His gaze darkened, but for a heartbeat, Keris didn’t move. Then he lowered his head between her legs, a gasp tearing from her throat as his lips pressed against her in a kiss that turned the embers in her core to an inferno.
“Your officers will hear of this outrage,” she hissed at the soldiers, but they only smirked, one of Zarrah tried to relax, but her whole body felt stiff as a board, her eyes fixed on the ceiling. “Where them leaning forward to catch at the edge of her mask even as Keris parted her with his tongue. “I
doubt it,” he said. “Will mean you admitting you had a whore between your legs rather than your husband.”
Zarrah pushed the soldier’s hand away, her other still locked in Keris’s hair.
The soldiers laughed, and Zarrah’s pulse roared, partially with rising panic that they weren’t their conversation, their plans, when a messenger arrived with news about what transpired on Devil’s leaving and partially because of the effect Keris’s tongue was having on her body.
He knew her. Knew her body and everything she liked, and on her order, he was making use of that knowledge. Sweat beaded on her brow, tension building as he sucked and teased her, fingers trailing lines of fire along her naked thighs.
The soldiers made a show of slowly searching the room, but their eyes never left her naked body.
Keris’s naked body. She needed them to leave. Needed them to shut the door, or else … or else …
“If you wish to watch, you must pay,” Miri said from the doorway. “Else it is theft, and I’ll report you to the guild.”
as long as memory, the rumor has
“Consider it a bit of goodwill toward us, Miri,” one of them said, but the house’s matron crossed her arms, dark eyes narrowed, and they grudgingly backed out of the room. “Apologies,” she murmured, then shut the door.
“An apt assessment.” The boots were coming closer, the drums now silent, and Zarrah stared at the Keris lifted his face, and a scream of frustration threatened to rise from Zarrah’s throat. Like an addict deprived of her drug of choice, her body needed him. Needed this fix, and though her mind shouted at her that it was folly, her lips whispered, “Don’t stop.”
“Zarrah …” His voice was strained, as though he battled his own inner war, and she held her breath, eyes squeezed shut, waiting to see what part of him won. Waiting to see if they’d both succumb, proving that what lay between them burned as hot as it ever had. A desire that had always been wrong, always been forbidden, yet left every barrier in ash.
Even those they built themselves.
Her soul felt his will bend to lust a heartbeat before his tongue flicked over her, Zarrah’s back bowing as a sob of pleasure tore from her lips. All the world fell away as his fingers pressed inside her, curving to stroke her core even as he sucked her clit. As he pulled her to the edge of climax, every plot and plan and strategy falling victim to her undying need for his presence, his touch, his—
Love.
The word, and all the truths that came with it, pulled her over the edge, only some hidden reserve
“Then be quick about it. And you”—her fingers tightened in Keris’s hair—“finish what you started. of self-preservation keeping her from screaming his name as pleasure broke her apart, reforming her heart and soul, only to shatter them again because she had to give him up.
Keris shifted, resting his cheek against her hip, and she moved her hand from his hair to trace a finger down the side of his face. Say something, she silently whispered, not knowing whether she was speaking to Keris or herself. “I’m sorry.”
The only response was the renewed drumming at the center of the house.
“For what?” he answered. “I’m the one who got us into this mess by following Welran. It’s my line, there was no fear in his blue gaze, only pure masculine lust. Lust that Zarrah knew was only held fault.”
“Yes, but I didn’t need to … I shouldn’t have asked …” God help her, she couldn’t even get the words out. Was proving her aunt right with everything she did. Everything she said. Everything she didn’t say.
“You think it would have been any different if our roles had been reversed?” His blue eyes flared as he sat upright, revealing that he’d been no less caught up in the moment than she had been.
Unbidden, a vision of herself on her knees before him filled her mind’s eye, a mixture of memory and imagination that was so vivid her breath caught.
“I hate how right she was.” Zarrah squeezed her eyes shut. “She said that the moment I was back in your presence, I’d fall back in your bed. That my loyalty to Valcotta would always come second to my desire for you.”
“Petra’s a master manipulator,” he answered. “She’s also a fucking madwoman.”
“Yet she saw the truth. As did Bermin.” In a surge of motion, Zarrah leaned across the small space, her hands pressed to either side of him. Cheek brushing his as she whispered into his ear, “How can I be the empress Valcotta needs when all I want is to do is fall to my knees and suck the King of Maridrina’s cock?”
The muscles of his jaw tightened. “That’s not what I want from you.”
“Because it’s all about what you want.” She moved her head, lips grazing his. “It’s all about having things your way, on your terms. I know that better than anyone. Have watched you do it time and again. Watched you do it today. Yet it doesn’t seem to matter when I’m in your presence, because all I want is you.”
Keris pulled away from her. “There was a time I thought I’d die to hear you say that again, Valcotta, but not like this.”
She was furious with herself, but Zarrah found herself turning her venom on him. “So sorry to disappoint.”
“Don’t.” He gave her a warning glare. “There is a limit to the abuse I’ll take just because you drank that bitch’s poison. It’s Petra who deserves your hate, yet you treat her words as though they were delivered by God. Like a fucking mantra.”
“I do hate her.” Her hands clenched into fists. “I don’t want to listen to her. Except to ignore the truth because it came from the mouth of my enemy is just as foolish as believing lies.”
“Petra has taken the truth about us and twisted it to the point it barely resembles reality, yet somehow you now hold it as memory. She’s undermined your judgement by making you believe that everything you did was motivated by lust.”
Nausea swam in Zarrah’s gut, her head a mess, no part of her able to focus on a thought. “I’m losing my mind.” She stared at her palms, which were marked with bleeding crescents. “I feel like I’m going mad.”
“You’re not going mad.” He gripped her hands. “Petra knows we are stronger united, so it is in her interest to turn you against me even as she turns you against yourself. But ask yourself this: If I manipulated you and used you as part of my scheme to further myself, why am I here now? If all I cared about was gaining the crown, why did I leave it in my half sister’s hands to race south to risk my life freeing you from prison? Why am I with you in Arakis, searching for the rebels, if all I care about is a plush life in a palace surrounded by women? Because to be very clear, if that was what I wanted, I could have it in a heartbeat.” His eyes searched hers. “Deep down, you must know that what she claims doesn’t make sense.”