The Prince had made no sound. He came at me from behind, one arm folding around my waist, hauling me back against his chest. I could feel him breathing as hard as me. I could feel his arousal pressing against my back.
“Told you I would catch you,” he said, his breath warm against my cheek. His other arm came around me, the fingers curling over where mine still clutched the bodice. “Didn’t I?”
I let my head fall back against his chest. “Only because I let you.”
His laugh was all smoke and sin, teasing my skin. “I hope you thought about this before you ran. What would happen when I caught you.”
I shuddered.
“What I would do to you.” His lips grazed my throat and then closed on the skin at the slope of my neck and shoulder. He sucked hard, wringing a sharp cry from me. “Are you ready?”
Yes. No? I found it hard to breathe as I trembled, expecting him to take me then. To drive me to the ground. But he waited.
Pulse pounding, I stared at the glowing orbs above us. He was waiting. That silly swelling motion returned, and I ignored it. The emotion had no place here. “Yes,” I whispered. “I’m ready.”
The sound he made was one I had never heard before. It came from deep within him, a triumphant growl of . . . of warning.
The fingers overlapping mine curled, catching the collar of the bodice. With one hard tug, my body jerked against his. Stitches loosened at my shoulders as he exposed my breasts to the warm night air. I looked down at the turgid peak of my breast as his hand closed over the flesh, as I wrapped my own fingers around his wrist. His mouth closed over the skin beneath my ear as he drew the skirt of my gown up. Humid air swirled around my bare legs, my thighs, the lacy undergarments. I held the gauzy skirts, and his hand slipped below, balling into the thin fabric there. Lust pounded through me as he tore the material free from my body with one quick, brutal jerk.
The Prince took me to the ground then, onto my knees, his large body caging mine in. The damp grass pressed into my palm as I held on to the wrist of the hand he braced in the soil. It was maddening— the way he held me there for several moments. Then he shifted behind me. His thigh parted mine. I shook.
“You’re not going to be able to take all of me like this. Not yet.” His voice was a heated whisper against my neck. “But na’laa?”
“What?” I gasped at the feel of the hard, unbelievably hot length of his cock sliding over my ass.
“You’re going to want to.” A guttural sound left him as the head of his cock pressed into the heat—
I cried out, hips jerking at the feel of him, just the crown of his arousal parting my flesh, as the sound of him kicked off a sharp, sudden explosion of sensation.
“Oh yeah. You’re going to want to.” His hand gripped my hip, steadying me. My legs shook as my hand slipped to rest atop his, and there was nothing in my mind but a haze of red-hot lust. His lips pressed a kiss to my wildly beating pulse. “Badly.”
A rush of damp heat flooded me. He eased in another inch, his width, those ridges, stretching me.
“But I’m not going to let you,” he swore.
“W-What?” I started to turn my head.
Thorne folded his arm over my hips, sealing my back to his, and then he thrust into me.
My cry was lost in his shout. Buried deep in me, he didn’t move, and I couldn’t think beyond the feel of him. The piercing, vibrating heat and hardness. My entire body shook.
Then he moved.
The Prince withdrew, and those ridges— oh gods, they dragged along the sensitive walls, catching that hidden spot just as he pushed back inside. And the sound I made, it was a whimper and a scream as he held me against him, moving in and out of me slowly, steadily. He was in complete control, the way he held me keeping me from moving my lower body— from pushing back on him or retreating. All I could do was kneel, my fingers curling between his, and take him.
And he took me.
His pace became faster, harder. He drove into me, his cheek pressed to mine, and I swore I could feel his stare on my bare breast, pushed up by the bodice. Tension curled and spun and tightened. He fucked, but I had never been fucked like this. My entire body pulsed, every nerve ending becoming raw. I could feel the release building, spinning each time he hit that spot. My eyes were wide, gaze fixed on my white-knuckled grip on his hand.
“Oh gods,” I gasped as he plunged into me. My chest clenched. My core spasmed and everything unraveled as I moaned, “Thorne.”
“Fuck,” he snarled, slamming into me. He lifted my knees slightly, grinding into me as I came, as I felt him swelling, felt that knot at my opening as he pumped into me, and my body moved on its own, wiggling and trying to bring him even deeper into me, as pleasure rolled and rolled through me.