A Clash of Three Courts (An Heir Comes to Rise, #4)

by C.C. Peñaranda

“I want to hear you say it.”

“Exactly. You hesitated, but that’s okay. I can wait as long as it takes for you to believe my want for you goes far beyond lust.”

“I want…” Her breathing was labored, fighting head against heart. “Say it.” “You.”

“What I wouldn’t give to watch you,” he ground out at last. Nik leaned his head down, inch by torturous inch, until her lips tingled with the near touch of his. “Maybe one day you will.”

“This dress looked beautiful on you,” he said in a deep, gravelly tone. Her sharp breath was swallowed by the tear of fabric when Nik effortlessly helped her out from the front instead. “Remind me I owe you a new one.”

“I’ve often wondered if we’re all born cursed to desire what doesn’t come so easily. To long for what is always just out of reach.”

“You have never been my ward. Or my subject. Or my princess. You are my equal, Tauria. In every way, you shine brighter than the moon I’ve watched change in the sky since you left, knowing it was the one thing we could look upon all the same. Is that pitiful of me?”

“I plan to make it up to you. On my knees, between those thighs, every day if that’s what it takes.”

“Eyes on me, love.”

“You shouldn’t have come for me.” He held those desperate hazel eyes. Despite everything, Nik smiled at his world. “I’ll always come for you.”

“You are born of the wind. Don’t fight it; become it. You are more than enough.”

“Words, love.”