He squeezed her arms so tightly that she gasped and her pain shot through him. He growled, turned with her and kicked off, slamming her back against a tree and pinning her there. His back echoed with her hurt. Pain he had caused in her.
She would fight him now.
She would do it to punish him for hurting her.
He deserved it.
“You can have your freedom if you fight me for it, Witch.”
She stilled, her eyes enormous and her shock flowing over him. Her magic instantly subsided.
“Why would you want such a thing?” She shook her head. “Why would you want me to strike you?”
“I need it.” Those words had left his lips before he had even thought them, escaping him and rocking him to his core. He instantly released her and staggered backwards, his knees threatening to give out as sickness swept through him, disgust that he desired such a thing.
Rosalind’s feelings mirrored his, her beautiful face twisted in lines of horror.
Now she had seen the true face of the monster he had become. A man who had had all softness and affection driven from him, replaced with something dark and sinister.
A man who took pleasure from killing.
A man who needed punishment, constantly hungered deep in his soul for the strike of a whip or the blow of a fist, so much so that he had attempted to force the most delicate and beautiful creature in the three realms to fight him.
Vail sank back against a tree trunk and stared at her, unable to tear his eyes away from her horrified expression or shut out the shock reeling through their bond.
He had no excuse, no reason to give her for his behaviour, and no way to make her believe she had misunderstood his intent, because he couldn’t bring himself to lie to her.
He looked her right in the eye and said the only thing ringing around his head.
“Gods, I need it.”
CHAPTER 23
Rosalind wasn’t sure how to react to what Vail had said. She stood with her back against the tree opposite him, staring into his eyes, seeing in them and sensing in their link that he was telling the truth. He wanted her to strike him.
Glowing insects danced in the air between them and the light from the flowers of the trees cast a sickly blue hue across his pale skin.
He had shocked her, but he had shocked himself too.
“Why would you want such a thing?” she whispered.
He bowed his head and she had her answer.
Because it was what he was used to. He had grown accustomed to Kordula treating him poorly, punishing him both physically and emotionally, and he was struggling to cope in a world without what was now familiar to him.
He collapsed to his knees and she pushed away from the tree, but held herself back.
The sight of such a powerful, beautiful man looking so vulnerable and lost tore at her, and she hated it. She couldn’t let him suffer alone. She wouldn’t. She had to help him.
She crossed the trampled path to him and lifted her hand to touch his cheek.
He flinched away and hissed at her, baring long white daggers, and she had the terrible feeling that if she had struck him hard, he would have welcomed it, but he couldn’t bear a gentle touch meant to soothe him.
Rosalind withdrew her hand. “You’ve given me no reason to hurt you, and if you think to provoke me so I will punish you, it won’t work. I’m not going to raise a hand at you in retaliation. I’m not that sort of woman.”
She kneeled before him in the broken grass and wished he would lift his head and look at her.
“Vail?”
He didn’t move. He kept staring at his hands between his knees, his shoulders hunched forwards and trembling.
Rosalind drew in a deep breath and risked it.
She reached out, firmly took hold of both of his hands, and clutched them as tightly as she could. He kept still, his eyes moving over her hands where they held his, and she let out her breath as her tension faded.
“Whatever happened to you, it’s in your past now.” She brushed her thumbs over the backs of his hands, the caress steady and slow, but with enough pressure that his skin paled in the lines she stroked. She wanted to touch him softly, but she also wanted to keep her head on her shoulders and her heart in her chest, so she kept up with the pressure, giving him a hard caress. “I know you can’t simply overcome it and forget it, but I hope in time that you’ll learn to come to terms with it, and I hope you’ll learn to accept kindness again and learn to trust.”
“Why?” That word came out quiet and she hated that he sounded as if he was on the verge of saying he didn’t deserve kindness and reproaching her.
She sighed. “Because you deserve some good in your life to help wash away the bad. You deserve to be… loved.”
He pulled back and she risked it and held on, refusing to let him go and distance himself.
“I’ve seen the good in you… a glimmer of the man you once were and somehow managed to retain despite the terrible things that have happened to you. You’re a good man, Vail. A noble, loyal and deserving man.”
“A man who has done terrible things,” he snarled. “A man who has killed thousands and left a river of carnage in his wake.”
“Under the orders and control of another.” She wouldn’t let him bring up the barriers between them again and shut her out, and she wouldn’t let him force her away. No matter what he said or how sharp the barbs he threw at her were, she wouldn’t give up and relinquish the progress she had made with him.
“I have killed… males… females… innocents… entire families. I have set realms at war with each other and watched them burn.” His voice hitched and he tensed. His eyes gradually widened as his breathing accelerated. “I have… I have… pleasured that—”
Rosalind slapped a hand over his mouth to stop him. “I know. I know what that vile bitch did to you. You don’t need to say it. You don’t need to hurt yourself like this… you don’t have to punish yourself and push me away.”
He tore her hand from his mouth. “I am the vile one. I let her do those things to me. I did things with others while she watched… and I murdered innocents in front of her while she laughed in order to please her…”
Rosalind placed her hand over his mouth again. There was too much black in his beautiful purple irises and too much pain. When she felt certain he wouldn’t continue, she shifted her hand to his left cheek and brought her other one up to cup his right, risking his wrath. She tipped his head up and made him look her in the eye.
“Kordula made you do those things, Vail. You had no free will. What she did to you was deserving of death… and if I had the power, I would heal your mind, would steal away those dark moments, every single one of them. But I cannot… I don’t have that power. I wish that I did. The only power I have is in here.” She took his left hand and brought it to her chest, settling it palm down over her heart, and held it there as she looked deep into his eyes. “All I can do is show you kindness and compassion, and be here for you when the darkness comes and your memories haunt you. All I can do is try to ease your pain and replace the terrible memories with better ones.”
“How?” he croaked and his eyes searched hers, edged with desperation, as if his life depended on her telling him.
She stroked his cheek and squeezed the hand she held to her chest, the heart it hovered above melting as she saw the hope in his eyes and felt it flowing through him.
“I would show you that the things you have been forced to experience… they can be good. They can be different.” She hesitated when his eyes began to darken again and tamped her magic down as it tried to rise to the fore to protect her, knowing it would push him over the edge and have him snarling that she was out to trick him and use him as Kordula had. “Like when you held me… remember how good that felt?”
His gaze bore into her, intense and focused, his pupils expanding to devour the purple of his irises. A hot shiver coursed through every inch of her in response to his heated gaze. He di
d remember it and it had felt good to him. Now she just had to make him see that other things could feel just as good.
Rosalind dropped her gaze to his mouth, taking in the firm sensual curve of his lips. His hand against her tensed.
She didn’t want to push him too hard. She was aware of how close he was to her, and that his hand rested against her chest and he could easily call his armour to create his claws and hurt her, but she needed to show him that she meant what she had said and she would help him.
She would show him that it was possible to heal some of the pain in his past and learn to live again.
She leaned towards him, bringing her mouth close to his. His breath sawed from his lips, rough and hard, trembling as much as he was beneath her fingers.
Rosalind whispered, “Something shared between two people can be magical, Vail.”
He pushed her back, his eyes darkening again, and she cursed herself for using that word. Magical.
He glared at her, his eyes narrowing into nothing more than thin slits. His hand against her tensed, his fingertips digging into her flesh and the heel of his palm pressing into her cleavage.
She waited for him to shove her away or turn on her.
He growled and swooped on her mouth, ripping a soft gasp from her throat and sending a million volts blazing through her. His lips pressed hard against hers and opened, and she was powerless to resist doing the same. He kissed her fiercely, devouring her with rough sweeps of his lips and strokes of his tongue that tantalised and teased her, driving her into submission.
Rosalind went willingly, lost in the arousal raging through her, burning up every inch of her as Vail dominated her mouth and mastered her body with only a kiss.
She tried to keep up with him, her lips clashing desperately with his, the temptation to wrap her arms around his neck and pin him to her becoming increasingly difficult to deny. If they kept going like this, both of them a slave to their passion and need, she was bound to make a monumental mistake with him.
Rosalind slowed her kiss, gradually convincing him to do the same, until his lips danced over hers and their tongues occasionally brushed. He softened it further, teasing her lips with his, a bare caress that drove her wild and brought her close to begging him to unleash his passion again. She ran her tongue across the seam of his lips and it brushed the tips of his fangs.
He growled into her mouth and shifted forwards, forcing her to lie back on the grass. He hovered over her as he kissed her, his hands braced on either side of her arms, caging her beneath him but holding him off her at the same time. He deepened the kiss, tangling tongues with her, flooding her with the taste of him and a need for more. Her body ached and hummed, hungry for more. Her breasts throbbed and it was hard to resist rubbing her thighs together to make the most of the pressure building between them.
He seemed content with only kissing, mastering her mouth and her heart, ruining her to all other men, but she ached for more even when she knew she shouldn’t.
Vail didn’t let up or give her a chance to draw breath as he kissed her, a constant low growl rumbling through his chest, a possessive sound that thrilled her and only made it harder to resist taking this to the next level.
It seemed Vail was on the same wavelength as her and wasn’t as content with just kissing her as she had thought.
She gasped as he brought his body down into contact with hers, wedging himself between her thighs, and rolled his hips. The hard bulge in his armour rubbed her and she cried into his mouth as a thousand tiny sparks swept over her thighs and collided in her belly.
He growled into her mouth, the sexiest noise she had ever heard to accompany words that set her on fire.
“My female hungers… I will satisfy her.”
CHAPTER 24
Vail’s markings flared across his chest and arms, and over his hips, the sharp fiery feeling growing in intensity as it reached his groin beneath his armour. He grunted, balls drawing up as they tingled and his cock throbbed in response. Gods, he needed to be inside her again. He needed to spend himself in her hot body.
She lay beneath him, her golden hair cascading around her like a halo, her beauty arresting his breath and seizing it in his chest. Her rosy lips were darkened and swollen from his kiss. Kiss. His length jerked again, the sweet taste of her on his tongue and the thought of kissing her combining to send his arousal soaring.
He knew she had expected him to lash out at her, because he had expected that reaction in him too, but he had been transfixed by her lips and their invitation. He had been bewitched by the idea that he could kiss her, and she would let him, even after everything he had done.
The scent of her blood permeated the air, a potent reminder that he had hurt her, that he didn’t deserve her, and he couldn’t stop his eyes from darting to the sleeves of her black dress and the small holes where his claws had punctured the material and her flesh.
She was wrong. He didn’t deserve her.
“Vail,” she murmured softly, recapturing his attention and driving the darkness from his heart, filling it with light again.
She gently touched his cheek, bringing his gaze back to her, and he closed his eyes, shutting her out in the only way he could, unable to bear looking at her after what he had done and what he had revealed.
She sighed and stroked his cheek.
“I’m not mad at you,” she whispered, her fingertips dancing along the line of his jaw, sending a tingling bolt of electricity down his spine. “I can feel you… remember? I know you regret what you did when the memories had you in their grip. You came back to me though. You didn’t hurt me.”
“This time.” He turned his face away from her and she drew it back again.
“Open your eyes and look at me, Vail, please?” Those softly spoken words were a command he found impossible to resist.
He frowned and did as she asked, opening his eyes and looking down into hers. They were as soft as her tone had been, filled with the warmth and understanding that flowed into him through their bond, soothing his fears.
“I know a little more about you now and next time I’ll know what to do. I won’t let the darkness take you again like that. I promise.”
Gods, he wished she had that power.
His eyebrows dipped lower. She had freed him from the grip of his memories several times now, driving back the darkness and bringing him back into the light. She had given him the strength to fight the beast within him too, and it had seized control of him less often since he had met her. The gaps between his episodes were growing longer. This forest wasn’t the only thing healing him.
Little Wild Rose was too.
Perhaps she did have the power to help him through his madness and stop him from hurting her. It was all he wanted now. He wanted to be free of the darkness so he would never hurt her.
She brushed her fingers across his lower lip, making it tingle. “Kiss me again?”
He couldn’t deny that request, felt humbled that she had asked it of him, and dropped his head to recapture her lips. The moment they came into contact, she moaned low in her throat and his markings flashed across his body in response. He grunted and nipped at her lower lip, catching it with his fang. She gasped and he swooped on the drop of blood that beaded on her lip, devouring it in another kiss. Gods, he needed more of her.
All of her.
He drew in a deep breath and settled his weight on his right elbow, and placed his left hand on her breast, a base need telling him to surrender to his desire and let his primal instincts take control. She groaned, the breathy sound encouraging him. His female liked this. She desired his touch. He squeezed her breast, feeling the soft flesh give beneath the pressure of his fingers, and she moaned again, tipping her head back and exposing her throat.
Vail snarled and devoured it with his lips as he touched her. Her pulse hammered against his lips and tongue, a tribal beat that called to him, and his fangs lengthened, the hunger of desire merging with a hunger for her blood.
She didn’t resist him as he nicked her throat with one fang and wrapped his lips around the wound. She remained calm beneath him, giving her blood and her body to him, because he was in control. He was master now.
Her blood blossomed on his tongue, the sweet intoxicating taste tearing a moan from him, and he rocked his hips in response to the pleasure that trickled through him, heating every inch of his bones. She moaned and ghosted her hands over his shoulders, as if she wanted to touch him, but then raised them above her head, tangling her fingers in the grass instead.
The momentary ripple of fear that had swept through him faded and he lapped at the tiny cut, every drop of her blood exploding on his senses and making him bolder as it took him higher, sending his desire soaring. His female had said that she could make him see that pleasure could be a good thing.
He would show her that she was right, and she had never known pleasure like what he could give to her.
His hand shook as he lowered it to the hem of her black dress. It had fallen back to reveal her thighs and he looked down at them and his hips nestled between them. The sight of her pale thighs against his black armour was so erotic that he growled without thinking.
“Vail,” she murmured, a desperate edge to his name, and he clutched her knee and slid his hand down her creamy thigh to the hem of her dress.
He shoved it up as he kissed the cut on her throat again, stealing another drop of her precious blood, and eased his hips back. He slipped his hand across the flat plane of her stomach, turned it, and placed it over her mound. Her black shorts were damp and warm with her need.
He unleashed a feral possessive growl. “My female needs.”
She moaned in response, rocking her hips into his touch.
He growled for a different reason, grasped her hip and shoved it down. She strained against him but he held her firm, pushing his weight onto her hip as he rose off her, coming to kneel between her thighs. He hooked his fingers into both sides of her underwear and pulled them roughly down to her ankles. Her boots stopped his progress and he yanked them off, tossing them aside, and then pulled her black shorts off and cast them away too.
Tempted by a Rogue Prince Page 27