Cruel King: A Dark New Adult Romance (Royal Elite)

It’s the queen who sacrifices herself for the king.

I’m panting as Levi and I throw on some clothes after stepping out of the shower.

And by some clothes, I mean he puts on black boxer briefs and I wear his team’s jersey.

That was… wow. Mind blowing is an understatement to describe what just happened in the bathroom.

I feel so used and pleased.

Give it to Levi to make me feel completely different emotions at the same time.

“Number ten never looked so damn good.” He drags his darkened eyes from my breasts to where the T-shirt reaches mid-thigh.

I pull my hair up. “Is that so?”

For the love of Vikings. Am I flirting with him right now?

“You know how it’d look better?”

“How?”

“On the floor.”

He reaches for me, but I duck out of his grasp, giggling.

I run down the hall, my bare feet slapping against the wooden flooring.

Thundering footsteps come from behind me. Fear and excitement erupt in my stomach, and I run faster, harder. Just like the prey Levi wants.

Two arms surround me from behind. I squeal as my feet leave the ground and he turns me around.

His hot, husky words tickle my ear. “You can run, but you can’t hide. I’ll always catch you, princess.”

“I know,” I pant, my heartbeat almost leaping out.

“Then why did you run?”

Because maybe I like the feeling of being chased. Maybe I like walking on the thin line between sanity and insanity with him.

I love the way my heart pounds as if I’m about to have a heart attack.

He brings me to the edge and I love the view.

“It’s a secret,” I laugh and continue running downstairs.

He catches me by the kitchen, making me squeal.

The only reason he releases me is because we need to eat.

He pulls back a stool, “Sit.”

I take my seat looking around the red and black decorated kitchen. It’s open bar style with a closet-like fridge and marble counters.

Then my eyes trail to the most beautiful thing in the kitchen.

His chest is too sculpted, I can easily count each one of his six abs. His muscles flex with every move — like he can crush anything in his path. He can even crush me if he chooses to.

The black boxer briefs outline his strong football thighs, barely leaving anything to the imagination.

Then there’s that V-line.

Now, I understand why all the girls are obsessed with that male perfection. It’s not about the V, it’s about the place it leads to.

A certain organ that’s been inside me minutes ago. Hard and thick and —

“Like what you see, princess?”

My eyes snap to his amused ones. “I wasn’t looking.”

The arsehole’s smirk widens. “Something on your face says otherwise.”

I turn around, wiping my mouth. Please tell me I wasn’t drooling.

“You’re blushing, princess. Nothing can erase that.”

Oh.

I whirl back around, feeling my cheeks hotter than earlier. “Hurry so we can go to school.”

He disappears behind the counter and throws over his shoulder. “No.”

“What?”

He faces me from the other side, leaning over on both his hands until his gorgeous face is in mine. “Tell me when you last broke a rule?”

He smiles and when it reaches his eyes, I can’t help smiling back. “You’re too uptight, princess. What did I say about living in the moment?”

“I did, didn’t I?” My cheeks heat, remembering how much I screamed in the shower when he disappeared between my legs.

“Sure did.” He taps my nose. “You’re fucking adorable when you blush.”

I swat his hand away. “I don’t need to break rules to live in the moment.”

“When was the last time you skipped?”

“Yesterday, remember?”

“That doesn’t count. You didn’t have a choice. Today, you do.”

“And if I do skip, what’s the plan?”

He shakes his head with disapproval. “Plans defy the whole point of skipping. We’ll just wing it.”

“Wing it?”

“Since it’s rainy, we’ll stay inside and do indoor things.”

“Things like what?”

“Like fucking your brains out, princess.”

My cheeks turn into a fire pit and a tingle draws up my spine at the promise.

Jeez. I’ve only discovered this part of myself last night and I already can’t get enough. Have I turned into a nympho or something?

“That is if you aren’t too sore?” he asks with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m not.” I am. But I won’t let that ruin my fun.

Ha. I’m starting to think like Levi.

A night with the devil and I’m already thinking like him.

“How do you like your eggs?” he disappears underneath the counter as the sound of pans and clanking fills the space.

“You know how to cook?” I ask.

“I learnt a trick or two from spending time here.”

“You don’t live with Aiden and your uncle?”

“I do, but I don’t call that house my home.” He reappears with a pan and utensils and heads to the stove.

“I also don’t feel like Dad’s house is my home sometimes.”

He tilts his head. “Sometimes?”

“I don’t know how to explain it, but at times, it does feel like home.” When only Dad is there. When I don’t see Victoria and Nicole’s faces or hear their taunts. When I help Sarah out in the kitchen like I used to do with Mum.

When Dad comes to wish me goodnight.

I hop down my stool and join Levi behind the counter.

One. The view from here is more gorgeous.

Two. I want to help.

“Just sit down,” he pushes me back but I nudge him.

“This is my way of living the moment. Let me.”

It’s an epic failure.

I end up with flour all over my face and arms because Levi’s definition of living the moment is playing around and feeling me up.

At first, I tried to fight it, but there’s no fighting Levi. His intensity runs too deep, it’s like being sucked whole with no way out.

It’s frightening sometimes.

It’s thrilling most of the time.

I’m always buzzing out of my skin, waiting for the next thing he’ll come up with.

He’s a high that I’m not sure I want to come down from.

I know Levi is dangerous. I’ve seen it in that black gaze and his closed off features. I felt it in the way he takes whatever he wishes without looking back. I’ve heard it in his sinister voice and unapologetic words.

All of that was supposed to push me away. Instead, I keep gravitating towards him like a moth to a fire.

He’ll burn me.

He’ll destroy me.

But I’ll keep coming back for more anyway.

After breakfast, we play chess. He has this huge glass board in the middle of the lounge area and we sit across from each other.

He narrows one eye before we start, “I warn you. I crush my enemies.”

“Humph,” I tuck my knees underneath me and puff my chest. “Show me what you got, King.”

As if I lit a fire, his eyes gleam with a challenge. His posture turns uptight, and his entire stance sharpens for the battle.

After fifteen minutes of trying to outsmart him, I lose.

He takes down all my defences and then kills my queen in the most brutal way.

I sulk, staring at his main pieces that remain intact.

He chuckles when I continue sulking. “You’re doing it all wrong.”

“How?”

“You’re protecting your king when you should be protecting something far more important.”

“The queen?”

“Could be.” He tilts his head to the side. “But if you really want to win, then you need all your battalion.”

“How about sacrificing for the greater good?”

“A true warlord sacrifices soldiers, not generals.”

I mimic the tilting of his head. “How did you come to love chess so much?”

He’s silent for a moment. “It runs in the family, I guess.”

“Your uncle plays?”

“He does, but he didn’t teach me, my father did. It was one of the few things he taught me.”

I straighten, feeling the tension behind his words. “So you weren’t close?”

“We were when he wasn’t having his manic episodes, which wasn’t very often.” He stares at me as he’s surprised he just divulged that.

My lips part.

What Aiden said makes sense now. Levi doesn’t have mental problems, but he lived in the shadow of a father who did. Maybe that part of his father rubbed off on him, too.

Before I can say anything, Levi smiles in a challenging way. “Do you want to go again? I promise not to crush you this time.”

“Bring it.”

We go at it for hours. It’s the most time I’ve spent in one place – aside from the art studio – without going out of my mind. In fact, I have fun.

Even though Levi wins every time.

I try to distract him by pushing the jersey up my thighs or pulling it down or licking my lips. Even though his eyes darken with lust, he wins the game, pushes the board away, and scoops me in his arms.

“Were you seducing me just now, princess?”

I look away trying to hide the goosebumps covering my skin. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You were playing dirty.”

“I… wasn’t.”

“Do you know what happens to bad girls who play dirty?” His lips find the lobe of my ear and he sucks before biting down.

I moan, my head falling against his neck. It’s crazy how something so little can turn me into a wanton mess.

Levi isn’t someone I should be involved with, but my body doesn’t understand that.

All I can feel is the thrill and the desire for more.

I want more.

I want everything.

And that’s disturbingly similar to how Levi thinks.

Maybe I’ve become the devil king myself.

He lowers me to the sofa and yanks down his boxer briefs. I pull the T-shirt over my head and toss it behind me so we’re skin to skin. Heartbeat to heartbeat.

My nails dig into his chest, drawing long red marks. Like he left his own marks all over my neck, collarbone, and breasts.

He hisses in pain, but his eyes gleam with undisclosed lust.

“You do like a bit of pleasure with your pain, princess.” He smiles, his sinful lips hovering over mine.

“So do you, Lev.” I drag my nails down his back this time, ripping a groan from him.

“Sure do.” He smirks and my heart skips a beat.

It’s not even funny how gorgeous he is.

His fingers trail down my stomach to my wet folds, leaving scorching tingles in their wake.

He teases my clit until I’m bucking against his hand, begging for more.

The building starts at my core and spreads all over my skin. Just when I’m about to come, he replaces his fingers with his cock, thrusting inside me in one go.

“Oh, God.”

“Not quite.” His lips curve as his face turns feral with lust and something else I can’t place.

I hold onto his neck as he sucks the tender skin of my breast. Is there even a place he’s left unmarked?

He sits up and pulls me into him so I’m straddling his lap. The depth of this position makes me feel him everywhere.

In my body.

In my air.

In my freaking soul.

His lips find mine and he kisses me hard and wild and totally out of control as he picks up his pace. His thrusts are hard and unyielding like he wants to engrave himself deep within my soul.

He hits a pleasurable spot inside of me and something in me shatters.

We’re skin to skin.

Heart to heart.

There isn’t a piece of me that he doesn’t own at this moment.

I come with a hoarse scream.

As I fall from the wave, I realise something is so utterly wrong.

He didn’t use a condom.

I push at his chest as he picks up his pace, but I can’t find the words to tell him to pull out.

Oh. God.

How the hell could I forget about that?

“Pull…” I finally breathe, coming down from my orgasm halo.

His eyes darken as he pounds into me harder and faster with his hands threaded into my hair.

“Levi…” I fight the pleasure building inside me and igniting every nerve ending. “I’m not on the shot or anything.”

I didn’t think I’d need that considering I was a virgin, but I seriously should’ve thought about it.

As if I put an idea in his head, Levi’s lips quirk up in that contemplative smirk that only means trouble. He doesn’t make a move to pull out. If anything, his pace becomes so wild, it’s impossible to keep up.

His back turns rigid, and panic grips me like a vice.

“Please… please…” I beg, tears blurring my vision.

His hand shoots up to wrap around my neck, firm enough to keep me in place. “Is having kids with me so fucking sad?”

I shake my head frantically, but due to his hold, I can’t move much. “It’s not that… I don’t want to be another version of my mum… I d-don’t… Levi… Please…”

His hold falters from around my neck and just when I think he’ll come inside me, he pulls out. “Next time, I’m coming inside you.”

Next time, I’ll be on the shot.

Harsh breaths leave me with gratitude. Levi doesn’t listen to orders or requests, but he pulled out for me.

His brows are still drawn together as he grabs his hard, throbbing cock in a fist as if he’s mad at it.

I scramble to my knees between his legs. My hand covers his hand and I lick my lips. “Let me.”

He tilts his head to the side. “Why?”

“Because I want to.”

After a beat of watching me, he lets go. I take him in my hand, rubbing his length up and down.

He sucks in a breath. “Fuck, Astrid.”

“Tell me what to do.” I’ve never done this before, but I want to do it right for him.

“I need your mouth on it, princess.”

Holy shit. Why are those words such a turn on?

Tentatively, I lick the pre-cum dripping from his crown. That makes him groan, his eyes darkening and fluttering. I repeat it, licking the side before I take him all the way in. It’s a challenge since my mouth is small and he’s so big. I lick him tentatively. Levi jerks up, cursing again, so I do it again and again.

He threads his fingers in my hair, slightly pulling and pushing. “That’s it, princess. Keep doing that.”

I do.

There’s a rush about having him at my mercy like this. I should’ve been doing this since the beginning.

I pick up my pace, sucking him hard and fast. He curses, tightening his hold on my hair as his cock spurts down my throat. I try to swallow it all as he looks down on me with that darkened gaze. He tastes of breakfast and a hint of his natural, sweet scent.

He wipes the corner of my lips and I climb atop of him, crushing my mouth to his. I want him to taste himself on me like he gives me a taste of myself all the time. A groan rips from him as he deepens the kiss.

For what seems like hours, we remain entangled around each other making out slowly, too slowly. It’s like a different type of fuck.

Apparently, Levi has insomnia, but I must’ve worn him out, because he yawns and laughs saying it’s the first time it’s happened in months.

Still keeping an arm around me, he reaches the other towards the table. He snatches a pack of cigarette and takes one then retrieves the lighter.

His eyes are droopy, tired, but there’s still that spark of intensity and lust. It makes me hyper aware. Like super aware of everything. Of the smell of sex in the air. Of his tousled Viking hair. Of his hard skin against my soft one. Of his muscular leg between mine. Of his semi-hard cock against the tender flesh of my thigh.

But most of all, it makes me aware of him. This beautiful, beautiful, guy who’s silently battling against his insomnia and the shadow of his father’s mental illness.

I want to hug him and tell him it’s going to be okay.

But it never is, isn’t it?

It’s never okay to lose a parent this young, and the scar will be there forever. It’s buried too deep, too far that it’s impossible to reach it.

All I can do is stop him from doing stupid shit.

I snatch the cigarette away. “This poison will kill you.”

His fingers snake a path along my shoulder. “It will, huh?”

“Uh-huh. So be a good King and stop smoking.”

He smirks and even that is lazy. “What will I get in return?”

“Jeez. Do you always have to get something in return?”

“Always.”

I scoff. “What do you want?”

He’s silent for a moment, and I can see him running a thousand scenario in his head. “Open your mouth.”

That makes my thighs clench and spasm with need. “W-why?”

“You want me to quit smoking, don’t you, princess?”

I nod.

“Then open that pretty mouth.”

I do. Like a hormones-driven idiot, I just do.

Anticipation coils at the bottom of my stomach like a hungry, starved animal. He turned me into a freaking animal.

Watching me with those droopy eyes, he clutches the cigarette between his thumb and forefinger. It’s crazy how even his fingers look so sexy right now. They’re long and hard like the rest of him.

And then he stuffs the cigarette in his mouth. I find myself craning my head against his arm to get a better view of that firm, kissable mouth. How his teeth tug on the cigarette. How his lips close around it.

Can I be that cigarette, please?

He brings the lighter to his face and sets the cigarette on fire. The smell of nicotine mingles with the scent of sex and sweat in the air.

“You said you’ll quit –”

He stuffs a fingers against my mouth, shutting me up. Then he removes his finger. “Open.”

With furrowed brows, I do.

Levi takes a drag of smoke, but doesn’t release it. Instead, he clutches my jaw, squeezing it between his fingers. His lips hover inches away from mine as he breathes nicotine down my throat.

Holy shit. That’s hot.

And… burning.

I mean, the nicotine burns at the back of my throat. I cough, but he swallows the sound with a hard kiss. I feel like that helpless cigarette in his mouth. Tugged by his teeth and devoured by his lips.

But he tastes like that cigarette.

He tastes like me.

If this is the last smoke he’ll have, then I’ll let him burn me.

We doze off on that kiss, still wrapped around each other.

When it gets cold, Levi pulls a nearby blanket and covers us with it.

A rustle of noises wakes me up from my peaceful sleep.

“Levi…?” I ask.

“Hmm?” He asks sleepily, burying his nose in my hair.

“Is someone there?” I open my eyes to be greeted by a man who looks like the older version of Aiden scowling at us.

My heart falls to the ground when I make out the other man standing beside him.

“Astrid Elizabeth Clifford. Get up from there now.”