Tempted by a Rogue Prince

by Felicity Heaton

  Bliss washed through him, melting his bones and turning his muscles to water.

  He lay in the grass, his fingers still tangled in her long hair, holding her mouth to him.

  He slowly opened his eyes and looked down at her as he released her and she raised her head, her gaze meeting his. The dark hunger in it called to him and awakened a glimmer of dissatisfaction in him that took the edge off his climax.

  He had wanted to come inside her again.

  He had wanted to give her pleasure too.

  She rose onto her knees and his gaze fell to her thighs. The taste of her lingered on his tongue, sweet and tempting, stirring his desire back to life.

  He would give his female pleasure.

  He would taste her as she had tasted him.

  CHAPTER 26

  Vail rose to his knees, pushed Rosalind onto her back, and crawled up the length of her. Her heart began to race, the knot in her stomach growing tighter as her desire spiked, fuelled by the hungry look in his purple eyes. Mother earth, he could melt her with just a look and she lost her ability to think straight.

  He dropped his hands to her knees and shoved her dress up to her stomach, and she trembled in response to the feel of his hands on her, pressing into her flesh and speaking of his strength.

  They were moving too fast, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell him that when he placed his left hand on her. Lightning whipped through her and she moaned and raised her hips into his touch, seeking a firmer one that would satisfy her. He growled and his eyes narrowed, but not in anger. No. There was only hunger in them, a fierce need that echoed within her, demanding release.

  He pulled her knickers off and tossed them aside, and held her gaze, his hooded and dark with desire.

  “I wish to taste you,” he husked, each low-spoken word cranking her temperature higher and making her tremble with anticipation. “I want to devour you… will you allow it, sweet Rosalind?”

  Mother earth, would she.

  She nodded and couldn’t stop herself as he pressed his hands to the insides of her thighs and eased them apart. He lowered himself, his fierce gaze dropping to her core, setting her on fire.

  Bloody hell, he was really going to do it.

  His hot breath flowed over her, making her flutter in response and her heart miss a beat. She tried to relax but it was impossible as he wedged her knees apart with his broad shoulders, his bare skin against hers.

  He parted her and darted his tongue in to brush her most sensitive place.

  She moaned at the same time as he did and his markings flashed over his shoulders and down his back.

  He was still a moment in which she found it hard not to move and not to beg him to do it again, and then placed his mouth on her.

  The universe exploded.

  Rosalind collapsed against the grass and moaned as he flicked his tongue over her nub before swirling it in a circle, sending sparks of pleasure shooting through her body. She moaned and he grunted in response, his actions turning rougher.

  “Gentle,” she murmured, unsure whether he would appreciate the guidance or would turn on her.

  He slowed and softened his approach, and mother earth, it had been worth the risk. Each swirl and stroke of his tongue, every soft puff of his breath across her sensitive flesh, sent her arousal soaring higher and drove her out of her mind. She clutched at the grass above her head, fighting the need to hold his head instead, pinning him in place until she had found her release.

  He licked lower and lapped at her core. She moaned and rocked her hips against him. He stilled and she was about to berate him for it when he speared her with two fingers and she cried out her bliss.

  He growled, the sound pure male satisfaction, arousing her further, and pumped her slowly with his fingers as he flicked his tongue over her nub.

  She couldn’t stop rocking her hips, writhing on his fingers as he stroked her inside. It wasn’t enough. She needed more. She lowered her hands and fondled her breasts, pulling them free of her dress so she could pluck her nipples.

  Vail stopped and lifted his head, his gaze boring into her hands.

  She swallowed and looked down at him, refusing to stop what she was doing. She tweaked and rolled her nipples, moaning as pleasure skittered through her. His eyes darkened with desire that tore another groan from her and he growled. He thrust his two fingers into her and she cried out, clenching him inside her, wriggling and trying to make him thrust again. He refused her, his focus back on her breasts.

  “Vail,” she murmured, on the verge of begging him to keep going because she was close.

  He growled, flashing extending fangs, and pulled his fingers from her. He was on her before she could protest at the loss of him inside her, his mouth swooping on her breasts as he filled her in one stroke with his cock. She cried out at the blissful invasion and moaned as he thrust harder into her, sucking on her nipple at the same time.

  She couldn’t stop herself from clutching his shoulders or raising her hips, pushing them higher so he could go deeper. He growled against her breast on his next thrust, evidently approving of her decision, and seized her hip with his left hand, holding her backside off the grass.

  He pumped her hard and deep, long fast strokes that ripped moans from her as she clutched at him, scoring his back with her nails. He grunted in response and thrust harder, the wildness of it awakening that side of her, making her let go of her fears.

  Rosalind dug her fingers into his hair and pulled him up to her. He swooped on her mouth and devoured her, his tongue tangling with hers. She grasped his hair as he slid one arm beneath her, wrapping it over her shoulder, and held her backside off the ground with his other hand.

  “More.” She pressed her free hand into the small of his back, pushing down each time he thrust into her, encouraging him to let go because she needed it harder. She needed to feel all of his strength used on her in a wild union.

  He growled into her mouth and pumped her harder, his pelvis slamming into her with each fierce stroke. It wasn’t enough. She needed more.

  He gave it to her.

  He sank his fangs into her throat and she cried out, a hot wave of bliss pouring through her from the point where his mouth fused with her flesh. He grunted and thrust deeper, keeping up his frenzied pace. The first pull on her blood sent her out of her head and all of her strength flowed out of her, replaced by a hazy feeling that gradually gained focus with each subsequent pull he made, until she had an inexplicable need for his blood.

  She writhed beneath him as the hunger grew, slowly seizing control of her, making her needful and achy.

  “Vail,” she whispered, sure he could sense her need and would know how to satisfy it.

  He licked her neck and lifted his head, and she flinched as his armour covered his fingers, turning them into claws, and he used one to nick his throat.

  A tiny bead of blood broke the surface and trembled in time with each wild thrust of his body into hers. Another bead joined it and her gaze zeroed in on it.

  Rosalind grabbed the back of his neck, dragged him down to her and latched onto his throat. She swept her tongue over the cut and shuddered as fire cascaded through her and the universe exploded again, glittering in a thousand colours. She moaned and wrapped her legs around him, sucking harder on the cut and swallowing his blood. Ambrosia.

  He grunted with each pull she made, his actions turning jerky and rough, his bliss flowing into her and mingling with hers.

  Mother earth.

  She had never experienced anything like it.

  And it only got better when he dropped his mouth back to her throat and sucked on his bite mark again, drawing her blood out of her as she drank his down.

  He grasped her hip in a bruising grip and shoved into her, sending her over the edge. Pleasure detonated within her, her entire body quivering against his and turning liquid as fire flowed through her and sparks leaped along her nerve endings.

  Vail thrust deeper and held her in place as his le
ngth pulsed within her, hot jets of seed marking her inside, increasing the bliss rippling through her. He shook against her, his grip on her hip unrelenting but his drinking slowing.

  She released his neck and swept her lips over it one last time before licking away the final drop of blood.

  He brushed his tongue over her throat, lifted his head, and pressed his forehead against hers.

  “Mine now. Mine forever.”

  Those whispered words stole her heart and brought her both joy and pain.

  She was his and he was hers.

  But it could only be for now.

  Not forever.

  No matter how fiercely she wanted it to be.

  CHAPTER 27

  Vail led Rosalind through the forest, clearing the path for her and following his senses north, towards the Third Realm. They had walked for two days, taking regular breaks for his Little Wild Rose to rest, and had fallen into a sort of rhythm with each other.

  She would set up the camp, gathering firewood and waiting for him to be at a distance hunting for her before she lit it using her magic. He always sensed it though. Not the magic. She kept that at a level low enough that he never felt it but just enough to make the spell work. He sensed the nerves in her through their link, her trepidation and fear, and knew she experienced those feelings because she had no desire to trigger an attack in him.

  That touched him more than she could ever know.

  The demons had bound her powers, had stolen them from her, and he knew that it had upset her, because having his abilities bound had upset him. He was beginning to understand her now, and it had only made his appreciation of her and how she held her magic in check around him grow.

  Whenever he returned, she greeted him with a smile and asked him how his hunting had fared. He never returned empty handed. Little Wild Rose needed to eat and he would expend every drop of his power to ensure that she had the sustenance she required to keep her strong. No distance was too great. No creature too large. He would scour all of the Fifth Realm to find her something to eat.

  If the portal pathways had been open to him, he would have scoured the entirety of Hell, and if that failed, he would have returned to a place he loathed but one he knew would easily supply him with food—the mortal realm.

  After his ki’ara had eaten, she would tell him more about herself, speaking of her home in the mortal realm and the family she had left behind because she was a light witch, and they were darkness. She would press him to tell her about himself too and he would think back to better days to give her something pleasing to hear.

  Each time he spoke of those days with his brother in the mortal world and in the elf kingdom, he felt lighter and the darkness seemed further away, slowly drifting into the distance.

  And after they had spoken and his Little Wild Rose looked at him with sleep-filled eyes, they would settle against the same tree and he would hold her while she slept, watching over her to ensure her nightmares didn’t return.

  And not once had he felt the darkness push at him, commanding him to harm her because she was a witch.

  Perhaps there was hope for him yet.

  He glanced over his shoulder at her and found her staring at his backside.

  Her eyes shot wide and darted up to his, and a deep scarlet blush coloured her fair cheeks.

  “I… um… I,” she stammered and her blush deepened. Her gaze leaped off to her left.

  “Was staring at my backside?” he offered.

  She scowled at him. “I think I liked you better when you didn’t say much and mostly growled at me.”

  Liar. She liked this side of him that their long hours of talking and their growing closeness was bringing out in him. He confessed that he liked it too. He had lost himself somewhere along the line, but now he felt he had found himself again.

  Loren hadn’t been the only one who had laughed during their travels in the mortal realm as youths. Vail had always laughed harder and played harder too. He had always been the one to take risks and challenge the extent of their immortality, and it had always ended with his brother chastising him while tending to his wounds.

  Vail drew in a deep breath and sighed it out as he looked around the forest, taking in the colourful bright flowers that illuminated the thick leafy canopy in this area, shades of pink, blue and yellow, and the black cragged mountains that rose through the gaps in the trees.

  Loren would have loved this place.

  Vail placed his bare palm against the thick rough trunk of the tree to his left, closed his eyes and focused on his link to nature and the one to his brother. He opened the barrier between them and his eyes too, and channelled the beauty of the forest through it to his brother, and that it was a place in Hell, far from the elf kingdom, but no doubt born of the power they had exerted there in order to create their verdant land.

  Warmth travelled through the bond with Loren, a sense of happiness that wasn’t born purely of what Vail had found and was sharing with him. He frowned, curious as to why his brother was so happy on this day.

  “You okay?” Rosalind said, cocking her head at him, causing her ash blonde hair to sway across her breasts and distracting him.

  He nodded.

  “Spacing out?”

  He frowned and shook his head. “Revealing this place to my brother.”

  She frowned now, her fair eyebrows dipping low above her azure eyes. “How?”

  “We have a bond… a strong connection. I normally keep it closed to keep him from finding me, but I wanted to show him this place. He is happy today.”

  “Why?” She moved a step closer, brushed her hair over her shoulder, and canted her head the other way.

  “I do not know why he is happy.” Vail closed the link between them and removed his hand from the tree.

  She smiled and shook her head. “No. Why do you keep it closed to stop him from finding you?”

  Vail looked over her head into the distance, his eyes losing focus as he pondered how to answer that question. When he came up with no suitable answer, he lowered his eyes back to her.

  “You know why,” he said and her blue eyes grew solemn and she drew another step closer.

  Little Wild Rose slipped her hand into his right one and brushed her thumb across his knuckles, her gaze fixed there. “Because you think he hates you… because you think every elf in your kingdom hates you.”

  “It is not my kingdom, Rosalind.” Vail snatched his hand back from her and shoved his fingers through his hair. “You know that. I do not belong there… I am not welcome there… no matter how—”

  He growled and cut himself off, but it didn’t deter his brave little female.

  “No matter how much you desire it,” she finished for him and sighed, tiptoed and caught his right hand again, bringing it down to her chest and holding it there.

  His gaze fell back to her and drank in the beautiful way she was looking at him as he absorbed every feeling flowing through their bond. Compassion. Tenderness. Love.

  “Maybe one day things will be different, Vail. You never know. I hope you can go back there and be with your brother. I know you’ll be happy there.”

  He hoped for that too, but he also hoped that Rosalind would be there with him. He could never be happy without her. She had become his entire universe. There was no happiness for him in this world without her. No good. No light. Without her, he would become the darkness again and he would embrace it to rid himself of the pain of living without her.

  “You feel melancholy,” she whispered with a frown and squeezed his hand. “Think happy thoughts.”

  He found that difficult when she spoke of him returning to the elf kingdom, and him being happy, with no mention of her.

  “I am trying,” he said to appease her and couldn’t stop himself from clutching her hand and adding, “I hope we can go there and be with my brother and his ki’ara. I know we will be happy there.”

  The light inside her faded and her face fell, dark emotions swift to rise and travel
through their link, speaking of sorrow and fear.

  “Rosalind, what is it?” He drew her closer, wrapping one arm around her waist and palming the back of her head with the other, holding it to his chest. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head, breathed her in, and closed his eyes, savouring the feel of her against him and how she sought comfort from him.

  Her arms looped around his waist and her hands pressed into his upper back, clutching at him, as if she feared he would let her go. Never.

  They would be together forever.

  She drew back, her hands trembling against him. The tears lining her eyes tore at his heart and he released her head and captured one with his fingertip. The diamond drop glittered at him.

  “Little Wild Rose, speak to me,” he whispered and she swallowed hard.

  Her eyebrows furrowed and her lips parted.

  “Vail… there’s something I have to tell you…”

  A shudder went through the forest and through Vail.

  He stilled, every muscle tensing and bone locking as a shadow swept over the land and nature receded.

  The blossoms in the trees faded, their light dying, and the glowing insects stuttered and disappeared.

  Rosalind looked around them as the forest plunged into darkness and pressed closer to him. “Vail, what’s happening?”

  Her magic rose, brushing over his skin, pushing at his control. He ground his teeth and held it together, refusing to succumb to the darkness and the despicable things it whispered to him. She was afraid, not out to harm him. Her power meant to protect her, not control him.

  He meant to protect her too.

  “We must move. Demons have entered the forest.” He grabbed her hand and began running with her, crashing through the shrubs with her stumbling along behind him.

  She found her stride and kept up with him, her magic rising still. She muttered beneath her breath and it grew stronger. A bright light burst into life off to his left, where she was, and he flinched away from it as it dampened his vision. The glowing blue orb shot ahead of them, lighting their path. Vail growled at the spell and forced himself to keep running in that direction as every instinct he possessed said to turn around and head the other way, away from the magic.