“This isn’t cruelty, princess.” He chuckled softly, and the sound felt like a warning. “This is me doing everything in my power not to steal you away from this place so that I can keep you for myself.”
“Do you want to keep me?” My words were desperate and full of longing, but I couldn’t stop them.
“No,” he growled, but his arm hauled me even closer against him, and I could feel how badly he wanted me against my backside. “I want to rid myself of this longing I have for you. I wish to fuck you out of my system so that I can kneel before you like the rest of the kingdom without dreaming of what you taste like between your thighs.”
A shudder racked through my body, but I forced myself out of his hold. I shouldn’t have been aroused by the words he spoke. He wanted to use my body then hand me back to his brother like he had never wanted me at all.
That thought was so simple for him, so true, but even though my chest ached at the thought, I still had to press my thighs together to stop the deep ache that had formed there.
“I told you to get Eletta.” I took a small step away from him.
“And yet, I don’t take orders from you.” He adjusted his pants, and my gaze flew to the movement. “You’re not the queen of this kingdom yet.”
“And when I am?” I arched my eyebrow, and his dark eyes felt like they were holding back a thousand years’ worth of words unsaid.
“What, princess?”
“Are you to take orders from me then?” I didn’t know why I was asking him this. I wanted him to leave. To allow me to get back to my room and submerge myself in the bath while I tried to recreate the feeling he had caused in me with my own fingers.
“I doubt it.”
“Isn’t that treason?” I adjusted my dress against my chest and his gaze fell to my breast. He reached forward, one knuckle trailing along the exposed skin at the seam of my dress, and I didn’t dare move.
“Turn around, princess.” His voice was low and lacked the normal control that he usually possessed.
I did as he said, and I gasped when his fingers grazed my mark. He pulled the ribbons tightly behind me, tightening the dress against my body, and I dropped my hands from my chest as I felt him tying the strings into a knot.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“I’m not sure how to answer.” His fingers fell away from the ribbon and they skimmed down the sides of my back until they settled on my hips. “Every thought I have of you is treasonous, the way my hands ache to touch you, deceitful. Even my dreams make me a traitor of my own kingdom.”
“Then stop,” I whispered as I straightened my shoulders. The way he spoke of me as if I was a poison that was infecting every inch of him.
“That’s the thing, princess,” he whispered before his lips pressed against my bare shoulder. “I don’t want to.”