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“You’re tormenting me for your own amusement, aren’t you?” he asked, his finger tracing along her arm.
“Yep,” she said, closing her eyes and relaxing into the comforting heat Zarin generated. “Fun to tease you.” She gave a happy sigh. She wouldn’t mind staying right here in his arms forever.
He kissed the top of her head. “Love you,” he whispered.
Adrenaline flooded her senses. He loved her? Oh, holy olives. He loved her.
But he’d whispered it. Did that mean he hadn’t meant for her to hear it? Should she say it back? But what if it had been an accident, and he didn’t really mean it? What if she said it and he laughed and told her he’d been teasing?
She nibbled her bottom lip. She was overthinking things again. Doubting. Fixating on what could go wrong rather than what could go so very right.
Bold Seraiah looked on in disappointment. What had they just talked about? That’s right. Be brave. Open your heart and your head to what could be. What if this man actually, truly, deeply loved her? And what if she felt something similar?
Embracing the truth of it made her feel giddy, like she’d had too much bubbly. Faster than she ever thought possible, she’d reached a point where she didn’t want to imagine her life without Zarin in it. She needed him by her side. She wanted him in her and in her life. It felt right, the thread of connection knotting tight.
Her hand clenched against his thigh. Say it, Bold Seraiah whispered in her ear.
“I think I’m falling in love with you, too,” she said. And those words, they set her free.
14
ZARIN
She said she loved him. Right? He hadn’t imagined her response after he whispered he loved her, had he? Of course, she was practically asleep at the time, so maybe it was a slip of the tongue on her part. Or not. He’d certainly meant it. Meant it with all his heart. With every atom of his being. He loved her.
He clasped his arms tighter around her sleeping form, not allowing anyone to take her from him as he strode down the hall to his quarters. When his Head of Household tried to steer him towards the elegant guest quarters they’d prepared for her, he shook his head. “She stays with me,” he growled, feeling both protective and possessive in a way he’d never experienced. He didn’t want to let her out of his sight. She belonged in his bed, at his side.
His growls didn’t phase his staff, though. They were used to his growly ways and knew that, while he might snarl, he did his best by them. Besides, he was king. That meant if he wanted to carry a sleeping woman into his room rather than the guest quarters, few would gainsay him.
Except they could because he wasn’t a tyrant or a dictator like his father. Those who worked for him were allowed to have opinions and to voice them without fear of repercussion. He might be king and have the reputation for being ruthless, but they were his people, and he answered to them as their leader, not the other way around. If his father knew what his second son had been up to since taking the throne, he would be spinning in his grave. Zarin grinned at the thought.
By the time he reached his suite of rooms, the bed was turned down, a fire was crackling merrily in the fireplace, and there was a tray of savory biscuits and a pot of the green tea he liked to sip at night waiting for him. His guard closed the door behind him, taking up their positions in the hall, leaving him alone with Seraiah.
Who was still sound asleep. She’d crashed hard on the ride up the hill and through the gates. She hadn’t done more than curl her hand around his shirt when he’d lifted her from the zippy lift and carried her into the palace. He bent to pull off her shoes, dropping them and her socks to the floor. She looked uncomfortable in the pants she’d borrowed from the smallest of his personal guard, so he unbuttoned them and slid them down her legs, careful not to wake her. Though, he guessed with how deeply she was under, it would take a blast from a rail gun to disturb her.
Hands on his hips, he surveyed her, splayed out like a starfish on his bed, her rosy lips parted, a tiny wheezing snore issuing from her with each exhale. His heart squeezed tight. He didn’t know it was possible to love someone as much as he loved Seraiah. She hadn’t even been in his life that long, but it didn’t matter. He couldn’t live without her.
Quickly, he performed his nightly ablutions, stripped off his clothes, and climbed into bed with her, hauling her up against him and slinging a thigh over her legs. She made a happy noise and nestled into his arms, wiggling her ass against his cock in a way that made him wish she was awake. She fit so perfectly against him, it was as if she were made for him. He burrowed his nose into her hair, breathing in her bright, outdoorsy scent. Contentment filled every pore, and he dropped into a deep sleep faster than light speed.
The next morning, he woke up with the biggest boner he’d ever experienced, and it was all the fault of the woman who currently had her lips wrapped around the head of his cock.
“Seraiah?” he said, his head muzzy from sleep.
She paused in her ministrations, eyeing him with a raised brow. “You’re not sure who’s licking your cock this morning, your majesty? Better think carefully. How you answer might affect whether or not you can sire progeny in the future.” She scraped her nails over his balls.
He practically hit the top of the bed’s canopy. “Seraiah,” he said in a sharp exhalation of breath. Welp, he was awake now, that was for certain. “Goddess fuck, woman. What are you doing down there?”
She grinned at him from where she straddled his legs, her thighs spread wide across his, stroking a hand up and down his length. “Well, when I woke up, this thing was poking my ass. I figured it was requesting attention and, since I had the time and the inclination, I took things in hand.” She paused at the base of his cock and gave it a light squeeze.
He groaned, his hands fisting the sheets. “Well, thank fuck,” he managed to say. “Because if you didn’t, I’d have to.”
She tsked. “You’d deprive me of the chance to do this?” She bent down and licked him from root to tip, pausing to swirl her tongue over the head of his cock and lap away a bead of pre-cum.
“Never,” he said, his entire being focused on what she was doing to him.
“Good.” Adjusting her grip, she wrapped her lips around the head and pulled him into her mouth.
It was like being sucked into a supernova, heat and stars exploding within him. “Seraiah,” he ground out, his body bowing towards her, pushing his length deeper down her throat.
