Read Online The Kraken King, Part 7 by Meljean Brook - Free Book Online Page B

control and let the calm he’d worn like armor drop away. Fire raged through his veins, a building explosion edged with ragged pain. One final time, he lost himself in his wife before retreating, and as he abruptly withdrew, the orgasm detonated through him. His seed spurted into his left hand.
    Chest heaving, he let her ankles slip from his shoulders. She grimaced faintly as her legs fell to either side of his waist, then smiled as he leaned in. Her arms encircled his neck. Her panting breaths were quick and hot against his lips, her mouth sweet and warm.
    When he lifted his head again, she looked up at him with an exhausted laugh. “I think I truly will need three days to recover.”
    She would have the time if she needed it. Ariq didn’t know when he would have her again—only these next two hours. He could hold her until it was time to leave.
    But not with come on his hand. After another kiss, he rose and moved to the washstand. Zenobia rolled onto her side and watched him, a frown slowly creasing her brow.
    â€œYou didn’t spend inside me?”
    The molten iron in his chest was burning, heavy. “No.”
    She was silent for a long moment. Her voice was carefully even when she finally said, “That’s what you would have done in Krakentown—when you thought our entanglement would be temporary. Is that what you think now?”
    â€œI hope it’s not.” He prayed it wasn’t.
    â€œThen what was this—a tactic? A punishment?” Her brows arched as she said it, and she smiled faintly, but the amusement in her tone was undermined by a rising note of worry. “Because if you’re going to punish me like that, I’ll probably continue doing whatever I did wrong so that you’ll punish me again.”
    Not a punishment. He didn’t know what it had been. Just jagged, burning pain.
    His bathing robe hung over the top of the dressing screen. He yanked it down and stabbed his arms through the wide sleeves.
    â€œYou’re
angry.
” Abruptly sitting up, she hauled a blanket over her breasts. Hiding from him already? Then it probably wouldn’t be long before she ran. “At
me
.”
    No. At himself, for believing that she wanted more than she did.
    â€œYou are not the only one who took a risk by sharing my bed. I risked much, too.” His heart. His seed. His future, because he couldn’t imagine one without her. “But I did not keep options. If this marriage doesn’t work, have you already planned what you’ll do? Have you figured out your way home, already know the arrangements you’ll need to make?”
    Her face stilled. “What?”
    â€œYou already know what you’ll do? Have you thought it through?”
    She looked away from him and her chest lifted on three quick breaths before she said, “Yes. Of course I did.”
    Of course she did. She was a woman who had taken her own glider onto a naval airship.
    â€œEven if you’re with child? Did you plan for that, too?”
    â€œYes.”
    Her soft whisper tore open the ragged ache in his chest. Tengri help him. He would never have spent his seed inside her if he hadn’t believed she would stay. It would be torture enough to lose Zenobia. To lose Zenobia and their child?
    He’d been a reckless fool. Hot frustration and raw agony were hammers that pounded each word into a hard edge. “And what was the plan? Your brother would come, then you would leave for Fladstrand? Maybe you’d send me letters from home. You would describe how our child is growing, then sign your name at the end and wish me a long life.” A life without her. Unbearable. He ripped his hands through his hair and thundered, “You would consign me to hell!”
    She flinched, clutching the blanket tight to her breasts before color rushed into her cheeks. Jade eyes like stone, she stared at him. “Should I
not
be prepared for what I must do if I’m