Captive of the Horde King (Horde Kings Of Dakkar #1) - Zoey Draven Page 0,35
that made me smile when I watched the Dakkari children darting through the crowds, when I watched the dancing begin.
Soon, I forgot that I was sitting topless in the horde king’s lap. I forgot the nerves that had pummeled me all afternoon and evening. For once, I let myself enjoy the night because I’d never had a night like that before.
Arokan was warm underneath me and he shifted his arms tighter when I shivered. The night was growing colder, but I didn’t mind. The tray of food was emptied, though some brew still remained in the goblet. Most of the feasting was over by that point and the celebration had turned to revelry. Laughter and voices and drums filled the air.
I don’t know how long I sat in Arokan’s lap or how long I’d been watching the celebration below in utter fascination. But soon, I felt something begin to shift.
My breath hitched when Arokan lifted some of my hair at the nape of my neck. I felt the tip of his nose drag over my flesh there, soft but purposeful. My spine tingled with the sensation, unexpectedly pleasurable.
He had one hand gripped around my hips and the other rested on the arm of the throne, his clawed fingers pricking the metal. Suddenly that hand on my hip dipped until his fingers were resting over my sex, just like when we’d been riding on the pyroki.
Eyes widened, I shot a glance towards the crowd, but couldn’t discern if anyone was watching. The way his legs were positioned, I doubted anyone would be able to see directly, but it was obvious where his hand was.
Those fingers against me twitched and then pressed firm. A surprised gasp escaped my throat and I wrapped my hand around his thick wrist, just over his gold cuff, though my grip only encompassed half of it.
When I turned my head to regard him, those eyes were on me. I was frozen again, looking into those eyes, so black in the center that I saw myself in them.
His finger stroked me once, twice.
“Arokan,” I whispered, panicked, my mind muddled from the fermented drink, my inexperienced body beginning to respond to his expert touches.
The sound of his given name leaving my lips made him growl, made his spine shoot straight. Belatedly, I wondered if I’d made a mistake using it, if I’d crossed a line.
Before I knew it, he was standing from the throne, bringing me with him. He swung me up in his arms and descended the stairs of the dais.
The dancing never stopped though I felt eyes turn towards us, though the beat of the drums seemed to increase. I felt those beats pulse through me.
He swung us both up onto his pyroki once we reached it with ease, which was telling of his strength. To the crowd, he bellowed, “Kirtva njeti Morakkari!”
Whatever he said was met with deafening cheers and my lips parted, my chest heaving when I realized what was about to happen. Just then, my eyes met Mirari’s in the throng and she nodded at me, smiling.
He urged the pyroki into a gallop back through the camp, turning his back on the celebration.
He was guiding us towards the tent.
“It is time, kalles,” he rasped in my ear, his hand again curling between my legs. “You are my queen now. I will wait no longer.”
Chapter Twelve
My back hit the furs of the bed.
Heat registered as a fully nude, fully aroused Dakkari male lowered himself over me, his head dropping to lick the column of my exposed neck, his tongue hitting the golden collar of the necklace I wore. He hadn’t taken it off, had only stripped me of my short skirt the moment we stepped foot inside the tent with a rough, tearing pull.
I let out a small gasp as Arokan ran one massive palm up my bare leg, spreading it, sinking our naked bodies more closely together until I felt something I’d never felt before: a body pressed against mine, so tightly that it felt like my own.
My eyes fluttered closed, my lips parting when he stroked his hand up my body, over my hip, my waist, up to my breasts, where my nipples were still painted gold. I realized that the fermented drink at the celebration feast had probably been for the best. It had loosened my muscles, helped me relax. While I’d been nervous about this moment, about the inevitable, I wasn’t afraid of the pain, of him tearing past my flesh,