Sound of Madness A Dark Royal Romance - Maria Luis Page 0,106

try to squirm, to grind my hips down, but he doesn’t let me take control.

Pulling back with a gasp, I meet his gaze, only to find blue already waiting for me. His teeth sink into his bottom lip, the pink flesh turning white under the pressure. One glance down reveals the strain in his arm muscles, the control he’s exerting to set the slow, anguished pace, to make it last and make it good. He lowers me again, and I clutch his shoulders at the overwhelming sensation of him stretching me.

“My left,” he grits out, “mark me on my left.”

There’s something he’s not telling me, something that briefly tugs his gaze away from mine as he utters the request, but I give it to him anyway. I press my hand flat on his right pectoral muscle while raking my nails down his left shoulder. He groans, low and throaty, and kicks his chin back as he drives his cock deep inside me in a single thrust.

A cry rips from my lips.

My head falls back on my shoulders.

Leaning forward, he brushes his mouth over my throat before dropping his head to tease my nipple with his teeth. Gooseflesh erupts over my skin. The rhythmic tug of his mouth, the relentless thrusts of his cock, the hot skin beneath my hands that trembles like he’s desperate to hold on . . . I’m coming apart at the seams and there’ll be nothing to stitch back together when he’s through with me.

“Damien,” I whisper raggedly, “this is . . . this is—”

His blue eyes lift to mine. “It’s living,” he growls, “and happiness, and fucking hell, Rowena, I don’t care if it’s madness too. I want it and I want you, and God help us both, but I’m going have you no matter what.”

Tears sting my eyes, blurring his face. Shadows dance in the periphery, a silent reminder that danger always lurks around the corner, just waiting to strike in a moment of vulnerability. And then I give all of myself over to the moment.

To him.

I take each hard thrust as if it’s my due; I fight his hold on my hips with tiny circles that make him breathe hard through his nose; and I drag my mouth over his, swallowing those pants of his to claim them as my own. He moves inside me, fucking me hard, without mercy, and I feel myself tighten around him.

My fingers dig into his left shoulder. “I’m going to come. Damien, oh, God.”

His mouth finds mine while he brings one hand between us to rub my clit. “Let go,” he rasps, “let go and I’ll catch you.”

I don’t have the chance to return the sentiment because he angles his hips just right and I splinter above him. My legs tremble in his grip, my heart teeters in my chest. It’s too soon. It’s too soon to care to beg for more, but we’re bound in a way that bears no reason or understanding. He drags me down on top of his cock, his eyes squeezing shut and his jaw clenching tight. He’s lost to the moment, to the sensation of living, and when he comes, he yanks himself free of me and spills onto my thigh at the very last second.

His shoulders heave with hard breaths.

His fingers knead my thighs.

And then, so quietly that I nearly miss the words: “I would chase you to the ends of the earth, Rowena. I would chase you forever if I could.”

32

Damien

“Where do you think you’re going, Priest?”

Déjà vu.

They’re the same words I’ve heard a thousand times over in the last seven months but come from an entirely different person.

Slowing my stride, I glance back over my shoulder to find Hugh Coney watching me from Holly Village’s main staircase. He sits on the third lowest rung, his wrists propped on his bent knees. “Did you hear me?” he demands. “I asked you where you’re going.”

He and Jude are two peas in a pod, proper bosom buddies.

Hooking my thumb under the duffel bag’s strap, I turn around. “Found your bollocks already, Coney?” I offer a slow, lethal smile that would send a smarter man running. “Because I distinctly remember you almost pissing yourself the other night.”

Since Hugh doesn’t have a lick of sense, he responds exactly as I knew he would: by launching to his feet and brandishing a knife like he’s some swashbuckler out of a pirate film. Amused, I lower my gaze to the blade he’s jabbing in my