The Wolf Prince: The Cursed Princes, Book One

by Amber Jantine

  She fit so perfectly into him. As if she had been made just for him.

  No wonder he wanted her so much.

  He brushed her hair away from the back of her neck and pressed his lips to her soft, warm skin. She let out a muted moan.

  Luke began undoing the laces that held the back of her gown together, tugging the fabric down one shoulder. He managed to slide his hand down the top of the bodice, reaching around to cup her breast. He rubbed in slow circles, then lightly pinched one nipple.

  Ella blinked slowly, then opened her eyes. He could see everything in those green depths. Need, confusion… and a trace of anger.

  That was the last thing he wanted her to be thinking of. Didn’t want to give her a chance to recall their last argument. Her lips parted and he covered her mouth with his.

  Her soft cry was almost more like a squeak. Her eyes were wide as she twisted about to press her palms to his chest.

  But he wouldn’t let her push him away. Not now. He needed her too much.

  Instead, he coaxed her lips apart, teasing her with his tongue until her eyes closed and she softened against him.

  He rose up over her, quickly stripping the nightgown from her body. He began to caress her, running his hand over her breasts and down along the curve of her waist and the flare of her hip. Guiding her legs apart so he could move between them.

  “Wait,” she whispered.

  “I need you.”

  She twisted away ever so slightly and he had to let her go so he wouldn’t risk hurting her. “Can I… can I touch you?”

  “You want to what?” That was not at all what he’d expected her to say.

  “Seems only fair.” Despite the dim light, he could see she was blushing. She bit her lip for a moment before continuing. “I want to…”

  Her voice trailed away, as if she wasn’t certain what she wanted to say. Or maybe even what she wanted. He knew how innocent she had been. But the thought of having her hands on him, exploring him, was intoxicating.

  “You’re right.” He settled on the mattress beside her, lying on his back. “I’m all yours, Ella. Do as you wish.”

  Chapter Ten

  “I’m yours,” he’d said.

  If only…

  They were married in name and in the physical and legal sense, but she still didn’t really know him. And for this to be something more, to be something real, he had to open up to her.

  Something he didn’t seem willing to even consider doing.

  She almost remembered that she was supposed to be mad at him. But at the moment, she just wanted to focus on the good that was between them.

  And that was this. This physical connection.

  She looked at him, stretched out before her, his long body dominating the mattress. Ella had wanted him to teach her what to do, to show her how to please him the way he had done for her the night before, but that wasn’t to be, it seemed.

  Where to begin?

  She rose up on her knees, leaning forward to kiss his neck. He made a low sound, deep in his throat, and arched his head back to give her better access.

  That was a promising start.

  She remembered what he had done to her and repeated the actions, licking and nibbling all along the cords of his throat. Luke let out a groan, his eyes falling closed as his hands closed into fists at his sides.

  It was a small gesture, but showed her just some of the power she might actually have over him.

  It was a heady thought.

  He was so much bigger than her. Stronger physically. Plus there was the whole turning into a wolf thing that no ordinary human could ever hope to match. And yet at this moment, she realized that she was the one in control.

  Not him.

  She sat back on her heels, so she could better watch him as she continued her explorations. Skimmed her fingers down his chest, saw the way the defined muscles contracted beneath her touch. Small bumps covered every inch of his skin as he shivered.

  Ella repeated the gesture. This time, she let her fingers graze his flat nipples. They did not tighten or rise like hers, yet seemed to be nearly as sensitive. Even the smallest touch there made his shivers intensify into shudders and he began to breath very fast.

  Almost panting now.

  She ran her hands lower, running along his flat stomach. Following the thin trail of hair that led down from his chest, to his abdomen, and lower.

  There was that part of him, the part that she didn’t have a word for. Rising high out of the nest of dark curls. This was what he had used to take her, had slid it inside her and made her feel all of those strange and wonderful sensations.

  What would happen if she touched him there?

  Hesitantly, she reached out. Her fingers brushed against the rounded head and Luke let out a sharp hiss of breath.

  She immediately drew her hand back. “Sorry.”

  “No… do that again.”

  She bit her lip, still hesitating. She looked up at him. His blue eyes had darkened, like a storm over the ocean. Her breath hitched and there was a fresh wetness between her legs.

  He grabbed her hand and guided it back to that part of him.

  In a strange way, it wasn’t quite as hard as she had expected it. Judging from what she’d felt before, she’d expected it to be solid and as stiff as stone. But it wasn’t, really. There was a layer of skin that seemed to be almost sliding over the harder core of the shaft, as soft as her own, but with prominent veins that felt strange under her fingers.

  It was pulsing in time with the beat between her legs, moving and throbbing. Luke guided her to wrap her fingers around the shaft, as if she were grasping a pole, then urged her to move her hand up and down his length.

  Each time she did, he gasped, and she could feel him swelling and seeming to get even harder.

  The head was thicker than the rest of it, with a slit on the very top. There was a bead of moisture there.

  Was that his seed?

  It seemed too soon to be that, from what she had heard. When she touched it, it was almost like liquid silk, making her fingers glide over his hard flesh more easily than before.

  She thought of the way that he’d pressed his mouth to the most intimate parts of her, and how good it had felt. Wondered if she could do the same to him.

  Curiosity overcame any lingering sense of shyness and she bent down to touch her lips to that thick head.

  Luke cried out, a sharp and harsh sound, and began to lift his hips toward her. His long fingers twined in her hair, tugging on the strands. Stopping her when she would have put her mouth on him again. “You don’t have to do that,” he rasped out. “I don’t expect you to—”

  “What if I wanted to?” Her face heated. Those words seemed far too bold, but that was always the case with him. There was just something about this man that made her feel braver, made her more willing to do and say more than she ever would have done before she had met him.

  Luke’s lips parted, and for the first time, she saw him speechless.

  That was her answer.

  It was everything.

  Ella bit back a smile, then lowered her head once more. She brushed her lips over the tip, feeling the strange smoothness against her mouth. Kissed it. Then let her lips part and took him in.

  There was a salty flavor, and something more. Something she couldn’t identify. Or at least, she was once again without the right words to describe it. It was a strange yet heady sensation, to feel him pulsing within her mouth, and she slowly moved her head to mimic the motion she had done just moments ago with her hand.

  She couldn’t take all of him in. It was too much. But she went down as far as she could go before drawing back along his length again. Some instinct told her to use her tongue as well, swirling it over the thick head and tasting more of him.

  Luke let out another groan that was more like a growl she would have expected to hear out of him while he was in his wolf-shape. She glanced up at him from under her lashes.

  The sight
was nearly enough to take her breath away.

  He had his head thrown back once more, the chords of his throat visibly straining as he gasped for breath. He looked so wild, yet at that moment, she knew he was also completely under her control.

  She had him. He was hers.

  And the thought only made her wetter.

  His nostrils flared and his eyes flew open. She wondered if that was partly the animal side of him coming through again, as if he’d detected a scent. Maybe even her own.

  “I can’t wait any longer.” He grabbed her head on the upstroke, holding her head steady as he pressed his hips back against the mattress, so that his thick shaft was released from her mouth.

  Then he shoved her onto her back, covering her with his powerful body as he immediately moved between her legs.

  Now it was her turn to cry out as she felt him pushing inside her.

  It didn’t hurt this time. It didn’t hurt at all.

  Her stepmother had spoken of the endurance needed to survive the marriage bed, implying that the pain was supposed to last forever.

  She shouldn’t have assumed she was telling the truth.

  Not when the lies could hurt Ella so much more…

  That part of her husband stretched and filled her. She grew softer and wetter while he got harder. They fit together so perfectly. She was soft where he was hard and made to yield where he would push. She learned his rhythm and matched it, lifting her hips in time with his thrusts.

  He slid one hand under her as he slammed into her again and again. Each collision of their hips sent a jolt through her entire body, and set off ripples of sensation.

  No.

  Not just sensation.

  Pleasure.

  “Mine,” he whispered in her ear.

  He’d said that before, when he’d first taken her innocence.

  Did he mean it? Was it something all husbands felt for their wives, or did it have something to do with the animal side of him?

  And did it really matter?

  Ella locked her legs around his waist, squirming as she began to feel those contractions deep inside her core, as if that part of her was trying to squeeze and hold onto that part of him.

  To keep him inside of her forever.

  “I’m not going to last long, Ella.” He slid his free hand between them, caressing her. Driving the pleasure higher and higher. “Come with me.”

  She hadn’t known that word before, not in this sense, but now her body responded to his sensual demand. She cried out, clinging to his broad shoulders as she shook and shook and the waves of intense need and pleasure swept over her. Swamping her so that she felt she could no longer breath.

  And no longer caring if she breathed again.

  Gasping, clinging, she felt him swell inside her. Then there was a warmth, another wetness, and she knew he was filling her with his seed.

  His seed. And maybe even his child.

  The thought sent her over the edge again, and Luke growled as she clenched her inner muscles around him once more.

  They collapsed together, sinking deep into the mattress as if they could retreat from the world. At that moment, he was her world. Her everything. The only thing she was aware of. His heat. His weight. The feel of his sweaty skin against hers.

  As her breathing slowed, so did his, and the room grew quiet. Still enough that she could hear a door being opened and the sounds of servants moving about without making much of an effort to be discreet.

  Or so it seemed.

  There were several bumps and crashes, along with the distinct noise of a heavy trunk being lifted and dropped.

  Luke chuckled and nuzzled his face against her neck. “I think they took me a little too literally, when I said I wanted to get as early a start as possible for our journey.”

  “We’re really going somewhere?”

  He sighed. “Of course. Why won’t you believe me?”

  “You haven’t told me anything about it.”

  “It’s a secret.”

  Another secret. It shouldn’t bother her so much that he was keeping this from her, but in combination with everything else… “I can’t even know where we’re going?”

  “I think you’ll like it. I hope you’ll like it.” But he was making no move to get up. His weight still pinned her to the mattress, large and solid and immoveable. And she could feel something else too. Inside her.

  He was still hard.

  Her breath hitched and she shifted her hips, a small motion that mimicked what they’d done together just a few minutes ago. “I-I guess we should be getting out of bed?”

  “Not yet.” Luke’s voice deepened into another of those growls, the rough sound sending shivers down Ella’s spine, and not at all in an unpleasant way. Her husband began kissing her neck, his strong hands gliding over her breasts. Plucking at her nipples, which were also tight and taut once more. “I have other things I want to do first.”

  “Such as?”

  “This.” He bent and took her nipple in her mouth, swirling his tongue around the hard tip. Then he blew lightly upon the wet flesh, the shock of the temperature making another tremor run through her. He drew back his hips, then drove deep into her in one smooth, hard, thrust. “And this…”

  “Oh!”

  “Unless you want to leave now?”

  “No.” She lifted her hips to each of his thrusts, offering herself up to him and at the same time, digging her fingers into his shoulders to hold him closer. “Not yet.”

  “Good call…”

  Chapter Eleven

  “This isn’t what I was expecting.” Ella let out a yelp and nearly fell off her seat as the carriage hit another rut in the dirt road. She managed to right herself and peered out the window. Both sides of the road were thick with heavy forests, without any sign of man around them. “Judging by the number of trunks you had them pack for me, I didn’t think would end up in the middle of nowhere.”

  “I just told them to make sure you had enough to last for a couple of weeks. I didn’t specify an exact amount of clothing.” Personally, he was hoping that they would be to spend the next couple of weeks wearing as little as possible, but didn’t think such a suggestion would go over very well. Not right now.

  They rose the crest of another small hill and as they descended, the carriage swayed from side to side as the road grew rougher. Ella grabbed onto the sill of the window, her knuckles whitening. “How much further are we going?”

  Now he glanced out the window as well. He recognized the boundaries of the property they were searching for. “Just a few minutes more.”

  “Good. At this rate, I might be so bruised that I’ll never want to sit down again.” The slight smirk on her face took much of the sting out of the accusation.

  “You could always come sit in my lap. I’d be happy to protect you from that.”

  Her face flushed. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”

  “Worried I won’t be able to control myself?” It could be a genuine concern, he knew. Just thinking about having her sit on him, with her soft little bottom pressing down into him, was enough to make him hard. “Or are you worried about your self-control?”

  She bit her lip and looked away. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

  “It’s not flattery. More like wishful thinking.” And he was teasing her. He knew he really needed to restrain himself. Luke still recalled the advice Adrian had given him the night before, about taking the time to truly get to know his bride, and not just in the bedroom.

  He had plans to do just that. To just talk to her, to get to know her. A little self-denial would do him good, for once.

  Her head snapped around and she stared at him, eyes wide. But before she could say anything, the carriage showed to a halt and the door was pulled open from the outside.

  Luke stepped out first, then turned and offered her his hand to help her down. She was shaking slightly, but part of him wondered if it was lingering vibrations from the rough carriage ride, and not
caused by anything she was feeling about him.

  Ella let out a gasp. “This is beautiful!”

  “We used to come up here all the time when I was a kid.” The property in question had sometimes been called a royal hunting lodge, but in truth it was more like a cottage. It had been a part of his mother’s dowry when she married his father. “I wanted us to go someplace small, so we wouldn’t need to have any servants around.”

  “I see.” She wasn’t looking at him, her gaze focused on the cottage.

  Luke also turned his attention to the structure, trying to see it the way she might. It was strikingly different from the palace back home, or even the manor that she had been living in, which had once belonged to her father.

  Instead of being made of stone, as many of the buildings back in the capital city were, this was built out of wood, weathered but still blending in quite nicely with the forest around it. He knew from experience that it was solid and secure, able to stand up to the worst weather that winter or any other season could throw at it. “The best part is on the other side.” He gave her hand a squeeze. “Feel up to doing a little walking, Ella?”

  There was that slight smirk on her face again, and it was such an adorable expression, that it took everything that Luke had to keep from kissing her right then and there. “Maybe just a little.”

  He led her up to the front door and pushed it open, then bent and swept her off to her feet. Holding her close. “Or I could carry you.”

  She laughed softly, her hands flattening against his chest as she gave him a playful push. “You don’t have to do this. I was just kidding when I said—”

  “I know. But I like having any excuse to hold you in my arms.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I might have noticed that.”

  It didn’t take long for him to cross the full length of the main room and open the back door. Showing her the only part of the structure that was actually built of stone, a large veranda that overlooked the side of the mountain they were on.

  Luke set her down on her feet and took her hand once more, leading her to the railing so they could peer over the edge. “What you think?”

  “It feels like I can see the whole world from here.” Her voice was soft and reverent and her eyes were suspiciously shiny.