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“Begging for attention again, are we?”
“Yeh ash valtem lailla ok darrida,” Malyr whispered. “I will forever protect our young. And I would never, ever let my unborn child get anywhere near your father.”
Something I’d accepted, the way he tormented my body into bliss, tortured my soul into surrender. But that twinge beneath my ribs at the distance between us? That longing for his strong body to frame my other side? That was new. New and terrifying.
“This is amazing. Strokes my ego, for sure. I never had a queen’s lips wrapped around my cock, sucking me off so nicely. And here my father thought I’d never make anything out of myself.”
“The female chooses, sweetheart… not the other way around.”
“Or maybe you’re just too much of a temptation for both of us.”
“It is a heavy burden to carry. One misstep, one accident. One moment of… weakness, leaving you with nothing but guilt. That, and the lifelong urge to make things right. It is what draws him to you, you know. Saving you. Protecting you.”
“You said you hope that your actions added months to my time in the dungeons, but little dove, I never escaped them. They are with me, inside me, forever a part of me.” Another beat of silence. “I would rather suffer The Endless Ache than watch my mate endlessly suffer me. You, however, will.”
“People can still see the scars.”
“They will be invisible to those who truly love you.”
‘Whatever it takes to make you look at me like that,’
“Are you lost, little dove?”
“The idea of watching you throw yourself down is tempting…”
“Yes, I hoped that the fantasy of my untimely death might get you to agree.”
“I assure you, little dove, I won’t be on my best behavior.”
“Remember the night you rolled your hips like a bitch in heat with my cock nudged at your cunt, begging me so nicely to breed you, little dove?”
“A shame, considering I cannot get it out of my head how you tempted me.”
“Mmm, did your mother not tell you?” he whispered with a shove of his nose at my temple. “My little white dove, so is playing with knives.”
Right there, on those lips that had tasted like autumn sweetness during our almost-kiss, a heart-rending smile clung to the wavering corners as if it didn’t quite remember how to survive on Malyr’s usually severe mouth. But it did, causing one treacherous flutter in my chest after another for each second it lasted. And, gods help me, did it last…
“Little dove, I have watched you dozens of times, from rafters, dark corners, through windows.” His words hushed across the shell of my ear, sending a lovely shudder down my neck. “Just because you cannot see me does not mean that we cannot see you. And how we love to observe your excitement when you explore merchant’s wares, read by the window, or twitch your lips in delight at the sight of blackberries.”
“Presume it is something as simple as the fact that you are beautiful,” he said. “Except when you fight me… then you are stunning.”
“Careful now.” The words came slowly, breathily. More warning to myself than him. “You promised not to be on your best behavior.”
“Oh, but I happen to love how it f...
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“And if you run from it this time? Little dove, there will only be one set of arms left to run into. Mine.”
Did that not make him safe in his honesty? His kindness trustworthy?
“Among Ravens, you are my mate now. The wedding is merely a symbolic act to pacify humans and their customs.”
Malyr tasted sweet and dark, like the last blackberry on a snow-covered branch, promising pure delight one moment, but threatening downfall, decay, and death the next.
“Are you running from me again?”
“And is it such a terrible place to be?”
“Not until they will hurt me again.”
“As they will,” he said. “How else could I reconcile how I kissed you, hmm? How my body longs for yours? How I brought you pleasure with my mouth on your cunt? How I spend… way too many hours watching you, annoyingly fixated beyond sense or reason?”
“Will you have me believe that every cut, every bruise, every scar is a token of your affection?”
“The longer you make me look at you, little dove, the harder it is for me to remember what you are. And I fear that, if I look too long… I just might forget who you are."
Hurt me. Because he needed to, didn’t he? Needed to treat me like his enemy to justify that he would make me his wife. Needed to show me his hate to reconcile whatever affection he hid.
If gentle touches weren’t a surety for love, then what were the chances that pain and love weren’t as mutually exclusive as my sheltered mind had thought them to be? Could there be love in pain?
“Took you long enough,”
“I am not gentle. I was once, I think, but not anymore.”
“I do not want gentle.”
“Take this off,” he rasped by my ear as his other hand lifted my shift. “Don’t make me wait because my patience for the moment you finally come to me started wearing thin long ago.”
“Longer than you can imagine, little white dove.”
“Since the day Sebian brought me to that forest, when you first saw—”
“Longer.”
“Now I finally have my fingers wrapped around your little neck, yet I cannot seem to close them tightly enough to end you. You should have died a dozen times at my hands. Why haven’t you, hmm?”
“Because you’re my little dove, astonishingly beautiful, so fucking perfect with how I can strangle you to within inches of fainting and make you come all the harder for it.”
“I said… do… not… move.”
“I can tell you want my cock up your ass again; why else would that little hole clench like that?”
“No, I know where you want me. And you will take me there without making a fuss, and you let me rut you like a good little slut. That’s what you are when nobody is looking past the silk and shadowcloth I provide you. My little whore wife, so fucking perfect with how she begs me to hurt her, the way you whimper and moan will make fate itself blush.”
“Goddess help me, I won’t get ten thrusts with how good you feel.”
Because it felt like love. Terrible, star-crossed, painful love.
“I should redden your hide for making me desire you the way I do. For robbing my sleep. For making my cock twitch, overly eager to come like a fucking untried youth.” Whack. Another slap to my cunt as his fingers tightened on my throat. “Apologize.”
