Read Online All the King's Men by Lacey Savage - Free Book Online Page B

his. The realization that he held the woman he
loved, the woman he’d lost, in his arms came like a blow to the gut.
    Even though he’d been made aware of that fact hours ago, it
wasn’t until that very moment that it truly slammed home. The intensity of his
feelings for her robbed him of his ability to speak, to breathe, to do anything
but stare.
    Green, blue and red-tinted moon rays washed over her high
cheekbones. The light sparkled on brown tresses that spilled out from a loose
bun gathered at the nape of her neck.
    Unable to hold back any longer, Kirel brushed his knuckles
across her chin and tilted her face up toward his. Her lips parted in surprise.
For a brief moment, she ceased struggling.
    A moment was all he needed. Using the strength of his body,
he shoved her hard against the wall and trapped her there. Slamming his mouth
on top of hers, he kissed her fiercely, his tongue thrusting between her lips
and forcing her to open to him.
    She fought him with renewed fervor but he didn’t care where
her blows landed. Nothing mattered but the way she felt against him—sensual and
soft and alive.
    Groaning into her mouth, he slid his hands up her arms then
higher, framing her face. He held her there, a prisoner of his desperate need
as he devoured her mouth.
    She tasted like cinnamon and cherries. Always cherries .
He’d never cared for cherries until he’d met her, but one taste of her lips and
he hadn’t been able to get enough of the fleshy fruit.
    The more he kissed her, the more he hungered. The deep,
incessant need that tormented him amplified to impossible proportions,
threatening to overtake him.
    Nelina had stopped fighting him. The realization swept
through his lust-fogged mind. She’d clenched her fingers in his shirt and was
kissing him back just as passionately as he kissed her.
    Elation swirled through his veins. She may claim to hate him
but she couldn’t deny what they’d both always known. The chemistry between them
was explosive. It always had been.
    And there was no way he’d allow another man to lay claim to
her.
    Kirel pulled back sharply, struggling to find the words to
tell her everything he felt. At that moment, he was ready to sweep her into his
arms and march down the hall until he set her loose upon the world himself, the
Tradition be damned.
    When he finally opened his mouth to speak, she silenced him
rapidly with another slap of her open palm across his cheek. The fact that he
should have been expecting her strike did nothing to lessen its impact.
    “I spent eight years looking for you. Eight years!
And here you were all along, frolicking with your friends in your little
castle, laughing at the girl you’d left behind.”
    She shoved at his chest with a strength he hadn’t expected.
He stumbled back a step, allowing her to slip away from the wall. She rubbed at
her wrist. Her hair, completely free of its binding now, fell like a silky
curtain around her face.
    Brilliant blue eyes pierced him from beneath the veil of
shadows. “Got nothing to say for yourself, do you? Well, fine. I wasn’t
expecting an explanation anyway because there isn’t one. But before you leave,
let me make this perfectly clear. You can go back to your king and tell him
there’s no way I will ever consent to mating with him.”
    Gods, she was beautiful. The fury etched on her features
acted like an aphrodisiac. It traveled through Kirel in a fierce arc, igniting
a lust he hadn’t known himself capable of.
    He wasn’t willing to lose her.
    Not tonight. Not ever again.
    If that meant following the Tradition’s demands, then so be
it. If he only had another week with her, then he was going to make the most of
it. And while he fucked her senseless, he was going to come up with a plan.
Because there was no way he was just going to hand her over to Shivar or to anyone
else for that matter.
    “Did you hear me? I want you to march out that door and tell
your king—”
    Kirel moved with a speed borne of anger,