A Kingdom of Flame and Fury (The Four Kingdoms Book 1) Read online

  “You found a thermal spring.” Her mouth was slack as she took it in. All I wanted to do was kiss her. “But how…” she whispered as I kept tugging her, bringing her along the side of the small cave until my dock came into view. My ship was still against the small dock, the sails barely moving. “This must be yours.”

  “It is. I took a different route here than what’s laid out on our maps. This is where I ended up. I took a day to explore where I was and was surprised to see Seolia through the other side of the forest.” I hated that I needed to lie to her.

  “I’m just as astonished as you are. I’ve explored this forest many times, but have never gone far enough to find this. It’s breathtaking.”

  She was breathtaking, but I nodded as I pulled my hand from her grip. She frowned. I wanted to tell her not to worry, because I would always find a way to touch her.

  My hand found the small of her back and I gently led her toward the makeshift cave surrounding the spring. “There’s a small waterfall back here.” I dipped my chin to the back of the cave.

  She closed her eyes, listening to the soft sound of the falling water. I welcomed the memory sketching into my mind, knowing I’d recall how she looked in the moonlight frequently.

  I took a step, using my hand on her back to guide her along the wall of the tall rocks. As we approached the waterfall, she stuck her hand out to the falling water that appeared white as it blended into the black spring underneath it. She started to laugh, using both of her hands to form a cup, the water filling them. Turning back to me, she showed me what she did with her hands. “Thank you for bringing me here.”

  I wanted to take her everywhere.

  I bowed my head to her gratitude and cupped my hands under hers, catching the water that spilled on them. She stared at my face and I searched her eyes. There was so much I wanted to tell her that I couldn’t. She wanted to make sense of our connection. She could feel it.

  She took a small step closer as our hands dropped until her body was barely touching mine. I tensed, ignoring my need to touch her. I wanted everything to be her choice.

  “Swim with me,” she breathed, her voice soft as she wrapped her hands around mine and pulled me backward out of the cave.

  I didn’t think I was breathing, watching her as she dropped my hands and took a step away from me. She began to pull her dress up and I stared, mesmerized by the way her body moved.

  She slowly slid the boots off of her thighs. My erection was painfully pushing against the fabric of my briefs. I could have come undone just from the slightest glance of her skin. She dropped the boots beside her and looked to me, waiting.

  I wanted to defile her, make her scream, but she was too precious to me. I wanted to savor her. But, she wanted me and I could never turn her down. Her eyes were full of lust and it was the first time she seemed completely relaxed all night.

  I toed the back of my boot and slid it off my foot, repeating the same with the other and kicked them carelessly to the side. I waited for her next move.

  A seductive game of chess.

  I sensed her nervousness return, and wanted to wrap my arms around her. I didn’t want her to ever be fearful to show herself to me. She was perfect. The mere thought of her made me sweat. I couldn’t begin to imagine the frenzy I would be in when I saw her body.

  Her fingers trembled as she reached for the bottom hem of her dress, slowly raising it over her body. It pooled at her feet as she dropped it to the ground. All that was left were a pair of silky black panties and a matching bralette, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of her body.

  She was like a dream.

  Much shorter than me, but the thinness of her legs made them appear longer and they connected to lusciously curvy hips that I wanted to wrap my hands around while she rode me. My tongue slowly licked across my lips as I moved up to her stomach and across her still covered breasts, her nipples hardened against the fabric. I wanted to take them between my teeth.

  She was exquisite. Fragile. I wanted to worship her.

  My mouth watered at the idea of tasting her. I bet she would taste so delicious on my tongue. She kneeled and I pictured her on her knees before me, claiming her mouth. The fabric started to cling to her skin as she lowered herself in the water and precum coated my tip. I didn’t even have to touch her to come apart.

  I couldn’t stop staring at her, unmoving. And then I could practically smell her self-doubt return. How could she think I didn’t want this as much as her?

  I unfastened my jacket and tossed it over my boots, pulling my shirt over my head and discarding it the same way. I stopped breathing as she drank me in. All hers. I would always be just for her. I worked the buckle of my pants, pushing them down and stepping out of them. Her gaze moved to my hard erection pressing against my briefs. Her chest rose and fell quickly.

  All for you, Raven. Only for you.

  Her hand lifted from under the water and she beckoned me in with her finger. I gave her a sly grin at how sexy she was and lowered myself into the water. I leaned against the cool stone wall, not making a move to be closer to her. I wanted her permission.

  There was still a body’s length between us and she looked at me curiously. No one had ever let her make the first move. I could tell. She was used to men taking her. She was going to have to come to me. It had to be her choice.

  I still sensed her doubt and I leered at her lasciviously.

  I want you. Just come here.

  She drew in a deep breath, trying to settle her nerves. “So you’ve been thinking about me,” she said.

  That was a severe understatement. I’d done nothing but think of her. I crossed my arms over my chest. Not touching her was extremely difficult. I nodded to her question.

  She grinned. “Tell me about it.”

  “Do you want honesty?” My voice was hoarse as I asked her.

  She visibly shivered and pulled in her bottom lip. Fuck, I needed her. She took another step toward me. She was rewarding me for speaking. I’d read an entire goddamn book aloud for her if she would just come a little closer. “I wondered how you taste. If you scream when you come.”

  “Did you get off while thinking of me?”

  I gave her another nod, clenching my fists as she took another step to me. She was waiting for me to relent. She was only a handbreadth away. She looked up at me from underneath her lashes and I nearly did.

  Say the words, I begged silently. Let me have you.

  “Do you want to find out?”

  Yes. I uncrossed my arms and found her waist, pulling her to me. She threw her arms around my neck and I lifted her out of the water, her legs circling around my middle. I answered her question with my mouth, crashing it against hers, picking up where we left off the night before.

  My tongue collided with hers and I moved it slowly, wanting to take my time with her. She was a gift that I didn’t want to unwrap just yet. The anticipation was euphoric.

  My fingers kneaded roughly into her ass and she moaned into my mouth, responding by biting into the soft flesh of my bottom lip. I groaned as I yanked back, lust awakening deep within me. She wanted pain. I lunged for her again, cupping one of my hands behind her head as her body balanced on my arm tucked underneath her.

  I pushed my tongue greedily into her mouth again and she tilted her head, allowing me to take as much as I wanted from her. My shaft was hard against her and she ground her ass down against it, moving her hips until she could feel the friction against her clit.

  Fuck, she was riding me like this. I looked down between our bodies and started to pant while I watched how delicious she looked moving on me. I wanted to come, but I wasn’t even close to being finished with her.

  I pushed off of the wall and spun us, sitting her on the edge. She pouted until I pushed my thumb against her clit, reveling in how soaked her panties were. I moved my thumb in circles on her and she threw her head back, pushing harder against my finger, begging for more.

  I obliged and pushed aside the fab
ric and shoved two fingers into her wetness while continuing to work her clit with my thumb. She moaned softly, and I wanted to be the only one able to make that sound come from her. Her lungs were exhaling, but not drawing in breaths, and I knew she was about to come when her walls tightened around my fingers.

  I growled, removing my fingers. “Don’t come for me yet.”

  She whimpered in my absence.

  I grinned smugly at her trembling body. “Miss me?” I was a cocky bastard, but I knew how to make a girl beg.

  I pushed down on her chest, lowering her down to her back. Her skin prickled from the cold stone underneath her. I would warm her up quickly. I unraveled my arm from around her waist and put my hands on her knees, slowly pulling her legs apart to reveal more of her to me. My fingers slid teasingly along the inside of her thighs, circling slowly to the waistband of her panties that hung off of her hip bones.

  She covered her eyes with her arm, frustrated by my lack of touch on her. I began to slide her panties off of her hips and down her thighs, stopping once they hit her knees. I blew a hot breath on her thighs and she shivered, trying to close her knees from the sensation. I didn’t let her, continuing my removal of her panties until they were off, tossing them behind me somewhere in the water. I spread her knees farther apart until I could see all of her and groaned at the sight.

  She was the only thing I would ever want again.

  “I can see how wet you are, even just illuminated by moonlight.”

  She bucked her hips.

  I chuckled darkly. “Such an impatient queen.”

  She huffed, irritated at me, and lifted to rest on her elbows with narrowed eyes. I loved her anger. “I’ve thought of nothing but your tongue since last night. Do something with it,” she demanded through gritted teeth.

  She had thought about me, even as she slept beside another man. I wanted to dominate her. I wanted to be the only one she thought about for the rest of time.

  I slid my hands up her thighs and pressed my fingers into her skin, dipping my nose to run it up her clit. My inhales were greedy as I took in my new favorite scent. My dick was throbbing, wanting to bury itself inside of her, but I wanted a taste. “Your smell is intoxicating.”

  She stared at me, her green eyes appearing black. I grinned at her before I plunged into her core with my tongue. Fuck me, she was the sweetest thing I had ever tasted. My very own kind of fruit and I would never have enough. Fuck the rum, Raven was officially the best thing I would ever have in my mouth.

  Her fingers tangled in my hair as she watched me devour her, my lips sealing around her clit and sucking. She moaned, thrusting her hips against my mouth. I took it, hungrily. I released her clit and kept my rhythm with my tongue inside of her, keeping a quick, but steady pace.

  “Don’t stop,” she begged me.

  I was never going to stop. If I could spend the rest of my days with her fucking my tongue, it would be a life well lived. I groaned against her flesh and the vibration from my deep grumble sent her over, her walls tightening around my tongue as she poured onto me. She fell back against the ground as her back arched. I didn’t stop yet, wanting more of her taste. I sucked her clit again as she rode her wave, her fingers still pulling at my hair as she cried for me.

  Fuck, she came hard. And quick. Her taste was coated across my lips. “So, so sweet,” I murmured against her, licking up her thigh to catch any of her release that escaped me.

  She rose back up to her elbows and her mouth fell slack as she stared at my mouth, soaked with her release. She sat up quickly and leaned down to catch my mouth with hers, sucking her taste off of me. I opened for her, letting her tongue tangle with mine, and she moaned at how I was covered in her.

  My hands found around her ass again and I pulled her off the edge, lowering her back into the water with me. She wrapped her legs around my waist as I waded us backward into the warm water. “I’m not done with you yet, queen,” I snarled against her mouth. I was going to make her come for me again.

  I moved us to the other side of the spring, gliding into the small cave and leaned back against the wall. My hands moved to grip around her waist and I thrusted up against her. I was so painfully hard for her. She uncoiled her legs from around my waist and lowered herself into the water, hurriedly finding the waistband of my briefs and shoved them down before she was trying to climb me again. My sweet girl. I lifted her high enough to bite at her nipple through the fabric of her bralette.

  She clicked her tongue at me. “Naughty.”

  She had no idea. She pushed it against my mouth again and I brought a hand up, easily shredding through the fabric, chuckling slightly at her gasp. I opened my mouth, sucking her nipple between my lips and tugged. She cried out softly from the pain, before reaching a hand down between our bodies. I lowered her enough for her fingers to wrap around my shaft and fuck, I almost came from it.

  She aligned my tip with her entrance and rolled her hips, slowly taking me in. She was so tight and I groaned, unable to stop myself from thrusting into her, wanting to claim her. Mine, mine, I needed her to be only mine. She wiggled her hips, trying to adjust to how swollen I was for her. She balanced herself on the rock behind my head with her hand.

  “I don’t know if I can take all of you,” she said, continuously rolling her hips to take more, inch by inch.

  She would, because if there was one thing I was certain about in this life, it was that her body was made to be on mine. “You can,” I promised her. “You will. You and your perfect little body will take it all.”

  Her head rolled back as I bucked into her, fully sheathing myself to the hilt. Her eyes were in a daze as they met mine, my thrusts into her slow, tortuous. She was like coming home. Our bodies were meant to be writhing together, coming undone. I would always want to replicate this feeling, always want to feel her body trembling on mine, wrought with pleasure.

  She was close again as her arms wrapped around my neck, her chest heaving.

  “Take it, Raven. Show me what you can do.”

  My command was all she needed to unleash, grinding her hips roughly against mine, her tits bouncing as she rocked back and forth on my dick. I grunted, returning her thrusts with my own, my eyes moving from her face to watch how her pussy moved against me. “Fuck, Raven. Come with me,” I pleaded with her. I couldn’t hold back any longer. I wanted my cum dripping from her.

  Our hips moved in perfect synchrony and she whimpered, her legs shaking as I pulsed, filling her with my hot release. That triggered her own and she came, mixing with mine. She screamed my name as I continued pounding into her, wanting to lengthen her orgasm. I bit down on her collarbone, the pain sending her further over and another wave of wetness coated my cock. This was the only way I ever wanted to hurt her.

  Nothing in my life had ever been this good, this right.

  She paused her movements against me, her brain trying to grapple for air. All I did was watch her, my thunderous heart beating wildly in my chest. Her forehead fell against my throat as she tried to catch her breath, my pulse beating against it. I moved one of my hands to her chest and felt for her heart, its pounding matching the rhythm of mine. Everything about us was fated, even the beats of our blood pumping.

  I laughed softly and she raised her beautiful face to look at me. “For the record,” I stated, tucking some hair behind her ear, “This is not why I brought you here.”

  She laughed, giving me a small shrug. “That’s so strange, because that’s exactly why I came. Multiple times.”

  I pinched her waist and she giggled, moving to lift off of me, but I only wrapped my arms tighter around her waist, stopping her. This couldn’t already be over. I peppered kisses along her jawline and goose bumps trailed my lips.

  She dipped her chin and pressed her mouth to mine. I cupped the back of her head, gripping her hair in my fingers. I wanted to stay like this. Do it all again. My cock was already hardening again, wanting my claim to seep out of her pores.

  “There’s som
ething about you,” I muttered against mouth, searching her eyes. “I was under a spell when I saw you last night.”

  Her fingers played with my hair that clung to the back of my neck as she stared at me, surprised by my sudden admission. I wanted her to recognize myself in her. It was so obvious. There was blurry recognition in her eyes as her brain tried to catch up with what her heart was feeling, but I couldn’t rush her.

  “I should get you back,” I whispered.

  Her gaze moved to my mouth, seemingly in a trance. And then her eyes shifted to the light beginning to break across the rocks as dawn awakened. She lifted off of me quickly, her head knocking against the low wall of the cave.

  I straightened with her, rubbing the spot on her head that she just smacked. “In a hurry?”

  She shook her head as she waded to the edge, lifting herself out. “No. Well, yes. I mean, no. I wish I didn’t have to go back so soon. But you’re right, it’s almost daylight and I made this stupid promise to Cade that I would never miss breakfast.”

  Cade. Mira mentioned Cade before, but only that he was close to the queen — that they were inseparable, long rumored to be more than just queen and adviser. The blond guy. Cade.

  “Cade?” I repeated, a bite in my tone. I lifted myself out of the spring and grabbed my pants, pulling them on. My briefs were gone, drowned somewhere in the water with her panties. Jealousy was running rampant through me, my fists clenching and unclenching as I reached for my shirt. “Don’t let me keep you from running to Cade.”

  “It’s more complicated than that.”

  More complicated than sleeping in his arms two nights ago and then fucking me? She looked around for her panties that I knew she wouldn’t find. I pulled on my jacket and she watched me, biting her lip. I was pissed and she knew it.

  She pulled her dress over her head, covering her perfect body that was just on mine. I stepped into my boots and tightened their laces while she slid hers on. I took a step to her, pulling the diadem from my pocket and extending it out to her. She took it hesitantly and fastened it to her moistened hair. “I still want to see you today, though. Give you the tour I promised.”