Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Men that my father should not have had any reason to associate with, let alone invite into our home.
If Lucian knew about them, if he knew Zeigler was circling and ready to take my fortune and leave me bloody and broken somewhere, did this make Lucian my savior?
His fortune was just as big, if not far greater, than my father’s. I wasn’t naive enough to think the money meant nothing, but I absolutely could believe that it hadn’t been his main reason for taking me.
If his intentions were strictly malicious, why bring me to his home?
He could have insisted I live in my parent’s estate with no staff, or if he wanted to keep an eye on me, he could have had me institutionalized.
He kept me here because he wanted to. He wanted me.
Why make every sexual encounter of ours, even ones that were meant to be punishments, pleasurable for me?
If the rumors were true, most men didn’t care if a woman found pleasure in sex. Most, apparently, didn’t think women were capable of feeling sexual pleasure or gratification.
Maybe I hadn’t given him enough credit, or maybe he hadn’t communicated properly before.
But what did I expect from a king?
Chivalry, charming conversation, and poetry were for princes and knights.
Kings did not have time for such frivolity.
He had shown me that he cared in his own way.
From the start, he’d never forced me, not really. He’d given me what my body was craving, and I’d needed it.
He made me feel alive.
He brought me pain and mixed it with pleasure so I could deal with it.
He taught me how to turn my inner turmoil into something fantastic.
Lucian Manwarring had thawed the ice around my heart and warmed my blood the only way he knew how—not by talking about it incessantly but by just doing it.
I decided to show him that I understood and could respond in kind. Maybe I’d regret it later, but something deep in my gut told me this was what I needed to do.
Deepening the kiss, letting him take over, tasting me, touching me, his hands exploring my body, I did the same.
I ran my hands from his hair down his thick neck to his firm chest, sliding my fingers under his suit jacket and feeling the broad width of his shoulders.
He had explored every inch of my body, places I didn’t even know someone could explore, and it was my turn.
My fingers pulled on the tie around his neck, and his lips moved down my jaw to the sensitive place just below my ear. Every time he kissed me there, my entire body tingled, and my panties got wet.
My hips rocked on his lap, and he grabbed my waist, adjusting me so I straddled only one of his thighs, giving me delicious pressure. I couldn’t see most men doing that. They wouldn’t care about me getting off as long as they got off.
With one swift movement, I unthreaded his tie from his collar and threw it behind me in the rest of the ruined room, and then I pulled my shirt off, tossing it behind me, before grabbing his hands and placing them on my breasts and kissing him again.
One by one, I undid his shirt buttons and let my fingers explore and map out every inch of his chest, everything from the impossibly soft hair to the hard muscles they covered.
“What are you doing, baby girl?” he growled as I moved down his lap to give myself room to kiss down his neck to his chest.
“I want to make you feel good, sir. I want to show you how much I appreciate you protecting me from Ziegler and how grateful I am.”
“Stop.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me back up so I could sit just above him, looking down into his dark brown eyes that looked even darker in the fading light.
“I’m sorry. Did I do anything wrong?”
“No, baby girl, but you never have to thank me for that. If you want to please me, do it because it’s what you want to do. Not out of obligation.”
His words touched something deep in my heart. A man using me would never say something like that to me.
I leaned down and whispered in his ear, “I want to taste you, to explore all of you without being rushed or punished. Let me learn how to make you feel as good as I feel.”
“Baby girl, you don’t need to—”
“I want to, sir.” I sank my teeth into my bottom lip and gave him what I hoped was a pleading look. “Please?”
“Fuck.”
That was all he said before he stood, sweeping me up in his arms and leaving the room I had destroyed.
He brought me down the hall to another room, this one just as luxurious, with a large bed in the middle. He stopped only to kick the door closed and lock it.