Fall of Ruin and Wrath (Awakening, #1)

Prince Thorne’s head tilted to the side as I spread my fingers. Beneath them, the muscles of his stomach seemed to tighten and relax. “How did you become a favorite of the Baron’s?”

My heart turned over heavily as my gaze shot to his. “As one typically does.”

A tight smile reappeared as I lowered my head to his neck. I pressed my lips there, kissing him softly and slowly working my way down, nipping at the skin at the curve of his shoulder.

“Like this?” he asked, brushing the back of his hand along the center of me once more.

“Many ways,” I murmured against his chest, the salt of his skin and the faint flavor of soap gathering against my lips.

The hand on my thigh slid an inch or two down. I tensed, pulse skipping as one of his fingers drifted along the slit. It was a barely there touch, but my entire body jerked in response.

My fingers curled against his skin as I dragged my hands up. I licked at the hard line of his chest. I knew I should be using my hands elsewhere, but I was already distracted enough. Possibly too much, because I could barely see the white wall now. “What other— ” I gasped as a finger of his pressed down on the sensitive center of nerves.

“You were saying?”

What was I saying? Oh, yes. Why he was here. “What other reasons could’ve brought you to the manor?”

His finger swirled around my clit, causing me to tremor. “You ask many questions, na’laa.”

“I’m known to be very curious.”

“And stubborn?”

“Maybe that— ” I gasped as his head dipped suddenly. His warm breath on my skin was the only warning I had before his mouth closed over my nipple. I trembled as his tongue teased, sending shivers of pleasure racing through me. His hand came up to cup my other breast, thumbing the sensitive peak. A breathy moan escaped me. He then drew my nipple into his mouth, sucking deep and hard. I shook, crying out. He chuckled low in his throat, and the sound vibrated in the most wantonly delicious way.

He slowly released the throbbing flesh from his mouth. “Sorry,” he said, brushing his lips over the skin. “I wanted to know what your skin tasted like.”

My nails scraped against his hard flesh as I slipped my hand over his navel and underwater. “And what does my skin taste like, Your Grace?”

“Thorne,” he sighed, trailing a path of hot, wet kisses to my other breast. His tongue flicked out, tantalizing and wicked. “Your skin tastes of hunger and smells of . . .” His lips then coasted along the side of my throat, coaxing my head back. He didn’t need to. I was already giving him whatever he sought. “Cherries.”

“Cherries?” My fingers brushed against his cock. It had been a while since I finished a man. From previous experience, I judged that it wasn’t all that difficult; most men seemed rather easy to please. But this was a Hyhborn prince. I hesitated as I wrapped my hand around him, unsure.

“Your skin smells of the cherries that flourish in the meadows of Highgrove.” His other hand slipped from my breast and found mine beneath the water. “I bet your lips taste just as sweet.”

My breath snagged as his hand closed over mine. He tightened my grip on him and began to move my hand up his length. I exhaled a shaky breath as he throbbed against my palm.

“This is how I like it,” he told me, sending a shivery wave of heat through me as he drew my hand back down him. “Tight. Hard. You won’t hurt me.”

Swallowing, I nodded. His lips brushed my cheek as he let go of my hand. I kept going, my own breath coming in short, shallow pants as I moved my hand in tune with his fingers’ slow, idle caresses, gaining confidence in what I was doing.

Prince Thorne nipped at my lower lip, but didn’t kiss me as he drew his finger over the throbbing heat. “Have you ever done this?”

“Done what?”

“This.” His finger made another pass. “Serviced another.”

“Of course,” I answered.

“Then how long have you been servicing others?”

“Long enough.”

That faint smile returned as more specks of white crowded his pupils. The effect was startling enough that I found it difficult to look away from. “You know what I think?”

My hips jerked again as his hand cupped me between the thighs. “What?”

His palm pressed against me, and my body reacted without thought, rubbing against him. “I think you’re lying to me.”





CHAPTER 16


In a very distant part of my brain, warning bells rang. They’d probably been ringing this whole time but I’d been too distracted to notice.

Prince Thorne’s fingers kept moving idly between my thighs and at my breast. “Na’laa?”

“I . . . I’ve never seduced a Hyhborn,” I managed, thighs trembling. “Or been seduced by one.”

“Both of those things aren’t necessarily true,” he said. “You seduced me in the shower, and you were so very close to being seduced then.”

“I don’t believe that counts.”

“It doesn’t?” His fingers closed over the peak of my breast, sending a bolt of pleasured pain through me. “So . . .” He drew the word out as the finger he ran along me didn’t make an idle pass, but stopped, slipping into me. Not deep, but the shallow intrusion still was a stunning, acute shock, wringing a soft cry from me. “If it was my cock inside you instead of my finger?” That finger retreated until he nearly left me, and then he reclaimed the scant fingertip length. “Moving through this tight, hot heat of yours?”

Each breath I took felt like it went nowhere as his finger moved slowly, steadily— as his hand shifted and his thumb brushed over the nub of flesh just above his finger.

“Going deeper? Harder? Faster?” The blue and green churned wildly through the brown of his irises. His pupils were nearly white. “Would the sounds you make be those of a well-practiced and skilled lover as I fuck you? Or would your cries be those of one who has little experience in such pleasure?”

The moan that left me was one I’d never made before. I shuddered. I’d been fucked before, but I’d never felt these almost too-intense sensations he was creating inside of me, drawing out of me.

He dipped his head, lips glancing off my cheek. “I don’t think you’re a skilled courtesan.”

My heart thundered as I said the first thing that came to mind. “Perhaps the Baron believed you would not want one so experienced?”

One single brow rose. “Are you suggesting that your baron thought I would prefer debauching an unpracticed potential virgin who one day wants to become a botanist?”

A wave of prickly warmth hit my skin, loosening my hold on my tongue and common sense, but tightening my grip on his cock, just above that knot of flesh. He was even harder there than the rest of his body. “You don’t?” I asked, watching him as I moved my hand along his length just as he said he liked it. Tight. Hard. Those tiny sparks of light appeared in his pupils. “I’m no virgin, Your Highness, but truth is not nearly as important as perception. So, if you believe me to be an unpracticed virgin, it didn’t stop you from engaging in said debauchery, did it?”

The corners of his lips twitched as if he wished to smile. “It did not.”

Knowing that ground I was treading on was getting even thinner, more dangerous, I glanced down at where his hand was still between my legs, his finger still inside me. My eyes returned to his as I stroked him from the base to the tip, marveling a bit at the ridged feel of him. “And still hasn’t?”

The Prince didn’t respond for a long moment, but I felt his chest rise sharply under my other hand. “Am I to believe the way you all but ran into the bathing chamber upon the suggestion that we’d skip the bath was an act? That the flush of your skin when I entered the chamber was a trick of the eyes? Your hesitation in joining me? Your nervousness? All an act?”

I leaned in until our mouths were inches apart, summoning every ounce of bravery I had. “I’m not here to make you believe one thing or another.”