The Most Powerful Of Kings - Jackie Ashenden Page 0,47

from her, using his tongue to drive her straight to the edge and then over it.

She arched, convulsing, a cry of ecstasy breaking from her, but he didn’t stop, tasting the wild, sweet flavour of her orgasm. Then he slipped one hand between her thighs, stroking through her slippery folds, driving her straight towards another. A choked gasp escaped her, and he shifted, pushing himself up and leaning over her, bending to take one stiff pink nipple in his mouth, sucking hard as he eased one finger inside her, then another, setting up an insistent rhythm of sensation that had her twisting on the sheets and screaming his name yet again as another climax hit her.

He eased her down after that, stroking her as she shuddered through the aftershocks. Strands of hair clung to her damp forehead, her skin gleaming with perspiration, and she looked thoroughly ruined.

But he wasn’t done.

You’ll never be done.

The thought whispered through his head as he picked her up from the couch cushions, heading for the stairs and the upstairs bedroom, the truth of it settling down into him. No, possibly he wouldn’t. But that didn’t matter.

She was his now and he’d have all the time in the world to test that theory.

The bed upstairs that faced the windows with the dark sea beyond was wide, the sheets cool, and when he laid her down on it he scanned her face, looking for any signs that she’d had enough.

But when he settled himself between her thighs, her warmth and softness beneath him, she slid her hand into his hair and pulled his head down, her mouth hot and sweet and open under his.

She was so generous. She would never turn him away and he felt the truth of that deep inside him. He could come to her and she would take him in, and she would hold him. He could pour himself into her and she would take it all.

She will put you first.

Something in his chest shifted, something tight. Something he wasn’t comfortable with. The embers in the dead hearth of his heart glowed as if someone had breathed air on them.

He ignored it. Instead, he embraced the pleasure as he lifted his head from her mouth and looked into her eyes, thrusting inside her, sheathing himself in her slick heat.

She gasped, his name a prayer on her lips. And when he drew back and thrust again she cried out, her legs closing around his waist, her hips rising to meet his.

And he kept on staring into the silver darkness of her eyes as he drove them both to the edge of oblivion.

And over it.

CHAPTER NINE

ANNA WOKE TO sunlight pressing against her closed lids. She sighed and shifted, conscious that her body ached as if she’d had a hard workout, which was strange, since she wasn’t a fan of exercise at the best of times.

Perhaps she’d done too much running around with Ione yesterday?

She shifted again, only to have the large, heavy arm wrapped around her waist tighten, drawing her against something hard and very, very hot.

Her breath caught, shock rippling through her, closely followed by flickers of memory.

Memories of fainting at a ball. Of the king catching her. The king kissing her.

The king inside her, moving with a savage, relentless rhythm, and the cries he’d drawn from her. The pleasure that had coursed through her.

Of looking up into blue eyes gone the colour of midnight, his gaze fierce as it held hers. Moonlight had caught his brutally handsome features, limning them in silver, and her heart had kicked hard in her chest.

He’d been strong and beautiful and hungry. And he’d kept her awake, demanding more and more of her as the night had gone on. But she hadn’t cared. She’d given him everything she had and more, because she was hungry too.

For him and only him.

She kept her eyes closed for a second longer, not wanting to move because there were other memories there apart from pleasure: him telling her that she was pregnant and the future she’d always imagined for herself burning to ashes.

They hadn’t discussed anything last night, too caught up in sating the desire that had blazed so intensely between them. She still didn’t even know where he’d taken her or why.

Cautiously, she opened her eyes.

They were lying in a big, wide bed, white sheets tumbled and tangled all around them. The bed faced big windows that looked out onto a deep blue ocean, flooding the room with bright sunlight that