Page 92 of Caroline the Cruel
A cruel slash lit his wife’s face. After a nausea inducing pause, Caroline said, “Well…” Her voice had a velvet edge which slid across Breicher’s skin like a silent invitation. This was the woman he knew. The woman who saw him like he now saw her. That he’d so longed to touch and taste.No, worship.
Caroline continued, “I suppose this changes things. What do you think, Breicher?”
YES, his mind screamed, but he didn’t allow his face to show his eagerness. Now was the time to act like the king she needed him to be,wantedhim to be. Breicher looked up at his queen—his wife and let the smoldering need he felt for her body and soul radiate from his eyes. Her nostrils flared ever so slightly as she took him in, as if she needed a little extra air. He let the corner of his mouth tick upward, knowing she’d read his thoughts precisely.
A collective silence spread across the room, and everyone drew forward in anticipation. This was not how they’d expected the night to go at all.
Breicher stood, wiping the blood under his healed nose on his sleeve, and took the parchment from Angus, tearing it in half. The ruined document fell to the floor like a relic of another time—lost to the present moment—to the future. He would adapt to the new ways, forgive the suitors who’d shown up from Everstal to win his wife. What he’d done this last year had proven that. But it wasn’t their law in Veetula yet and the men, including his own cousins, no doubt prodded here by his brother, wouldn’t be so lucky.
He eyed the nearest three, then sought the other cousins who were lingering at the edge of the room, still attentively watching. “You dare try to wooMY WIFE?” Breicher let his anger bubble up as their faces blanched. “According to the still intact Veetula law, the queen and I are still married, which means you’ve blatantly flaunted the law and disrespected your king.” Breicher took a cue from his wife and emitted a dark rumble. “You’re in over your head, boys.” Snapping his fingers, he commanded, “Guards! Take them away and find a dark hole to store them in until I have time to get to it.”
He shot a simmering glance at his wife. “I have a feeling I’m going to be busy for a while.” Caroline gasped as he swept her into his arms.
As he carried her from the Great Hall, he turned to the man precariously poised on the window ledge. “Be careful, brother. It’s a long drop, and the wind rises at night.”
Chapter 22
“Breicher,slowdown,myking.” His wife’s voice was breathy with need as Breicher kicked her door open.
“I’m sorry,” he said, in between the kisses he was planting on her lips, her jaw, her neck. “It’s like finally being able to breathe again—I want to inhale you.” Like an animal mawing its prey, he couldn’t keep his hands from pawing her.
Grabbing her ass, he pulled her into him, showing her how much he needed her. When she groaned, his teeth clenched in pleasure, but he’d bit down a little too roughly on her nape and she cried out. He jerked back, and brought his hands to her neck, to inspect the red mark he’d caused.
Caroline gave him a coy smile. “You don’t have to stop. I like it.”
Oh, he knew that, but he’d save that for another time. This time, it needed to be about her. About the forgiveness she was extending him. Though it went against everything in him, he said, “I think we should talk.”
Caroline’s face pinched into the purest distress he’d ever seen on a person. “Is talking really necessary?” Her greedy hands roamed down his chest, un-tucking his shirt. She deftly unbuttoned it, then ran her hands across his chest as she pushed it off his shoulders.
Talk? Her husband wanted to talk?She had something far different in mind. Reaching up on her toes, she kissed the base of his neck, then his collar bone. She moved her focus across the tensed muscles, kissing and licking until she came to his nipple, all the while she was undoing his buckle and pulling his pants down over his hips trying to get at the glorious prize he stored there.
Right as she was about to get him in her hand, his fingers wrapped around her shoulders, and he pulled her away enough so she could look at him.
“I need to apologize to you.”
She snaked her hand in between them, taking what she wanted. “Can’t you play and apologize at the same time?” His grunting only encouraged her, until his hand wrapped around her wrist.
The other tipped her chin up toward him. “If that is what you want, then that is what I will do.”
Ugh, he was serious. His slacks had fallen to the floor, but she tugged his undershorts back over his hips. “I suppose we better hide this then.”
“I wouldn’t want you getting distracted.” Breicher reached up and unthreaded one of the red roses from her hair, showing it to her in question, before untangling another.
“We dyed them. For effect. I wanted to make a statement.”
The gentle way he was releasing her hair from its arrangement made her heart squeeze. He turned her, so she was facing the full-length mirror in her room and moved her hair around to her front and began unlacing the neck of her gown. “You deserve so much better than how I’ve treated you. What I did was dishonorable, and I deserve whatever punishment you could have given me. I understand that now. You once asked me if you were a fool. I see now that I was the fool.”
“I need you to know that Jaden told me what you and Angus discovered about what Hollis had done and he took me there, and I saw it with my own eyes. At first, I was angry that you didn’t come to me with it, but over time I understood you didn’t tell me because you wanted me to trust you—to believe in you. And I failed you in that. When I realized it, I didn’t think I deserved you. Staying away was my way of punishing myself.”
Caroline shuddered as his hot breath met her skin as he pressed a kiss below her ear. “I don’t know what the future holds, but I want to promise you I will spend it making it up to you, making you proud that I’m your husband. Being the king you need to stand beside you and making sure not a day goes by that you don’t know what you mean to me.”
The night breeze drifting in through the window trailed across Caroline’s skin, like a whispered kiss, as Breicher lowered the front of her gown, exposing her breasts to their reflections. Rough fingers trailed from her neck, down her spine. A moment later, his palms slid into the material and were guiding the dress off her hips, leaving only a barely there piece of lace held together with a few ribbons.
Breicher ran his hands over her in featherlight touches, across her stomach, her breasts, before squeezing with a little more firmness. The warring sensations clashed in the most luscious way. The way they merged with the pretty words he was saying made her heart sing. And her core ache. “And though I know I have no right, I will do everything in my power to make sure you understand that you are mine and mine alone,” he said. The grin he gave was feral, and he caught her as her knees buckled. Perhaps she wasn’t done with cocky men after all.
Breicher set his wife on the bed, then crawled on it after her. Why couldn’t he just let an apology be an apology without having to stake his claim? He swore whatever the Gods had done to his family line had made them all half animal. He looked away, a little ashamed, as he reached down to pull the last shred of clothing from his wife. Soft hands gently guided his face back toward hers. His eyes fluttered open, and the luminescent silver that stared back at him could have struck him dead.
He was in love with her. Gods, what a fool he was. His traitorous heart wouldn’t stop singing her song. His betraying eyes wouldn’t stop following her. His lecherous mind had thought of nothing but her since she’d exiled him. Hollis had thought it was his wounded pride or a momentary infatuation. His anger toward his brother simmered anew. Was the remorse drowning him ever going to stop?
