The Wolf Prince: The Cursed Princes, Book One

by Amber Jantine

  “Look at me.”

  She shook her head, hiding her face in the pillows.

  Luke took one of her hands and guided it back to him. She realized that he was making her touch him, that her fingers were running along his hot, bare, flesh.

  Bare skin that was raised and scarred in much the way that hers was.

  She opened her eyes and glanced over her shoulder at him. He had his hand over hers, pressing her palm down into a spot just below his collarbone.

  Her eyes widened as she realized that there were several marks all over his chest, slashing and uneven. They had not been made by a whip. That much was certain. “What—”

  His full lips were drawn tight into a straight line. “Now you know how the curse began. My brothers and I were set upon by a group of beasts who were already plagued by the magic.”

  “Why—”

  Again, he cut her off. This time with a sharp shake of his head. “I do not wish to discuss that now. But you can see how hypocritical it would be for me to turn you away because of a few marks, when I…”

  More secrets. He’d opened up a tiny bit, just enough to whet her curiosity, then had drawn back again. How was she ever supposed to trust a man who didn’t seem to want to trust her?

  She looked at him again, her faint anger fading away as she took in his expression. Fear, uncertainty… all of the things she had been feeling for herself. And yet he’d been so earnest in trying to soothe her. So sincere.

  Surely he deserved some small reward for that.

  Impulsively, Ella rose up onto her knees, then leaned in and kissed him.

  Right on one of his scars.

  Chapter Seven

  Luke groaned. The intensity of the touch raced through his entire body, despite the tentative way it was done, and his groan quickly turned into a growl.

  She jerked back. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”

  “It’s all right. Do it again.”

  She leaned in, pressing her soft lips to another of his scars. He began to shake and clenched his hands into fists as he struggled against the urge to guide her head lower. To urge her to use her mouth on other parts of him.

  She was a virgin. Innocent.

  He shouldn’t push her just yet.

  But oh, how he wanted to.

  There would be all the time in the world to teach her that later. To learn how to please her and show her how to give him pleasure. They were husband and wife now. They were bound together for life, legally.

  And tonight, he would be making her his physically.

  His.

  She continued learning every mark on his chest and shoulder, exploring with her lips and her fingers. It became impossible to tell if she was trembling, or if he was shaking, or both.

  Then she used the tip of her tongue to trace the outline of one mark and his cock jumped.

  Luke let out a low curse.

  Ella blushed. “Did I do something wrong?”

  With her nightgown pulled down low around her breasts, he was able to see the way the lovely color did indeed spread over her face and down her neck, continuing on beyond into what was normally hidden by her clothing. A good portion of the top of her chest. He wanted to run his tongue there, to find out if all of her was as sweet as she looked. “You didn’t.” If he let her touch him any longer now, he would embarrass himself by spending too soon. He had never known that his entire body could ache with the need to be inside a woman. “But now, I think it’s my turn to touch you again.”

  “A-all right.”

  He tugged at the lawn of her nightgown, careful not to rip the delicate fabric as he freed her breasts and let the material bunch around her waist.

  His breath caught and his chest grew tight. He’d known she was beautiful, but he’d never imagined that she would be this exquisitely perfect. Round breasts, pale as the moonlight and topped with tight little nipples that were nearly as red as the blush on her cheeks.

  He bent his head and took one into his mouth, suckling on her for the first time. Ella gasped and he felt his hands on her head, her fingers tangling in his hair. Luke half-expected her to tug on those strands. To try to pull him away.

  Instead, she made another low, needy sound and arched into his mouth. The scent of her lust became very strong.

  He guided her to lie back against the pillows once more, leaning over her instead of trying to move between her legs. Not just because of the presence of the nightgown, which would make the maneuver awkward at best, nor was it because of her innocence, which would cause her to not understand and potentially fear what he was trying to do.

  But because he didn’t trust himself. Or his control.

  He continued lavishing attention upon her breasts, slowly insinuating his hand between their bodies to caress her thigh through the layers of thin fabric. Felt her tense again, just for a moment, then relax.

  Her legs parted and her hips began to rock as she squirmed beneath him. Luke used her movements to gradually ease the gown past her hips, keeping his mouth on her breast until the very last moment, until he was stretching as far down as he could reach, then he began kissing his way down her body. Creating a slick trail with his tongue against her belly as he brought his hand up between her thighs.

  Caressing her and coaxing her to open for him. He felt the slightly rough texture of her hair, then the slick wetness and heat.

  Oh, yes. She was wet for him.

  Ella gasped. Her eyes squeezed shut tighter and her arms flailed wildly before she grabbed hold of the sheets beneath her. Clutching at the fabric and releasing it in a quick, unconscious rhythm.

  He ran a single finger along her slit and she immediately pressed her thighs together. “It’s all right,” he whispered. “Let me touch you.”

  “This feels… wicked.”

  “It might be, a little. But not between a husband and wife.”

  Her eyes flew open, wide and startled as if she had managed to forget their change in relationship, if for a moment. “I don’t know…”

  “Trust me.”

  Her gaze became shadowed, and he wondered if he’d said the wrong thing, somehow. Though he couldn’t imagine what that could be. He continued to stroke her, lightly running his fingers along the seam between her pressed-together thighs.

  Waiting.

  She exhaled sharply. “Just in this?”

  “Just in this.” He still didn’t understand her meaning, but at the moment, there was just one thing that he wanted to focus on.

  She slowly let her legs part, allowing him access to those secret parts of her slit once more. He could feel the tremors racing up and down her thighs, felt the way her flesh quivered under his fingers.

  He spread open her lower lips, gently sliding his fingertip through her slickness, pushing very slightly inside her. She tensed again and he quickly drew back.

  Luke shifted position so that he was kneeling between her legs and bent over to press kisses along the insides of her thighs. Working his way up. Slowly. Letting her get used to the feel of him there.

  Her panting grew very loud. Harsh and ragged. He could feel the tension building in her again, feel it in the way the muscles under the skin of her legs clenched and released beneath his lips.

  Then he took his first taste of her sweetness.

  Ella’s hips shot off the bed, nearly striking him in the face. “Aah!”

  “Feel good?”

  “It feels…”

  Before she could answer, before she could condemn it as being wicked, or something worse, he continued to lick her. Running his tongue in broad strokes, savoring the richness of her need.

  She began to make soft, mewling cries, rocking her hips in a quick and needy motion. No doubt acting through instincts that were as old as time, yet he’d never known a woman could be as responsive as this. Her juices were flowing for him, spreading over his tongue nearly as fast as he could lap them up. “Luke, please!”

  She was begging him, but he knew she didn�
��t realize what she was asking. He slid just the tip of his finger inside her and felt her clench around him.

  So tight.

  So hot.

  He rose up slightly to run his tongue over her hidden spot, the nub of sensitive flesh. She cried and began to tighten around him, squeezing him again and again as she reached her climax.

  Luke could not wait any longer. He moved between her legs, sliding his fingers out of her. Pausing only to lick her juices off the digit before he kissed his way up her trembling body.

  He pushed her legs further apart, then reached down and guided the head of his erection against her slit. Thrust in.

  Ella screamed and he immediately felt her go tense. He froze, half-buried inside her sweet body with every instinct screaming at him to just take her, and to take her hard.

  But he could see the tears running down her cheeks. Could smell the mix of pain and fear radiating off of her.

  He kissed the tears away, making soft soothing sounds even as his body tensed. Fighting him. He dug his fingers into the mattress on either side of her head, tearing through the fabric as he struggled for the control that he needed. That she needed from him.

  Yet he’d never felt anything so incredible before. It was almost as if he was the virgin, as innocent as she was. He’d known that she would be tight and wet and hot, just from the way he’d had his finger inside her earlier, but to feel it around the more sensitive flesh around his cock was something else. “Look at me, Ella.”

  Her lashes, still damp with tears, fluttered and she slowly opened her eyes. Her lips trembled and parted, but now sound came out.

  He stroked her silky hair away from her face. “Does it still hurt?”

  She whimpered softly. “It…” She glanced down at where they were joined, and her eyes widened. “I-I don’t think this is going to work.”

  “It will.” Though at the moment, he wasn’t so sure himself. She was squeezing down on him so hard, and the contrast between their bodies was so striking. Looking down at her small frame beneath his much larger one, her slick flesh stretched around his cock.

  He began kissing her again, slowly coaxing her mouth open until she began to respond to him. Her tongues snaked out to touch his, tentatively, then began to dart and dance in the way that he’d taught her.

  As the kiss deepened and intensified, he felt her body softening. Luke pushed his hips forward again, driving just a little deeper.

  Ella let out a gasp and he immediately stopped again. “Did I hurt you again?”

  She shook her head. “It feels… full. Not sore.”

  There was such a note of wonder in her voice, as if she was surprised by her own words. Had she expected it to be a torment? He didn’t know what she had been told in preparation for this night—he’d been told that her stepmother had insisted upon taking the place normally reserved for the bride’s mother.

  Telling her what she needed to know about the wedding night.

  He wouldn’t put it past that witch for her to exaggerate the pain that comes for a woman when she loses her virginity. She would do everything in her now-limited power to destroy any happiness that could come from this marriage. Her hatred of her stepdaughter all but assured that.

  And doubtless, she’d never mentioned the potential pleasure of being joined with another.

  If she’d ever experienced it herself.

  Lady Isabelle was so cold, so unfeeling, that it was unlikely she wouldn’t know the first thing about passion.

  Ella understood passion. It was an instinct in her, Luke was certain. He’d seen it from the beginning, felt it in the way she had responded to his kiss that first time and every time.

  “Want me to try that again?” he asked.

  “What?”

  “Moving. Just a little.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “If it hurts again, tell me. And I’ll stop right away.”

  “A-all right.”

  She was trembling. He could feel the small, quaking motions all along his body. Luke drew back slightly, then pushed forward, driving himself a little deeper.

  “Oh!”

  “Want me to stop?” He didn’t know how he was going to do that, but he would find a way. If she asked him.

  “N-no.”

  He slowly worked his hips, withdrawing and pushing in, gradually easing more and more of his length into her. Finally, he was buried all the way in. He threw his head back, letting himself savor the sensation for a moment, as her inner muscles fluttered around him. “Mine,” he growled. It was a primitive statement, a reflection of the beast that he was cursed to live with inside him, but at the moment, he didn’t care about any of that.

  She was his now. Completely.

  And that was all that mattered.

  She looped her arms around his shoulders, sliding her hands up to the back of his neck. He slid his hand under her, guiding her movements as they slowly began to rock together. She was a quick learner in this, as she was in everything else.

  He kept the pace slow. Relishing how good she felt around him, as well as giving her all the time she needed to get used to this sensation. She began stroking his back, her fingernails scraping his skin whenever he drove into her the deepest. He could feel her getting wetter for him, contracting around his erection.

  He slid his hand between their bodies once more, caressing her. She gasped and cried out.

  Luke covered her mouth with his, breathing into her as she gasped into him. Stroking, caressing, thrusting.

  And then he felt it.

  The first stirrings of her orgasm. Ella moaned into his mouth as her sheath squeezed his cock in quick bursts of motion, her body arching instinctively as he unleashed the rest of his passion, driving into her hard, again and again, until he could take no more.

  His erection swelled, grew harder, and he felt his balls tighten. Then he shoved deep one last time, her cries of pleasure sharp in his ear as he gave into his own release, calling out her name as he filled her with his seed.

  Then he collapsed against her.

  When he had regained his breath and his senses, he realized that she was still shivering and shaking beneath him. Luke wrapped his arms around her and rolled them over together, so that he was no longer crushing her.

  Ella lifted her head, her eyes full of wonder. “Is it always like that?”

  Definitely not. At least, it had never been that way for him with anyone else. There was an intensity in being with her, a greater need that he’d never experienced before.

  Then again, he’d never married before. Never knew what it was like to have a woman be his legally as well as physically.

  Nor had he ever taken a woman without the worry that she might conceive his child. Pulling out, deliberately diminishing his own pleasure so that he would not risk embarrassing his family.

  With Ella, it was just the opposite.

  But he didn’t want to tell her that. It would require too many explanations, and discussions of a past that was better left in that distant time instead of being brought into the present. I don’t know,” he said finally. “But we can certainly try it again, and see what happens.”

  As soon as the words were out, he wanted to take them back. It was a wholly selfish request, knowing that she probably was sore to say the least.

  Ella simply smiled at him. She lay there in his arms, her hair spread out over his chest, and he was certain he had never seen her look more beautiful. “I think I’d like that…”

  Chapter Eight

  She had been told that there would be pain, yet she never imagined that it would be anything like this.

  Luke had not touched her again after the first time, telling her that she needed to rest and recover. Instead, they had simply slept together and she had woken up at some point, briefly, to feel him cuddled against her back, his big arm draped over her waist. She vaguely remembered him kissing her then, before slipping away.

  She had drifted off again after that, but she couldn’t
say how long. Yet as soon as she was awake, the room that had been a private and intimate space the night before became filled with too many people and a bustle of activity.

  It was almost an overwhelming confusion, as she tried to answer everyone at once. She found that though a bath had been brought for her, there was little time to linger in it, for she was constantly being reminded of the fact that she needed to say goodbye to her stepsister, who was preparing to leave the palace that very morning, as well as making her first appearance as princess in front of the full court.

  Neither activity was particularly appealing, but at least for the latter, she knew she could depend on having Luke by her side. At least, she assumed she could. She hated feeling so dependent on him in that, yet she was still not used to this world he had brought her into.

  Three maids were on hand specifically to help Ella dress this morning, and the additional assistance felt more awkward than needed, but she didn’t know how to object to it without looking like a fool. Or worse, ungrateful.

  They brought forward her day gown, as she had been told it was to be called. She barely remembered ordering it, it’s heavy embroidery and the lace embellishments making it far more elaborate than her mother’s old gown.

  And this was considered a simple attire, the bare minimum of what she would be expected to wear for all royal functions.

  One of the women who was assisting her seemed to be dedicated solely to doing Ella’s hair. Brushing it out, then twisting it up and turning it into a complicated series of braids and whirls.

  The jewels were brought out next. It was an almost overwhelming array, and she couldn’t help noticing the frown on the women’s faces when she selected the most simple set available to her. The necklace was a string of perfectly matched pearls and the earrings were barely more than drops.

  Perhaps she was expected to make some kind of gaudy display, but at the moment she was too overwhelmed to want to add anything more. She would have to work up to this idea of being a princess.

  The hot bath had helped a little, made it easier for to walk about without being stiff-legged and sore. And at the same time, her entire body still felt tender in general, her nerves on edge as if she’d never truly been fully alive before.