by C. R. Jane
I focused back on Alaric and saw that his smug grin was back, wider than ever. My brain was slow to connect the dots. “Are you from the southern territories?”
His grin grew even wider. He gave me back my fork and picked up his own as he began to nonchalantly eat his salad. After chewing his bite, he finally answered. “I am.”
I growled. “If you don’t stop being so fucking secretive, I really am going to leave,” I threatened.
He rolled his eyes, as if that was impossible. Which maybe it was. I wasn’t sure that I could make that long trip in these heels again. I would have to go barefoot, and who knew what kind of disease I would get from doing that.
“I’m the leader of the southern territories,” he answered after another excruciatingly long pause while he chewed another bite of salad.
I dropped my fork that I’d just picked up. “The warlord?” I gasped. Everything I’d heard came rushing back into my mind. He was known to be bloodthirsty, ruthless, a beast whose cruelty put the vampires to shame.
He watched me warily now. “It appears that you’ve heard some stories,” he commented dryly.
I nodded, a slice of fear churned through my gut. I’d had sex with him. I knew he had to be dangerous, but this was a level of danger I hadn’t contemplated.
“Those stories…are they true?” I asked hesitantly.
His eyes darkened as he stared at me. I could see the savageness clearly now. He’d kept it hidden from me for the most part. “Many of them. You don’t become a king in this world without the spilling of blood.”
“And how exactly did you end up here?” I asked, finally giving in to my still growling stomach to stab at some lettuce. In danger or not, I was going to at least have one last fantastic meal.
“Voluntarily of course,” he answered, amused at my question.
“Voluntarily?”
“Yes. There are things I’m looking for here, that if I find them, will mean that our territory will never be challenged again.” His words were vague, but he said just enough for me to know who he was talking about.
“The warden has something you want,” I said with a sigh, understanding now why he wasn’t going to waste his break-in on something for Seth when he had his eyes on something for himself. “How do you know you won’t lose your territory anyway while you’re in here?” I asked, thinking of how lawless I’d heard the Southern territories were.
He snorted as if I said the funniest thing possible. “What?” I asked defensively. “Power isn’t absolute.”
“Mine might as well be,” he commented with absolute surety. “I have lieutenants in place, beasts who are bound to me and aren’t able to, nor would they want to, usurp me.”
I had so many more questions.
Just then, the waiter appeared. “Was the salad not to your liking, Miss?” he asked as he picked up Alaric’s empty plate and eyed my still full one.
I looked at my plate glumly. “It was perfect,” I sighed.
“Just leave it there and bring out the next course,” Alaric ordered, waving the waiter away. The waiter scurried off without a look back.
Alaric reached across the table and grabbed my hand. He pulled me forward, placing my hand over his heart. “You don’t ever have to be afraid of me,” he told me fiercely. “I would rather die than ever hurt you.”
I eyed him, emotion welling up in my throat at the sincerity in his voice. Alaric was powerful… strong… elusive. And the way that he was looking at me was as if he needed me more than air.
“Selena,” he growled in a gravelly voice. A flush spread across my chest again at the intensity in his voice as he said my name.
Before I could say anything in return, the waiter appeared, carrying a heaping tray covered in plates of steaming food. Alaric looked like he wanted to kill the waiter for the interruption, but luckily, he held himself back.
The waiter set down a tray of creamy pasta and a platter of sliced steak covered in some sort of green sauce. There was a plate of perfectly golden browned rolls, another plate filled with glazed carrots in an abundance of colors, and a bowl full of perfectly whipped mashed potatoes.
I was in heaven.
“Let’s table the more serious talk and eat all of this,” suggested Alaric. I eagerly agreed, not wanting to waste a speck of the incredible feast before us.
We ate, and we talked. And it was wonderful, all of it. All serious talk was put aside, and instead, Alaric regaled me with stories about growing up and his family and his lieutenants back home, who seemed more like family than friends with the affectionate way he talked about them.
He tried to ask me questions, but I turned the attention back to him every time. My history was a tapestry of despair, and I didn’t want to ruin the fun we were having with stories about that. That could come another time.
It was amazing, all the different sides to Alaric. There were different sides to everyone, but no one I knew held them so close to the chest as Alaric did.
Alaric was so lighthearted throughout the meal, it was like I was dining with a different person. I should have wished that this was who he was all the time, but something was obviously wrong with me. As much I was attracted to this version of him, I craved the darker part of him.
After stuffing more than what three people should probably eat in a day into my stomach, I set down my fork and leaned back in my chair. “I can’t eat another bite,” I groaned. “And how am I ever going to go back to the slop they serve in this place when I know food like this exists in the world?”
Alaric laughed. It was deep and genuine, warming me from the inside out. I wished I was funnier so I could make him laugh like that all the time.
“I’m positive I could make this happen again,” he said happily, like my enjoyment was all he wanted. “But are you sure you are too full for another bite? I’m pretty sure that dessert is worth breaking that pledge.”
I perked up in my seat immediately. Dessert wasn’t really something that Rosalind believed in. Even though sirens were biologically created to maintain an appealing figure, Rosalind had always firmly believed that one couldn’t be too careful. I hadn’t tasted chocolate until my seventeenth birthday, when Julian had presented me with a giant chocolate cake.
My heart flipped just then, remembering that chocolate cake.
Julian was the villain in my story. I hated him, but at some point, part of me had probably loved him in the way that only a child starving for affection from someone could love. He had taken that love and twisted it into something so dark and terrible, that now, all that was left was hate.
“Selena?” Alaric asked gently, staring at me in concern.
I shook my head, as if that would get rid of all the memories, and flashed him a real smile. Dessert. I could definitely do dessert with him.
While the waiter grabbed our plates and the rest of the dishes on the table, Alaric stood up and grabbed my hand, walking me over to a large settee set up against one of the emerald walls. Right before I tried to sit down, he scooped me up in his arms and settled down on the couch while he snuggled me into his lap.
Like the attention-starved woman that I was, I reveled in the affection he was giving me.
Our other encounters had been hot. Scorching really. But as much as I’d loved and craved those, I needed this. The waiter silently brought over a tray of chocolate-covered strawberries and a bucket of ice with a fancy looking bottle of champagne in it.
Alaric picked up one of the strawberries and brought it up to my mouth. He stared at me, fascinated, as I opened my mouth and took a bite. I could feel chocolate smeared along my upper lip, and before I could clean it off, Alaric licked it off.
Somehow, it was extremely sexy. I was feeling a little breathless as Alaric pulled away from me. He made sure to act like he was savoring the chocolate in his mouth, knowing exactly what it was doing to me. Alaric reached for the two glasses of champagne that the waiter had poured.
“What’s our waiter’s name?” I aske
d, suddenly realizing how rude it was that I didn’t know it and had been referring to him as “waiter” in my head this whole time, when he had been serving us for a few hours.
“Johnny something or other,” Alaric mused dismissively. “He’s the son of one of our suppliers in the next town over. He leaped at the chance to do this.”
Somehow, I doubted that anyone “leaped” at the chance to visit Nightmare Penitentiary. I mean, there was always the risk that you wouldn’t make it out of here. I let the matter drop though. I didn’t really care. Alaric was too distracting.
I took a gulp of my champagne, hoping for some liquid courage, since the wine I’d had at dinner had only provided so much. “This thing you are hoping to get from the warden—”
“Going to get from the warden,” Alaric corrected me confidently. I rolled my eyes.
“Going to get from the warden. Wait—should we be talking about this so openly? He has eyes everywhere,” I fretted, staring around us suspiciously, like I was going to see the warden hidden in the walls.
“It’s a little late to worry about that, isn’t it?” commented Alaric wryly.
I shrugged sheepishly.
“I’m sure the warden knows exactly why I’m here. I think he thinks this is some kind of game. To see who will prevail,” Alaric mused.
“You really think he knows?”
“Like you said, he has eyes everywhere. One doesn’t simply ‘catch’ me,” he said with a laugh. “I’m just biding my time.”
“What are you waiting for?” I asked, frowning as I thought about Alaric leaving this place—and me—behind. My heart seemed like it was being squeezed inside my chest at the thought. I rubbed my chest, trying to get rid of the achy feeling.
“What do you think I’m waiting for?” Alaric answered intensely as he gazed into my eyes.
My mouth floundered in shock.
“Don’t think for a moment that I will be leaving these walls without you,” he told me fervently. The squeeze on my heart abruptly quit, and something that felt like elation coursed through me.
Unbidden images of Keon… and Seth… appeared in my mind just then.
“I have things I have to do here as well,” I told Alaric seriously, and he nodded, unsurprised, like he knew all about my plans. And maybe he did.
“Don’t make me wait too long, my queen,” he murmured. And I knew the threat in his voice didn’t mean that he would leave without me if I took too long. It meant that he would take me with him no matter if I was done with what I needed to do or not.
And somehow, that didn’t bother me as much as it should have.
“You called me ‘queen,’” I commented, noting that was the first time he’d called me something like that.
“Because you will be my queen when I return home. No one will ever threaten you or harm you again. You will be esteemed above all others.” His words were a promise that called to me.
But again, Keon and Seth’s faces appeared in my head.
“Don’t think about them,” Alaric growled, pulling my chin so that I had no choice but to look at him. “When you’re here with me, I’m the only one you’re thinking about.” His possessiveness wrapped around me like a heavy cloak, and I reveled in it.
It was like he could see all the broken, discarded parts inside of me and knew exactly what to do to put them back together. His kiss was frantic when our lips met this time. It was hot and demanded everything from me, even though I had nothing to give. Through his kiss, feelings of inadequacy and insecurity from the past I couldn’t let go of floated away, until there was absolutely no thoughts of them anywhere.
Tightly bound control slipped as he licked and bit into my mouth, driving pleasure from the piercing sting, until my cry rebounded against the gleaming jewel-like walls. I was completely at his mercy. With his silent insistence, I accepted my fate and dove in. I wrapped my arms around his head, my fingers plunged into his hair, and I pulled him closer, matching him need for need.
There was only him.
There was only us.
And it almost felt like it could be like this forever.
“I’m lost in you,” he whispered as his lips began a slow, painful descent down my neck.
“I want to possess you… mark you… come all over you so you carry my scent with you always. Make sure everyone knows you belong to me.” His voice was rough and thick. He licked up my pulse point and pinched my nipple hard through my thin dress, sending a spasm spiraling through me.
“Yes,” I breathed, amazed at how much I wanted his dirty words and the dark promises he was giving me.
Alaric’s touch was pure temptation, seductive as he peeled off my dress and then ripped off my underwear. He set me down on the settee and stood up, staring down at me hungrily. He began to strip off his clothes slowly, and my mouth watered as inch by inch of his gold, glorious skin appeared for my viewing pleasure.
He stripped until there was nothing left that would separate him from me. He picked me up so that we were skin against skin. Enfolded in his arms, he worshipped my mouth with his, and my body heated under his touch as he caressed every whispered shadow. He captured my groan, taking it in to mix with his. I whimpered as he kissed across my cheek to my ear and down my neck, nibbling at the hollow above my collarbone.
My hands moved…they were everywhere. His shoulders, arms, running over the hard lines of his back. Everything he did taunted the wicked pulse between my thighs that had been slowly building throughout the night.
Without warning, he set me back down on the settee, pushing me gently back until I was lying down on it.
He didn’t follow though.
His breath faltered as he gazed down at me.
Slow and deliberate, his inspection of my naked body was thorough, and his voice was rough when he spoke.
“I want you. Just the thought of you gets me hard.”
I couldn’t help but stare at his rock-hard erection. His hand followed my eyes, stroking up and down. He was magnificent. As he stood there, it seemed like a glittery gold mist appeared around him, somehow heightening my lust.
Was this his power?
“Seeing you spread out before me, wanting me as much as I want you… it’s almost too much,” he groaned, and I watched as his eyes seemed to change.
The passionate need was replaced with veneration, a worshiping glint as he drank me in.
“My queen,” he breathed into the silence, the title a prayer on his lips. Slowly, he laid next to me, a tight fit for sure, bringing a hand up to cup the full weight of my breast. Closing his eyes, he leaned in so that his mouth hovered over mine, not touching, just taking.
It was beyond intimate, his almost touching, but I was desperate to kiss him.
“Alaric,” I whispered breathlessly, and the word broke whatever spell we were under. His eyes opened, a devilish gleam replacing the adoration. He pinched my nipple, pulling it until I moaned. The sweet sensation drove straight down to my groin, a sharp, inescapable fluttering. He smiled, a slow, beguiling grin as I writhed beneath his dark stare and the attention of his fingers.
“I’m going to taste you, my queen. Lick and bite you until you scream my name.”
My mouth formed a perfect O, but I said nothing, paralyzed with anticipation. I watched as he dipped down, taking me into his mouth, laving the elongated tip of my breast with his tongue before teasing it between his teeth. I leaned back into the couch cushion. I reeled from the pleasure his mouth brought. One at a time, he played with my breasts until I was wet and hungry for him.
“Please,” I begged for the pleasure I knew he could give me. The gold mist intensified, and his pupils were blown in arousal, threatening to overtake the beautiful steel grey of his eyes. Nonsensical words flowed from my mouth as I begged him to continue, to keep touching me, for him to bring an end to the burning need building between my thighs.
Slowly he moved, in no hurry to stop my torture. His nose trailed along my skin, teasing a path until he p
ressed into me, groaning as he breathed deeply, as if my scent was his favorite thing he’d ever experienced. I blushed again at the intimate gesture.
Eyes trained on mine, he pushed my thighs slowly apart. “You’re intoxicating.” His voice was hot, his breath hotter as he blew against me. Looking up through his lashes, he asked, “Do you want this, Selena? Tell me you need this as much as I do.”
I was speechless, so he blew against me again.
“Say it. I need to hear you,” he ordered sharply, and my body immediately bent to his will.
“Yes,” I barely breathed out before his head dipped, the tip of his tongue swirling around my clitoris. My body arched off the cushions at the sweet carnal sensation, and I moaned loudly. Closing my eyes, I focused on him and the tormenting flick of his tongue. Wrapping his arms under my hips, he became impassioned, groaning as he lifted me to his mouth.
I couldn’t move, my only outlet the words continuing to fall almost soundlessly into the still air as I begged him for more and praised him for his efforts. Clenching my hands into the cushion, I surrendered to the beautiful intensity, panting.
“Alaric,” I cried out. An errant thought slipped through my lustful fog that I hoped that no one was listening in. Alaric had a way about him that never failed to make me forget my surroundings.
His lips closed around my clitoris, and my brain went blank again, as he sucked and rolled it between his teeth. I arched and instinctively moved with him, a wicked, slow dance that I never wanted to end. The music was his mouth, playing artfully, and all I could do was wait, longing for the crescendo.
Releasing my death grip on the cushion beneath me, I grabbed the soft silk of his hair as his head swayed between my thighs. He looked up, eyes scorching and erotic, his tongue insistent and hot, teasing but not taking me over the edge.
“Please,” I whimpered again, begging for the push from the burning plateau. His answer was to slide a finger inside my welcoming body. I groaned again. The longing and desire built, the friction of his finger along with his mouth took me higher, faster than I thought possible. I writhed against him, the dance becoming feverish. All I was was burning need.