And even if you paid me, I couldn’t tell you mine.

Chapter 6

Grim

A bucket of hot, buttery movie theater popcorn has been placed on the bedside table.

In the few minutes while I was in the bathroom, Vashti, I assume, has satisfied her queen’s craving.

Well, one of them. I satisfied the other.

And Lani satisfied mine.

Sitting with her slim back against the headboard that climbs the wall, nearly reaching the ceiling, the rose-colored silk sheet keeps slipping, revealing her berry-tipped breasts. She raises the bottle of vanilla rum to her lips, takes a long swig, her eyes locked with mine. A drop of the liquor slides from the corner of her ripe mouth, makes a slow, leisurely trip down her neck, and glides between her breasts. When I reach the bed, I lie down beside her and lean forward to lick the rum from her skin. She chuckles and runs her fingers through my hair.

“When can we do that again?” she asks, her voice scratched from screaming.

“I could squeeze you in . . .” I lift my wrist to check my watch. “Now?”

She laughs and crawls over me, one firm thigh on either side of my hips. She reaches for my cock and lifts, her pussy poised over me.

“Wait.” My chuckle, usually a rare phenomenon, has been used more tonight with this woman than it has in years. “I was joking.”

She cocks a dark brow and settles her round, naked ass on my thighs. “Scared you can’t get it up? I won’t judge your performance.”

“Surely after only once, you already know better than that.”

“You’re cocky.” She grins.

“You like it.” I grip her slim hips, and my hands enclose them almost completely, reminding me how vulnerable she is, how small. When she resettles on my lap, she plucks at the chain hanging around my neck, twisting the two rings suspended, watching the tiny diamond grab and hold the light.

“What are these?” she asks, eyes still fixed on the two rings.

“My parents’ wedding rings.”

“Really?” Her eyes, surprised, curious, find mine. “Why do you wear them?”

“It’s all I have left of them. They both died.”

“I’m so sorry, Grim.” She brushes the back of her hand along my chest and shoulder, the sympathy in her eyes also in her touch.

I clear my throat of uncharacteristic emotion. “Him first, then her a few years later. My mother said she left the rings to me as a reminder that true love was possible. They were married thirty years and neither ever loved anyone else. She knew I never . . .”

I trail off. Feeling so much with this woman so quickly, it seems wrong somehow to admit I’ve never had the kind of connection my parents experienced with anyone. If I hadn’t seen that vital bond between them, and later between Maxim and Lennix, I wouldn’t believe it was possible.

“She knew I would need the reminder,” I finally continue, finding her eyes in the dim light.

Lani holds the two rings in her palm, my father’s plain gold band and my mother’s ring with the almost microscopic stone, all my father could afford when they married. He always said he’d upgrade it one day, but my mother forbade it even when he could have bought something finer.

“It’s beautiful,” Lani says, her voice a reverent whisper, and I know she doesn’t mean the rings themselves, but the sentiment behind them.

“You’re beautiful, little queen,” I say before I even mean to. It’s just the truth, and she seems to draw that out of me.

Pleasure darkens her eyes and curls her mouth at the edges. She leans forward to capture my lips, her small, pink tongue demanding entrance I would never deny. I open for her, allowing her a few seconds to command the kiss, then easily assuming control, cupping the elegant curve of her neck and sending my tongue so deep she gasps, pants over my lips. Desire sparks between us as surely as if I’d thrown kindling on a fire. She rubs her nipples against my chest, laughing when my breath catches. Lashes lifted, eyes burning, she reaches between us, running her thumb over the pierced head of my cock. I know there was something I wanted to discuss, but my dick in her hand dashes all thoughts from my head.

Almost.

I gently move her hand from the eager, hardening pipe between my legs.

Tags: L.J. Shen Romance
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