The Shadow Kingdom

Chapter 14i

My knees buckle, and I practically collapse onto the sofa in relief. The taste of bile in my mouth finally subsides. "Is it over?" I ask Adrian.

He comes to sit beside me and pulls me into his loving arms. "It's over. You are free. William can't touch you anymore." He places a finger on my chin and tilts my face up to meet his. "Now, it's just my father you need to worry about. I don't know which one's worse." We both laugh. "I love you." He whispers.

"So this means that we can go anywhere we want now, right? No more staying in the safety of your castle?"

"Just tell me where you want to go." The tenderness in his voice is filled with the promise of better days. "I'll make it happen."

I gaze up at him intently. "It's ironic. At this very moment, there is nowhere else I'd rather be." An affectionate kiss brushes my cheek. "I told you once that if you want to be with me, you would have to earn me."

"Yes. I remember."

I rise up and smoothen out my dress. I want him to find me alluring. "You've earned me." I extend my arm to offer him my hand.

Adrian takes my hand, and I lead him upstairs to the master bedroom. He closes the door behind him without taking his eyes off me. I undo my hair bun, and my dark hair falls to my shoulders. He tosses his suit onto a chair beside the bed and loosens his tie while he saunters towards me. We both kick off our shoes, and I slide onto the bed, kneeling in the middle. "Are you sure about this?" He asks.

"In Chinese culture, seventy-six is a lucky number, right?"

He laughs. "Eight is a lucky number."

"Whatever." I smile provocatively. "It's close enough."

He strips off his perfectly-pressed, pinpoint oxford shirt and joins me on the bed. I guide his hand to the zipper at the side of my dress, and he pulls it down slowly. "I remember seeing the credit card bill for this dress. It cost twelve hundred dollars."

"I'm an Ashcroft princess now. I'll pay you back." My lips touch his softly.

"After your behaviour tonight, William is not going to start a trust fund for you anytime soon." He returns the kiss just as delicately.

"True. But there are other ways that a girl can pay her debts..." I discard the dress, and he does the same with his dress pants. I place my palms on his cheeks and caress his face with my thumbs. He wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me close to him such that his chest is pressed tightly against mine. I grin coquettishly as he reaches behind me and unfastens my bra.

He pushes me down so that I'm lying on the bed, and in one smooth motion, the rest of my underwear is gone. The temperature in the room is getting warmer, and a gentle breeze appears. "Are you doing that?" I ask.

"Not on purpose." He answers. "It happens when I get turned on."

I reach down to see exactly how turned on. "I can tell," I grin. His boxers drift down his legs, and I spend a few seconds relishing in his naked beauty. "I love you, Adrian."

"I love you too, Scarlett." He opens a drawer in the bedside counter and removes a conveniently placed condom.

I giggle. "You are very well-prepared."

"Always." His lips return to mine where they belong. "I'll be gentle," he whispers. My legs bend and slide to the sides without being commanded, granting him an unspoken invitation. He slips the condom on faster than I could notice, and he is inside me a second later. His hands run down the sweeping soft curves of my waist all the way to my hips. His mouth moves down to my throat, and with every thrust, I feel just a tiny bit of pain. Flesh is tearing deep inside me. But each time when he asks if he is hurting me, I simply answer it with a kiss.

Adrian's aircaster nature betrays him. The storm brewing between us is a mere preview of the tempest that roars inside him, capable of consuming me like footprints in a sandstorm. The whirlwind gradually escapes him, and my gentle, refined, worldly crown prince is overtaken by something feral. And that power is focused entirely on me.

The smoldering temperature in the room tells me that he is close to his climax. The bedroom is practically a sauna. But is that because of him or me? Perhaps both. Perhaps the air and water are being excited as one just as we are. And as I feel my own body reaching its peak, I know that I am partly to blame because I can taste the condensed moisture in the air. We both reach our release simultaneously, and by the time that the last wave has washed over me, I can hear the heavy droplets in the room falling onto the bed.

Adrian rolls off me, and I know he is equally sated because the air in the room very quickly becomes cooler. It takes us both a few minutes to regain the strength to speak. "Is this what it's like every time spellbinders have sex?" I pant the words rather than say them.

"Not always; only when it's this good." We both dissolve into laughter.

My body entangles with Adrian's as I wrap his arm around me and rest my head on his shoulder. My fingers stride up and down his chest, idly tracing a path across his glorious body. "I know that was the best sex of my life, but what about you? Was it good for you?"

"It was definitely up there. But imagine doing it with a firestarter. Now that redefines the term 'hot sex.'" He laughs wickedly, smiling from ear to ear.

I fall silent. My indescribable happiness from a moment ago diminishes. "You mean like with Selena. She is a firestarter." My wobbling tone betrays my insecurity. "And whatever else she might be, she is definitely a blonde bombshell. You must have really enjoyed yourself with her."

Adrian deciphers my meaning. "Scarlett no, I didn't mean it like that. I love you. It was just mindless entertainment with her, no different than finding a call girl on the Internet. But with you, it actually means something. It's as you said; you were something that I had to earn. And that makes what we have infinitely greater."

"What was it like with her though?" I allow my curiosity to overshadow my jealousy. "I mean did you guys burn the house down?"

Adrian grimaces as though he just ate something rotten. "Let's just say, neither she nor I enjoyed it quite as much as you and I just did."

My smile returns. A small touch of blood stains Adrian's sheets. He grips my hand, and a second later, I feel right as rain. "You have quite some skills there, Professor. Have you deflowered a lot of innocent little girls?"

Adrian leans in to kiss me. "You have no idea. But if anything, you have proven yourself to be much more than just a little girl these long months."

I smile at the compliment. "You good to go again?" I whisper in his ear.