All the King's Men

Prologue

“Tell me you love me.”

A fiercely masculine chuckle slid through the tidy room on
the top floor of the Shadow’s Fortune inn. The deep, resonant timbre of the
man’s voice warmed the air as though the strength of the sound alone could keep
the chill slithering through the wood shutters at bay.

“Tell me,” Nelina Lannen insisted, threading her fingers
through her lover’s hair.

Kirel growled his refusal low in his throat. It rumbled
through Nelina as she held him to her, his head pillowed on her breasts. His
solid form pressed her deep into the feather mattress, but she didn’t care that
having him slumped on top of her made it hard to breathe. She drifted on a
cloud of euphoria, her inner walls still fluttering from the intensity of her
orgasm.

“I’ve told you a thousand times. Are you sure you don’t want
to hear something else instead?” He lifted his head and stared into her eyes,
his brows drawing over the bridge of his nose in a mock frown. “I could list
the million reasons why I can’t get enough of your soft, moist,
fragrant…breakfast pastries,” he finished with a wry grin.

Nelina smacked his shoulder playfully. “As delicious as my
breakfast pastries are, your fondness for them isn’t what interests me at the
moment.”

“No?” Kirel ground his hips against hers, pressing the tip
of his semierect cock against her soaked labia. “Then maybe you’d care to have
me tell you how much I adore the way your thighs squeeze my waist when I’m
inside you. Or how the sight of this little birthmark makes the breath catch in
my throat every time you show me your beautiful breasts.” He punctuated the
remark by tracing a delicate circle around the deep crimson crescent-shaped
mark that marred the pale skin of her right breast, just above her nipple.

A delightful tremor ran through Nelina’s veins. She arched
her back and her nipples stiffened to tight little aching nubs. Kirel swept the
tip of his tongue around one of the hard buds, drawing it between his teeth. He
tugged on the tender skin gently, almost reverently, before sucking the faint
sting of pain away by fitting his mouth tightly to her small areola.

“Say it.” The command came out on a gasp.

He ignored her. The sensual licks and nibbles continued,
driving Nelina to the brink of insanity. Kirel’s cock had hardened again,
nestling perfectly in the crevice of her tender slit. They’d made love twice
already that night but he was insatiable.

Luckily, so was she.

Sliding her hand between them, she grabbed his shaft and
closed her fist around it. Kirel groaned, the sound sending another tremor
through her body.

“You want to fuck me?” she asked, imbuing her voice with the
sweetest tone she could muster.

Kirel released her nipple with a loud pop. He took his time
answering, blowing a breath of cool air over her wet skin. His cock pulsed in
her hand, sleek and hot and hard. “You know I do.”

She tilted her head, a triumphant smile tugging at the
corners of her mouth. “Then say it.”

He pretended to consider her request. His teeth embedded in
his lower lip and he stared at the ceiling, eyes narrowed in thought. The look
on his handsome features was so absurd she almost laughed and ended the game.

When he grabbed her hips with both palms and jerked his cock
from her hand to slide into her pussy with effortless grace, Nelina cried out
in frustration. “No fair,” she said, but by then it was too late to dissuade
him from his course of action.

Her cunt ached from their earlier lovemaking, but his thrusts
were so slow and gentle that her inner muscles quickly adjusted to his thick
girth. Heat spread outward from her clit, settling low in her stomach.

Kirel gripped her chin between his fingers, forcing her gaze
to his. She closed her eyes and blew out a breath, stirring the lock of brown
hair that dipped over his forehead.

“Hey,” he said. “Look at me.”

She did as he requested, her lower lip jutting out in a
slight pout. His smile took her breath away. It was broad, genuine and slightly
crooked, giving his masculine face a boyish, irresistible appeal.

“I love you,” he whispered before lowering his head to kiss
her.

Nelina moaned. She slid her arms around him and held him
close, meeting the rhythm he set with slow, circular motions of her hips. He
traced her lips with the tip of his tongue, setting every nerve ending in her
body on edge.

Before Kirel had walked into her life, she’d never known
making love to a man could feel this way. She’d had lovers before and sex had
been pleasurable enough, but it had also been routine.

There was nothing formulaic about Kirel. He did everything
as though this act were his last, with a raw, sensual energy that heated her
blood. From the way he teased her mercilessly to the way he held her tenderly
curled up against him as she slept, he seemed to know just what she needed,
exactly when she needed it. He was ravenous, his sexual hunger feeding the deep
waves of lust that had always lived inside her but had never been fully
indulged.

In his arms, she felt beautiful and sexy. And loved.

He pulled his cock out of her almost in its entirety before
sliding it back inside her cunt. The deliberate pace tormented her. A sensual
heat started between her legs and spread outward, causing goose bumps to break
out over her skin.

“Faster.” The word was lost inside his mouth.

With meticulous purpose, he quickened his motions one thrust
at a time. His strokes grew frenzied as he pounded her pussy incessantly,
gliding inside her, completing her.

Nelina’s thoughts swam on a sea of lust. She scraped her
nails over his broad back, knowing she was leaving deep red imprints on his
tanned skin but unable to stop the instinctive action.

Her muscles tensed and began to quiver. The orgasm tore
through her so rapidly it stole her breath. She rode the climax on a gasp of
shock, her tight channel squeezing down on Kirel’s cock and bringing him over
the edge with her.

He screamed her name as his hot seed soaked her pussy,
mixing with the cum already there. The bed sheets were soaked with their mutual
pleasure. Cream dripped from her labia.

When a second orgasm unexpectedly tore through her, she
joined his fevered, passionate cries. For a moment, the keening sound of their
pleasure masked the crack of wood as the door to Nelina’s room burst inward.

The fog clouding her brain lingered but her heart thudded
painfully in her chest. She gripped Kirel tighter even as the sinking knowledge
that her bliss was at an end slid through her.

“Playtime’s over. You’re coming with us.”

Nelina glanced over Kirel’s shoulder toward the door and
took in the two uniformed men who’d stormed into her bedroom. She recognized
them by the traditional garb they wore. The
skella
, a form-fitting black
garment that covered each man’s lean, muscular body from head to toe, was worn
exclusively by those in the king’s personal guard. His Guardians.

Only a narrow strip of skin showed around their eyes, just
large enough to allow them to see through. Not a hint of color marred their
identical ensembles. Even the long knives they wore in plain sight looked
alike, slung low over the right side of their hips, their ebony hilts
glistening in the pale lamplight.

One of the men stepped forward and wrenched Kirel away from
Nelina. She cried out in protest as his cock was jerked from her pussy, leaving
a gaping emptiness in its wake.

Kirel’s features darkened. When he spoke, his voice was
filled with a level of raw determination she’d never before heard him use. “If
he wants me, he’s going to have to come and get me himself.”

He didn’t give the king’s men a chance to reply. Abruptly he
jerked out of the Guardian’s grasp and leapt off the bed. Fury imbued his good
looks with a feral grace. His nudity didn’t seem to hinder him in the least as
he lunged, fist leading the way. His knuckles connected with the man’s jaw,
sending him sprawling backward.

For a brief, heart-stopping second, hope surged in Nelina’s
chest. Then the other man rushed in to assist his companion. In the blink of an
eye they’d turned the tables, putting Kirel on the losing end of a fevered battle.

Anger blurred Nelina’s vision. Her body still hummed from
the onslaught of pleasure but adrenaline filled her veins. She jumped from the
bed, reached for the oil-filled lamp at her bedside and slammed it against the
first black-covered head she saw.

The room was plunged into darkness. Outside, the storm
howled its fury, masking even the tri-colored light of the moons.

A stream of obscenities rang out from somewhere close to
her. Something sharp—an elbow perhaps—struck her jaw hard enough to send her teetering
backward.

She stumbled, fought to keep her balance, and lost. She
smacked the edge of the wooden nightstand with the back of her head, the blow
adding a sharp jolt of agony to the lingering pain in her jaw.

Kirel screamed her name.

True blackness crept in around the edges of Nelina’s
consciousness, beckoning to her. Suddenly she was tired…so tired. Her eyes
drifted closed.

“I love you!”

Kirel’s parting scream echoed in her ears as though from
very far away. She passed out with the comforting phrase still ringing through
her mind.