Crowned Desires

3} The Position

Celeste Lawrence

"Okay, I think I can manage walking without help now." I snapped finally at the gentleman manhandling me (although I suppose that doesn't make him that much of a gentleman anymore). His hands gripped behind my knee firmly while my hair fell in waves around my face, bouncing around my vision with every step. I dangled with a defeated and irritated look leveled across my face, one I wouldn't let him see.

"Oh, but I thought you wouldn't be moving your legs?"

A loud, exasperated groan left my lips. This man left me filled and overflowing with irritation. I didn't like my words being used against me, I didn't like being bested, I didn't like that somehow he always found a foothold up on me. I could tell he wanted me to concede, say some magic words that admitted to my defeat.

But I would not give it to him. If he would be hard-headed, then I would be made of steel.

I went quiet, and a smile filled my face. I pulled a long, fresh breath in, and when I exhaled, I screamed at the top of my lungs in the echoing hallway, "Help-!"

For as quick as I opened my mouth, Gray had responded just as fast. He slid his hands up my thighs and grabbed my hips aggressively. I could tell his anger leaked into his movements from how his strong fingers gripped my skin harder.

He pulled me down off his body, and his hand fitted over my mouth before I could blink. His storm-gray eyes connected with mine, and I was met with that distasteful glare inches from my own.

I glanced down at his hand with wide eyes, and then when I flicked my gaze back to his, it was narrowed into a point. He pushed me back into the wall while whispering close to the back of his hand, "Are you out of your mind? You'll have the whole castle up in a frenzy!"

His body was cornering me against the cool textured wall, my chest rising and falling rapidly from the sheer amount of heat filling my body. It was pure rage and the sparks of desire, the line separating those two feelings blurring rapidly.

Wildly, his powerful eyes stared me down like he might devour me. He groaned and ripped his hand away, but his body never moved. I remained pressed into the wall with his whispered voice close.

"The only thing I'm running low on is patience for you. I said to put me down, and you didn't comply. You're lucky I don't have you hanged in the morning." I tried my best to match the aggressive look on his face, pinching my dark brows together and inching closer with every word I barked.

Gray observed me, and his head tilted ever so slightly in time with the slow spread of his smirk. His sly look only made my features sharpen.

We were both so close to each other, but our bodies were rigid as I faced him. As if our tandem beating hearts were at the precipice of war.

"That would frighten me if I didn't already know you don't hold the kind of authority to have people executed." Gray let that sly look melt all over his face, his eyes flicking down to my lips as he braced a hand on the wall behind my head. He leaned in so close to my lips I could feel the brush of his breath along my mouth.