A Throne of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales 2)

His hand landed on the top of my butt, and his arm constricted, making me scoot closer still. I threaded a leg between his knees and angled a bit so that our sides were nearly touching. He slanted his face down to mine, his gaze on my lips.

“Like the sounds of her—”

“Me. We’re talking about me.”

“The sounds of someone…” He smiled, and my heart fluttered. “The sounds of you gagging, for a start.”

“I gagged with the blowjob in the wash shed and you didn’t seem to notice.”

He leaned down quickly and captured my lips, sucking before thrusting his tongue in. I moaned into his mouth.

“Fuck,” he breathed, backing off with tightly closed eyes. His entire body tensed, his muscle flaring. His fingertips dug into my back. “I don’t think I’m strong enough for this.”

“It’s okay.” I straightened up and reached around, hooking one arm around his neck and the other hand on his opposite cheek, pulling his face back to me. “I’m getting really sore now. I won’t be trying to swindle sex.”

Eyes still squeezed shut, body taut, he let me pull his face back to mine. “I’ll nurse you when we get back. It’s my turn. I’m going to have to jack off first, though, or I’ll explode.”

“I can do that for you.”

“Please don’t use your teeth,” he whispered, his lips tweaking into a mouth-watering smirk. “You know, it’s considered a challenge when a shifter grabs the throat of another shifter.”

“What kind of challenge?”

“A challenge to the death in most cases. If a male grabbed my throat, I’d kill him, no questions asked,” he growled. “If a female did it, I’d make sure she never thought to do it again. With you…it’s a challenge not to throw you down and fuck the sense out of you.”

The violence in his voice, the malice, was like a delicious caress. I remembered his hard thrusts earlier, pounding into us. Telling us to fight back when it became too much. How glorious it had been when we did.

“That’s a trigger, then, touching your throat?” I let my hand slip down, firmly tracing the line over his Adam’s apple.

His chuckle was dark and promising. “Only you would be turned on by my threats.”

“That didn’t sound like a threat.”

“Only to you, princess. No woman I’ve ever bedded could or would handle me when I’m in a temper.”

“No hate-fucking, then?”

“No. No hate-fucking. Not even with scrappy whores.”

I felt my eyebrows lower dramatically. “Don’t call them that—they are working like anyone else, regardless of the profession they chose, and they should be respected. And don’t mention other women to me again.”

Fire lit in his eyes, and approval came through the bond. “As you command,” he whispered.

I snuck a kiss, then let it deepen as I moved my hand to fully cover his throat.

“I am turned on by that threat,” I whispered.

He shook his head, keeping his mouth close to mine. “My control is firmly in check right now. No rage-fucking. I’ll need to make do with the notes in the book you sent. I like this one much more than the other, by the way. I can picture you on every page.”

“But no horse rides.”

“If there were a horse ride in that book, it would be”—he brought a hand up and kissed his fingers—“perfection.”

“I’m sure you’re just being dramatic.” I let my hand trail down his chest and leaned over and licked one of his nipples. I sucked in softly as I felt the rolling surface of his abs. “Women before the curse—especially noblewomen—were softer than people are now. Reality now doesn’t allow for someone to be that affected by your anger.”

He tilted his head back and laughed.

I frowned at him and sat up, running my palm along the inside of his thigh. He slowly spread his knees, allowing me whatever access I wanted.

“What? It doesn’t,” I said. His smile softened all the harsh lines in his handsome face. “Your staff doesn’t count. They have to fear you—you’re their boss.”

“Women before the curse, especially noblewomen, were some of the most courageous shifters I have ever known. They were not the kind to back down, and yet they still recoiled from my anger.”

I rolled my eyes, very lightly touching his balls. Just a graze of my fingers, knowing they were probably as sore as my vagina. She’d put up the white flag.

“You were their prince. They wanted to please you.”

“What does that have to do with cowering from my anger, or freezing up when even a little rage soaked between the bedsheets?”

I sucked in a labored breath and closed my eyes, my body suddenly pounding to know what it was like to have rage seep into a hard fucking with Nyfain. To have that level of passion and strength slamming into me. His firm grip in my hair. His dominating touch punishing me with his anger. I’d punish him just as thoroughly until we both climaxed in a heap.