by Rina Kent
Tiny shivers break on my skin and down my back.
“Do you know who I thought about when Nicole was between my legs.”
“I don’t want to know.”
His hot breaths tease the shell of my ear, drawing a shudder from my inner walls. “You don’t, huh?”
“I don’t.”
“I’m telling you, anyway. When she looked up, it was these green gates.” His fingers trace along my eyelashes. “When she opened her mouth, I saw these lips.” He trails a forefinger from my eyes to the corner of my mouth, hovering but not touching.
I swallow around the sound clawing its way out. My breathing shatters and breaks with every draw.
“Then what?” My voice is low, defeated. “You would’ve fucked her and pretended it’s me?”
“She’s not you.”
The words are barely out of his mouth and his entire posture stiffens like he hates it. He hates that she’s not me. That he can’t play his games on her and pretend it’s me.
And for some reason, that makes me feel a strange sense of accomplishment.
Even the king doesn’t always get what he wants.
Levi grabs a handful of my hair in his fist and pulls until my head tilts back. He trails his other hand up my collarbone and wraps it around my throat.
His hold is firm enough to make sure I know he’s controlling my breathing. One squeeze and all air will be gone.
My pulse goes on overdrive until it’s impossible to hear it.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
At this angle, I have a complete view of the clenching in his sharp jawline, the contempt on his hard features, and the black in his pale eyes.
I’m starting to think that for Levi, black isn’t a colour. It’s a state of mind and being.
A monster hides behind that sinister, menacing look. A monster who’ll rip me to pieces if I let him.
Scratch that. He’ll rip me apart even if I don’t let him.
I’ve already provoked the king and now, there’s no going back to being a mere pawn on the enemies’ lines. My best bet is to climb the ranks and somehow bring down the king.
He squeezes my throat for a beat. “No one is you, princess.”
My chest rises and falls so hard, I’m glad that my heart is an organ and can’t possibly rip its way out of my ribcage kamikaze style.
I place a hand on his chest in a sorry attempt to push him away. “This can’t happen. I hate you, Levi. ”
“If it makes you feel better then hate me all you want.” He runs his lips along the shell of my ear, flicking his tongue out to tease the heated skin.
A small gasp tears past my lips and I can’t help angling my neck to the side even with his hand keeping me in place.
“You and I are toxic.” I breathe in a low tone. “We’re nothing alike.”
“It’s different poles who attract,” he speaks against my ear, nibbling on the sensitive flesh.
I bite my lower lip against the onslaught of emotions. I clench my thighs but that only manages to squeeze him harder against my slick core.
“Different poles also destroy each other.”
“I’m good with that, too.”
I open my mouth to protest. Any words I was about to say end in a gasp when his lips claim mine. Unlike the kiss in the car park, this one is more desperate, violent, and out of fucking control.
His teeth clash against mine and his tongue thrusts in like he always owned this part of me.
Like he’s had me his entire life.
I don’t fight it this time. I can’t.
When he pulls on my hair, I tilt my head back and let him kiss me. No. Scratch that. Because Levi doesn’t kiss, he devours. He eats me up like I’m his favourite flavour.
Then, a second later, he squeezes my neck and wrenches our mouths apart.
I’m panting and begging for air, but all I can think about is… more.
I need more.
Our mouths aren’t meant for breathing or talking. They were made for kissing.
It’s a freaking crime that he hasn’t been kissing me all this time. We should’ve been kissing since that night I was all drugged with him and his touch.
Only I’m not drugged now, am I?
Levi is the drug. I’m a victim of my addiction to him.
I’m a victim of his obsession with me and the way he looks at me as if I’m his life’s dilemma.
“Don’t come cheering for others at my game,” he growls the word against my throat.
“W-what?”
“Don’t stand there calling another guy’s name in my fucking presence.”
I smile, incredulous. “Are you… obsessed with me or something?”
“Call it an obsession or foolishness or fucking madness,” he grunts, squeezing my throat. “But you keep your eyes on me.”
I don’t get to reply because his tongue invades my mouth. Conquers it. Smashes it. Like it’s his God-given right. Like I was made for him to conquer.
The biggest part of me wants to give back what he takes. I want to kiss him like I can win the battle, too. I want to claw at his defences and pull down his walls.
But that’s not who I am, right? I’m not supposed to go on battles and wars. I’m supposed to finish my damn year in peace.
I rip away from his mouth with a groan. “I…”
“Stop denying it.” The pale blue of his eyes traps me in an enchanting spell. With one last squeeze to my throat, he trails his hand to my breast, cupping it. “These feel so full, don’t they?”
I shake my head even as my nipples harden like never before.
“But look at them pushing against the T-shirt. I bet they want me to feel them, huh?”
He flicks his thumb against my nipple over the cloth. His dirty words and his touch put me on a magnitude of sensations.
Everything feels ten folds sharper.
The desk’s wood under me is too hard. The soft light has suddenly become too bright. His intoxicating scent has become opium or a shot of alcohol.
“Lie all you want, but I can feel your arousal, princess.”
I’m about to protest when he pinches my nipple hard.
My head falls back on a moan. “Oh, God.”
He continues twirling the nipple, playing then pinching it as if it’s a torture device. And in a way, it is.
Hot breaths tickle my ear as he whispers, “Are you telling me that if I touch you right now, you won’t be dripping wet?”
“L-Levi…” It was supposed to be a protest, but I’m too drugged on his dirty words.
Not to mention that the double onslaught on my breast and ear is making me too hazy to think.
“Tell me, princess, if I push through your folds, are you going to soak me?”
I don’t get to reply.
With his grip on my hair, he pushes me back and yanks my skirt to my mid-section, exposing my pale thighs and the black boy shorts.
The spark of lust in his eyes mixes with that strange blackness.
“Levi, you—”
My words die out when he cups me over my boy shorts. I bite my lower lip against the moan. It’s like all my nerves have gathered underneath his hand.
“You are wet.” His wolfish grin make me draw a stuttering breath.
“How do I make you wet, princess?”
His fingers inch to the band of my underwear. “Is it how I touch you here?” He slips a finger over the cloth, rubbing up and down. “Do you want me to stick it in you? Are you going to swallow me in like a good little princess?”
Although his touch and dirty words are maddening, it’s the look in his eyes that make me want to free fall to sin.
He looks at me as if I’m the most appetising thing he’s ever seen. He’s starving and his unapologetic, raw hunger is rubbing off on me.
“You’ll come for me won’t you?” he growls. “You’ll scream so loud, you’ll bring the whole fucking house down, huh? Everyone will know you’re being fucked real good, won’t they?”
>
Oh for the love of Vikings, why does every word he says turn me on even more?
“But first, you want me to see you, don’t you? You want me to see that pussy that will soon belong to me. I bet it’s all swollen and pink and ready for me, isn’t it?”
I swallow, unable to breathe right. Because maybe I do. Maybe I’m crazy and I want him to see me.
All of me.
Angling my legs up, he brings my boy shorts down without breaking eye contact.
Those enthralling, pale eyes.
Those blue, blue eyes.
The intimacy of the moment undoes me.
Then his gaze strays to what he uncovered. I lick my dry lips at the feral, wild look on his face.
But I don’t get to watch him watch me for long. I don’t get to pause the moment and tuck it for safekeeping.
Because he’s between my legs.
“What are you —”
All thoughts disappear when he runs his tongue from the bottom right to the top of my clit.
I open my mouth to say something, but it remains in a wide ‘O’. He repeats the onslaught again, not giving me time to breathe. I grip the table’s edge as my head falls against the table’s wood.
He sucks and pulls at my folds with his teeth, his stubble scratching at my inner thighs. The sensation is enough to bring me to the edge.
“You taste.” Suck. “Like.” Suck. “Fucking sin.”
I can feel myself dipping for him. For his words. For his whole damn aura.
Levi owns me in ways, even I can’t begin to explain. I can’t even understand them myself.
He nibbles on my clit with his teeth, and I jerk up the table as if I’m possessed. He pins me down with both his hands on my hips.
My fingers find the golden locks of his hair and I push — or pull — I’m not quite sure. He continues sucking and nibbling and thrusting his tongue in and out of my opening like he’s been starving for me. Like I was made for him to devour.
Something wild and unrestrained builds inside me so fast, I can’t register it, let alone contain it.
There’s no warning. No damn slowing down Levi and his brutal, unrestrained tongue.
I come so hard, my head bangs against the wood and black dots form behind my lids.
A flash of movement breezes in my peripheral vision. Or maybe that’s the orgasm halo.
I return to the world of the living with Levi’s lips on mine and his tongue thrusting inside my mouth. The same lips and tongue that just brought me over the edge.
I almost come right then and there again.
This time, I kiss him back. I clash with his tongue and his teeth and I give back the wildness he brought out in me.
I become the war he tries to conquer.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Astrid
If fate brought us together, then fate be damned.
* * *
I tiptoe towards the back entrance of the pool house. It’s become an epic sneaking out technique that I’ve been perfecting.
There’s no way in hell I’m having breakfast with my evil stepmother and her daughter.
That sounded very Cinderalla-ish — in a bad way.
I spent the entire weekend with Dan at Ally’s or playing pool at his place. Oh, and I totally stole Aunt Nora’s scones and left Dan with nothing.
Still, I couldn’t say a word about what happened at Ronan’s party.
Zach, Dan’s eldest brother, drove us home that night. By then, I had already run away from Ronan’s mum’s office and hid by the garden.
Okay, I might have called Zach, too, so he’d come to get us.
I mean, I can’t be blamed. Anyone would’ve freaked out if they were so wanton and vocal about their first orgasm. An orgasm that happened straight on Levi’s face.
Jeez. I don’t know what the hell took over my body.
He didn’t chase after me that night — thankfully, but he sent me a text.
Levi: You can’t run away from me, princess. I’ll catch you every time.
He sent another text yesterday morning. Six am on a Sunday. Does he even sleep?
Levi: Let’s go for a jog and train those legs to run better.
I ignored both texts.
I wish I could say I figured anything out over the weekend. On the contrary, everything is becoming more complicated than I thought.
Levi is a damn dilemma with no way out. That small part of me that’s itching to be pulled into his orbit? Well, that part isn’t so small anymore.
It’s still too early for Dan to pick me up. They have practice in the evening today, and he’s not that much of a morning person. He won’t be waking up until it’s time for school.
If I want to avoid breakfast from hell, I need to get out now before Victoria and Nicole are up.
Especially Nicole. I made sure we hadn’t crossed paths at home since that scene of her between Levi’s legs.
Before he ended up between mine.
God. That’s so screwed up.
My gaze meets Sarah’s from the kitchen’s window. I place a finger in front of my lips and beg her with my eyes to remain silent.
She rolls her eyes but waves me away. I throw her a kiss and duck around the pool house.
“Not happening. Astrid will not go through that again.”
I stop right at the corner at Dad’s voice. I peek my head around as slow as physically possible.
He stands at the edge of the pool, already dressed in his three-piece black suit. A hand in his pocket, he has the other holding the phone glued to his ear.
“I’m her father and legal guardian, Commissioner.”
My back snaps in a rigid line. This has to do with my accident.
“She lost her mother in an accident and had a similar one of her own,” Dad speaks in his no-nonsense tone that intimidates me even when I’m not the one on the receiving end. “She will not take the fall of your incompetence.”
Silence.
Long, thick silence.
Dad looks in the distance for a few seconds that might as well seem like an eternity. “The answer is no and that’s final.”
He clicks something on the phone and turns around. I duck and run in the opposite direction towards the pool house’s side door.
Dad stops right in front of the entrance and takes a deep breath, his shoulders drooping as he pinches his eyebrows.
I haven’t seen him do that since I was a little girl. I thought he completely lost that habit.
The moment ends as fast as it came. He straightens like the lord Clifford everyone knows, opens the door and strides inside.
“Sarah, is Astrid down for breakfast?”
Shit.
I sprint towards the back entrance, not looking back.
My head is a jumbled mess as I walk down the street and to the park. My fingers tighten around the backpack’s straps.
Dad’s hiding something that has to do with the police commissioner and my accident.
Astrid will not go through that again.
Go through what?
A finger taps my shoulder, and I yelp. I was too caught in my thoughts to notice someone approach me, let alone walking by my side.
My heart rate returns to normal only to spike up again when I meet those sinister, pale blue eyes.
Sometimes, it’s like they belong to an angel. Other times, it’s like the devil is staring down at me.
This morning, it’s a mixture of both.
I can’t help the spike of my pulse or how heat smothers my skin by just looking at him.
Levi has his golden, Viking hair slicked back today as if he’s out on a fashion show. His team’s royal blue jacket clings to his shoulders like a second skin.
His mouth curves to the side. The same mouth that sucked and nibbled and brought me a pleasure I didn’t realise existed. The same mouth that kissed me like a madman with my taste all over him.
“You’re blushing, princess.” His grin widens.
“I’m not.”
He taps my nose with his index finger. “It’s adorable.”
I step back until he has to drop his hand.
Dammit. A single touch is all it takes for me to crave crawling into his side.
“Why were you blushing? Are there certain memories prickling your mind?”
“Oh, please. Don’t flatter yourself. It wasn’t that special.” I lower my heating face as soon as I say the words, not wanting him to see my reaction.
“It?” he asks with an amused tone.
“You… know.”
“No. Enlighten me.”
“Stop it.”
“Stop what?”
Ugh. He’s infuriating. “Can’t you just drop it?”
“Are you too shy to say I went down on you? That I ate you up like I’ve never eaten anything before? That I licked and bit your hot, wet pussy as you came all over my face and —”
“Stop.” I place both my hands on his mouth, shutting him up.
I’m not that worried about the early runners in the park as much as my stupid body’s reaction to his crude words.
With every word coming out of his mouth, a rush of heat invades me and pools between my thighs.
When the hell did I become so addicted to his dirty talk?
I look on either side of me. “Why are you here anyway?”
“I came for you.”
I came for you.
Just like that. He makes it appear so easy and nonchalant.
“I would’ve gone to your house, but I’m guessing Lord Clifford isn’t a big fan of me.”
“No shit, Sherlock.” I frown. “How did you know I’d be in this park?”
He lifts a shoulder. “I have my ways.”
Dan. That traitor. I’m supposed to be angry with him for spilling my morning routine, but I don’t have it in me now.
Levi might be a bastard, but he managed to pluck me from the dooming thoughts about Dad and what he’s hiding from me.
“Run with me.” He nudges my shoulder.
“I’m an artist, not an athlete, remember?”
“You don’t have to be an athlete to run.”
“I’m good.” I flop to an empty bench. “Thanks but no thanks.”
I try to imagine he’s not standing right in front of me as I retrieve my sketchbook.
