’s lust and anger frothed inside of me as her pleasure went on and on and on.

After it was over, I lay there panting, staring up at the stone ceiling in my cell. The pleasure was so intense that there was no way she’d ever give me up—no way I’d let her.

In fact, it gave me an idea…and less than an hour later, I tried to recreate the lusty sensations—stroking my shaft with my good hand and imagining her sweet lips were wrapped around it, that her tongue was massaging the underside of my dick.

Slowly and steadily, I built up my pleasure until my hips were bucking up into my hand and I found sweet release.

Then I did it again.

The third time, I didn’t go slowly, but quickly brought myself over the edge, eager to test my theory.

The fourth time was the charm.

Right after I finished, panting, and stared at the semen stringing through the water above me, my cell door swung open. My queen stood in the doorway, arms crossed, fury wrought across her expression.

Her silk night dress did little to hide her stiff nipples and while I let my eyes graze over her figure once, the thrill going through me was far more than sensual.

I leisurely tucked my dick away in my pants so that she’d be forced to watch, and then slowly sat up.

“Yes, my queen?”

Her lips pressed together, and I saw the debate unfolding inside her head—what to say and what to withhold. A tight feeling entered my chest, and I realized that she was anxious beneath her fury. Scared.

Of me.

I adored that I sensed her fear. And it wasn’t the way I’d adored fear in the past. In the past, other people’s fear had sparked my sense of victory. Superiority. But this?

This was more.

Avia’s fear was like a precious gem. A tiny treasure to clutch close to my chest.

It was something true in a world full of lies.

Standing, I walked slowly forward to avoid frightening my little gazelle.

Her violet eyes lifted, and she planted her feet, refusing to back away even when I came close enough for our feet to touch. I was still inside the cell, but I’d never felt so free.

“I realized something tonight.” I spoke softly and slowly as my gaze traced over her lips. So soft. Hardly parted. The current wisping in and out as she breathed.

“That you’re a prick?”

“That you can feel when I touch my prick,” I countered with a dirty grin, trying to disarm her.

She tried to keep her expression flat, but a tiny grimace marred that amazing mouth for just a moment, and I experienced her heart settling.

Satisfaction rolled through me with so much force that I nearly purred.

“Did you know…in all my existence…I’ve never been able to trust anyone.

” I let that thought linger for a moment, marinating the water around us.

“My parents sold me at eight. My master tried to kill me on numerous occasions. My sons would have slit my throat at the drop of a hat. If I hadn’t stolen the wishes of millions, they would have risen against me.

Trust has never been an option. Never been a reality. Not until now.”

Her derisive snort was expected. “You’re a fool if you think you can trust me.”

“I can feel everything you feel.” I lifted my mutilated hand and tapped my own chest. “And the fact that you’re down here right now means you can feel everything I feel too.”

This time Avia was able to keep her face stoic, but her heart started racing inside my chest.

“Look. Feel.” I reached for her hand, surprised when she let me lift it and place it over my own bare chest. With my hand atop hers we listened to our joint heartbeats for a minute.

Neither slowed nor calmed. In fact, they both seemed to grasp the depth of this moment.

The absolute magic that her spell had wrought as our two hearts sped up until their beats blended into a single, solitary drum.

“There is no lying. No hiding. It’s not possible,” I whispered against her silky hair. “And I absolutely love it.”

She leaned back then, eyes studying me, hand still over my heart as if she was trying to detect a lie. I waited, patiently, letting her slowly come to accept our reality.

When she swallowed hard and her tongue darted out to swipe at her lips, I knew she’d recognized the truth.

But then her eyes darted down the hall, the flickering light of a mounted purple torch dancing across her delicate neck as she swallowed hard.

As she blinked and those sooty eyelashes hid her gaze.

“My power is supposed to kill my emotions. The cost of my magic is supposed to turn me into a monster. Cruel. Soulless. Killing.” With each word her tone sank, grew more morose.

I reached out and took her hand from where it lingered on my chest. Slowly, I lifted her fingers to my lips and kissed her knuckles. “Well, every wish has a workaround. What if the price of your magic does too?”

That drew her eyes back to me.

“What if you circumvented the price by giving your heart to a monster?”

Her brow furrowed and she started to shake her head.

“Do you feel any changes? Since using your magic?”

“Fury and power…but…” she whispered the next bit. “I think that might just be me.”

I nodded at her vague acknowledgement of the shadows within us all. Of her own underbelly. But even with those pale gray shadows, this woman was my light.

“I’ve been dead inside for hundreds of years, Avia.

Inhuman as they come. But it’s as if you’ve woken me from the grave.

” The words are darker and come out with a solemn intensity that I didn’t intend, but one that nevertheless rings true.

“I have your heart. And maybe you need me to have it. Maybe with me, you won’t be a monster, because your heart’s already within one. ”

Hope flared in her eyes for a second before she doused it. “Or maybe you’re trying to manipulate me into doing what you want.”

“Am I?” My nostrils flared defensively as I rubbed my thumb across the blank band encircling her finger. “When you can wish away slivers of my free will at any moment? Remember, you have a failsafe. You could simply wish to keep your humanity.”

That made her stop and think.

“Who has all the power here, Avia?” I asked.

I sensed the burning flare of her confidence before she turned on the full, blazing look in her gaze. But when she did, she burned like the sun. And I could feel the heat, the life of her, phosphorescent within me.

Then I couldn’t help myself. The warrior-maiden expression on her face spurred me to lean down and plant a kiss along her cheek.

A gentle, worshipful peck that made my pulse soar, my skin grow hot, pants grow tight all over again.

It was supposed to simply be a promise, a pledge, a quick brush… but then she turned her head.

Avia turned her head and those lips of hers sealed against mine.

The earth fractured beneath our feet and lava roared up—that was how hot the room suddenly got.

How much the oxygen in the room simply disappeared.

How my thoughts and intentions melted into glowing, warm sensations that burned away all common sense.

It was a natural disaster of a kiss. A life-altering moment.

I’d kissed Avia once before.

Once when I’d been lost in grief and unaware of our connection.

Floating outside my own body and my own head. Not present. Then, I’d thought the kiss was bland and forgettable but…

That wasn’t the case now. I felt every inch of her. Each movement of her lips. The gentle catch in her breath. My hands came to her hips, and I tilted my head, deepening the kiss.

She stepped into it, pressing against me. Her hands slid up around my neck instinctively, pulling me closer, letting me surround her and protect her.

It was everything.

And when she ripped herself away, pulled back and lifted a startled hand to her lips, staring at me—aghast—because she knew it was everything too. Because my heart had never beat with such intense longing.

Blinking rapidly, my queen left without a word.

But she forgot to call the guards to lock me in.

I trailed back over to my bed casually anyway, because I was determined to make my queen acknowledge my rightful place at her side. But she would never do it if I pushed too hard or too fast. I needed patience, something I’d always prided myself on.

I groaned as I leaned back against my pillow and threw an arm across my face. Patience had never been this difficult.

Of course, I’d never wanted anything this much.