Page 75 of The Death King
“That’s not how I want to be wanted.” I broke contact for the first time, thinking of the way he’d sauntered in there and just took what he wanted like I had no say in the matter. “I don’t want to be treated like a whore.”
“I’m not going to have dinner with you every time.”
“Then spend the night with one of your whores.” I didn’t know why it bothered me so much. When I slept with Talon, I felt a connection, a magnetism. He earned the spot between my legs. But now, he felt like a stranger.
“I don’t want them,” he said quietly. “I want you.”
I kept my eyes averted, not wanting him to read the reaction I tried so hard to control.
“I’ve only wanted you.”
I swallowed, feeling the heat of his stare burn my cheek. “Then it shouldn’t be hard for you to treat me like I matter.”
Silence passed, and his stare became hotter, burning a hole in the side of my face. “Perhaps I should have set expectations in the beginning, but I didn’t think that would be necessary…”
My cheek turned slowly until my eyes found his.
“Sex is all I have to offer you. If you’re hoping for romance, commitment, devotion, a future of some kind where I’m your king and you’re my queen?—”
“I have no desire to be your queen.” Old fury unleashed, that childhood memory passing across my eyes in the blink of an eye. He was the man who had taken everything from me and my family.
His eyes studied mine for a long time. “The hatred still burns.”
It’ll never stop burning.
“Then what do you want from me?”
I continued my stare.
“Answer the question.”
“I—I don’t know.” I really didn’t know. I didn’t like the way he swarmed me like he was entitled to my body, but he looked so sexy sitting near the fire with that powerful chest and wide shoulders.
“Just so we’re clear—I’m dead inside. I have no desire to love, and even if I did, it’s not possible.” His eyes were harsh and angry, just like the fire that danced in intensity beside him. “But I’m a man who has insatiable desires, and my body desires yours like a wildfire desires a forest. My flames want to burn you to ash.”
I held his stare, hanging on to the powerful words he spoke, but one statement in particular echoed in my mind. “Why are you dead inside?”
His look didn’t change, like he didn’t hear a word I said.
“Why?” I pressed, hoping for an answer, an explanation for his harsh character.
He turned to the fire instead. “I’m not going to kiss you. I’m not going to slowly undress you. I’m not going to share a bottle of wine and an hour of conversation. I made an exception before because of the circumstances, but you’re past those circumstances now. I’ll never force you to do what you don’t want to do, but I’m not going to force myself to do what I don’t want to do either.” He sat up, arms moving to the armrests, his body forward like he would rise to his feet and depart my chambers. He stared at me as if he’d posed a question and waited for an answer.
He said he was dead inside, and I was dead inside too. I hated him for his role in my suffering, but I also sympathized with the struggle he never shared with me. Khazmuda spoke so highly of him, made me wonder if there was a deep ocean hidden under that dark surface.
I left the couch, and the dress slipped down my legs. I approached his armchair, getting closer to the heat of the fire.
His eyes watched me draw near, and once I was close to his knees, he sat back against the armchair, the muscles in his body visibly tightening under the skin.
My heart started to race again because some burst of confidence had brought me here, but now that I’d arrived at my destination, I didn’t know what to do. A man had tarnished my innocence and made it rust, but I was still as inexperienced as a virgin.
His dick was hard again, like he knew why I was there. He sat up again, his hands cupping the backs of my legs and slowly sliding up underneath the dress, moving over my ass to my hips. Then he guided me toward him, making one of my knees hit the cushion and then the other. His big hands moved farther up my dress, spanning across my stomach and my back as he pulled me toward him.
Any time I was close to this man, my heart raced like it was on the run for its life. I was nervous and excited at the same time, even terrified sometimes. But I was the one who’d come to him, who felt the heat gnaw at my stomach the moment I touched him.
He guided me down until I was on his lap, my bare pussy right on his warm dick. His fingers kneaded my ass underneath my dress, his pitch-black eyes looking at me with a smolder. He gave my cheeks a hard squeeze with his anxious hands.
“I know how it feels to be used.”