And it was not as if she loved Tamas. They’d only just met. Bane would only crush her ambitions. Not her heart.
So his deception was not so very bad.
Yet he knew it was. She would despise him when she learned the truth. She would hate him. Rightfully. A hard, painful lump formed in his throat. Remorse. Dread. He shoved the emotions down, where they lodged in his chest, at the center of a heart that thundered with new purpose.
No more did he care about claiming Phaira’s crown. No more did he care about what that kingdom owed him. All he cared about now was taking this princess.
Because she was his, not his twin’s.
But he’d waited too long to respond. At least, his mouth did. His flesh had an instant response. That glimpse of her bare skin had stiffened his cock into a thick length of burning stone. Yet as all the realizations had collided in his head—the similarity of their plans, the pain that would come from his deception, the need to make her irrevocably his—wariness veiled the bold gleam in her eyes and she dropped her gaze away from his. As if she thought his hesitation was a rejection.
Never.
“You want me to claim you?” he asked hoarsely. “You want me to make you mine?”
“I do.” Her gaze lifted to his. “My king.”
She meant Tamas. But when Bane married her, when he stood at her side, he would be her king. And she would be—
“My wife,” he rasped. Hating himself. Helpless to stop. “My queen.”
Fierce pleasure lit her expression. Her lips parted and Bane claimed them before she could say more—before she could call him by his brother’s name. At the firm press of his mouth, her body stiffened. Surprise? Uncertainty? Or was it her first kiss, too?
Whether it was or not, he should have made it better. She would be his wife. His kiss shouldn’t have been designed to prevent her from saying the wrong name but to steal her breath and render her incapable of saying anything.
His head lifted. She watched him, her eyes dark and expressive. And calculating again—though not filled with cunning. Instead her gaze searched his, as if she’d encountered something new and unexpected and she was suddenly reconsidering the conclusions she’d previously made about him.
Or perhaps reconsidering what she’d thought her response to him would be.
She’d come to seduce him. Most likely, she’d thought to remain unaffected—just as Bane had believed his cock would never harden for an empty-headed princess. Perhaps she’d thought it would be a struggle to pretend arousal with an empty-headed king. Instead a flush rose under her skin when Bane slowly lowered his head. Instead her breath stuttered when his mouth covered hers again. And instead of stiffening when his tongue teased her lips apart, she moaned deep in her throat and melted against him.
Yes. At her response, happiness lightened his senses. She’d only come here because she wanted a kingdom. But he would make certain she left wanting his touch, wanting his kiss, wanting him.
On a sudden laugh, she slid her mouth from his. “I thought you’d be more difficult to persuade. Or that you’d demand more first.”
“I can be more difficult.” He could be anything she wished. “How did you plan to persuade me?”
“While on my knees.”
Sucking on his cock. Those full lips wrapped around his shaft, those cunning eyes locked with his.
Bane groaned at the image, burying his fingers in her black curls, craving what she offered but unwilling to release her and relinquish the feel of her soft body against the hardness of his.
“That was my plan. To use my mouth.” She battered his control with every word, her breath hot against his skin. “I haven’t before. But I’ve read books. Listened. Watched. I planned to please you.”
He’d done the same. Never had he been with anyone because he would never be as his brother was. Using lovers. Discarding them. But he’d seen enough to know what pleased a woman. She must have seen enough to know what pleased a man.
“What did you watch?” Jealousy and arousal warred through his chest, picturing her—spying, seeing, needing. “Who did you watch?”
“Do you want me use my mouth to tell you?” That sly amusement again. “Or should I use my mouth as I’d planned?”
Only one thing did Bane want more than her lips around his cock: to have her bound to him. Forever.
Hooking his arm around her waist, Bane lifted her against him. “Your mouth isn’t where I need to plant my seed, Princess. Not this time.”
But they had almost an hour left. So maybe it’d be the next time.
An hour left before she learned the truth of who he was.
Dread clawed at his chest as he carried her to the bed, desperately kissing her mouth, filling his senses with her taste, her scent.