CHAPTER EIGHT
INARACOULDN’TTHINKof anywhere she’d rather be than right here, in Cassius’s bed, beneath him, his gaze gone brilliant with hunger and desire, and all for her.
Yes, her.
She’d wondered why he’d kept his distance and, even though she’d shied away from thinking about it, some deep part of her had doubted. Doubted that, despite his lapse in the library at the Queen’s Estate, it hadn’t been about her. That it was just because he hadn’t had a woman in years. That he didn’t really want her after all.
It hadn’t been something she’d wanted to admit even to herself, though, so she’d deliberately pushed it away. The way he’d carried her into his bedroom had relieved her somewhat, but the deeper doubt had remained.
Until he’d given her the truth. She was the reason he’d kept his distance. Not because he didn’t want her, but because he did. Too much.
You make me remember how I used to be.
That admission troubled her, caught at her, made her want to know more. Because there had been something conflicted in his voice, as if remembering who he used to be was a bad thing. As if he wasn’t that person any more and was now someone different.
He is different. He changed when he became king.
He had. He’d become so distant, so...not cold, precisely, but chilly. As if there were oceans between him and everyone else. She’d assumed that was just part of being a king, but maybe it wasn’t. Maybe there was something more to it.
Except it was difficult to think of that now, with him crouched over her like a beast, his brilliant, hungry gaze on hers.
Aftershocks of pleasure still jolted through her. After the intense climax he’d given her with his mouth right there in front of the fire, she’d thought it wasn’t possible to be ready for another so soon. How wrong she was. The way he looked at her, as if he wanted to eat her alive, made her whole body tighten with need and desire.
‘Anything,’ she said thickly, staring up at him, meeting his fierce stare with her own. ‘You can have anything. I promised and I meant it.’
She did mean it. She’d never been so sure of anything in her life. She had no experience whatsoever, not like he did, but that didn’t matter. He’d keep her safe. She knew that on an almost cellular level. There was nothing he could do to her that she wouldn’t want, nothing that she wouldn’t enjoy.
She wasn’t afraid of him or what he might to do her in the slightest.
It’s not your body you should be worried about. It’s your heart.
The thought was a cold thread cutting through the heat, and she didn’t want it there, so she ignored it.
That didn’t matter—not here, not right now.
Slowly Cassius straightened, still watching her with that hungry amber gaze. He lifted his hands to the buttons of his shirt and began to undo them, slowly, teasing her, and she loved it—the slow reveal of his bare chest as the cotton parted, letting her see at last the hard, ridged lines of his chest and abdomen, sharply defined, as though he’d been chiselled from rock by a master sculptor.
She pushed herself up, hungry to touch him, but almost as soon as she put her hands on his hot, smooth skin he grabbed her wrists and pushed her back down against the mattress.
‘No.’ His voice was rough and guttural. ‘Not yet.’
‘Oh, but I—’
‘You’ll get your turn, I promise. But I’m too hungry for you to do that right now. My self-control isn’t limitless where you’re concerned.’
She loved that too. That she really could test him. That his desire for her was apparently just as hungry as hers was for him. It made her feel strong, a current of unexpected power running through her. That she, the failure, the girl her parents had never particularly wanted, could tempt a king.
She wanted to tease him the way he was teasing her, so she gave him what she hoped was a flirtatious look from beneath her lashes. ‘Hurry up then, Your Majesty. I’m getting impatient.’
Then she wondered if she’d done something wrong, because he stared at her for a few seconds with that blank expression she was beginning to think was his default when he was shocked. But, just as a flush of embarrassment threatened, his beautiful, sensual mouth curled in the most devastating smile she’d ever seen.
He’d never smiled like that at her. In fact, it had been three years since she’d seen him smile, full-stop.
Her heart twisted, giving one hard, desperate beat, and she swore in that moment that, if nothing else, she’d spend the rest of their marriage trying to make him smile like that again. No—she’d dedicate her entire life to it. He was so beautiful when he smiled. Warm and wicked and unbelievably sexy. No wonder he’d had a never-ending stream of women all queuing for a night in his bed.
‘Are you perhaps teasing me, little one?’ His voice was low and rough, a velvet growl.
‘Maybe.’ She felt triumphant, as if she’d won a Nobel prize. ‘Though it’s not the done thing, is it? To tease a king?’