“Yes,” he said hoarsely. “Dire pain.” A pain that was more than physical.
“Should I stop?”
“No, siren.”
Involuntarily his hands curled in her flaming hair. He felt her moist lips sliding down his aching shaft, and he strained against her mouth, even as his mind battled to resist her spell.
Nothing in their marriage had gone as planned. Admittedly he was mainly to blame for the initial contention between them. He had made countless mistakes with Brynn. Compelling her to wed him despite her fervent protests. Treating her with intentional coldness, keeping himself remote.
With supreme arrogance, he had expected her to fall at his feet, for his wealth and title if not his charm and looks. From the outset she had resisted him, but he’d vowed to tame her and make her his own. And once she became his bride, he’d demanded she share his bed and bear him an heir.
It should have been a fair exchange-a noble marriage for a son. He had wanted a child of his own flesh, some part of him to leave behind were he to die before his time, as his dark dreams seemed to portend.
He felt as if he were dying now. His hand clenched in her hair as hunger poured in hot waves through his body.
He was as captivated now as ever. Sweet hell, from the first moment he had been smitten with her. He couldn’t escape her.
She had tried to warn him how it would be between them, but he hadn’t listened. Instead his heart had stubbornly refused to abandon its infatuation, his enchantment growing into a dangerous obsession.
Brynn knew it, and she was using it mercilessly against him now.
He had few defenses against her. The more determined he was to deny his passion, the more fiercely his need grew to possess her, until he was willing to do almost anything, pay any price, simply for one of her luxuriant smiles.
Lucian squeezed his eyes shut. Was he actually considering betraying his country to save her? Sacrificing his honor, everything he believed in?
Damn you, Brynn.
He was shaking. He clutched at her shoulders and felt her shudder with pleasure herself. Gazing down into her passion-hazed eyes, he could see she was nearly as aroused as he. Perhaps she only intended to seduce him, but her desire was real.
That knowledge shredded the last of his control. Urgently Lucian drew her to her feet and lifted her up, his mouth feverishly capturing hers as she wrapped her legs around his flanks.
Carrying her to the bed, he lowered her to the silk sheets and followed her down, pressing himself between her welcoming thighs.
For a moment, then, he hesitated. Her face was so incredibly beautiful in the flickering candlelight. He curved his hand to her throat, wishing he could draw the truth from her. Wishing he could see into her heart and mind.
“Please… I want you, Lucian,” she whispered hoarsely.
And I’ll want you till I die, he thought as he entered her.
She was wet and eager for him. She wrapped her supple legs around his hips, clutching him to her as he thrust into her, driving his engorged phallus deep within her hot, pulsing flesh.
Lucian shuddered, needing her more than he needed air.
How had it come to this? If he had known their marriage would lead to this day, would he still have coerced Brynn to wed him? Would he have made the same mistakes? Would he have blindly ignored his stark dreams of warning?
What had she been thinking that day three months ago when he had encountered her in the secluded cove alone? Could he have changed the outcome had he behaved differently toward her?
Had she known then what would happen between them? Was she plotting treason even then?
He groaned, spilling his seed deep within her body.
If only he knew…
Chapter One
The Cornish Coast, three months earlier…
It was not one of her better days. Brynn Caldwell dove beneath the warm surf, trying to drown her simmering anger in the deep tidal pool. Her frustration with her oldest brother, Grayson, had reached the limits of her endurance.