Unraveled (Dark Sovereign Book 3)

I wake to darkness and suffocating heat. Sweat clings to my forehead, and a sheet of moisture covers my chest. The sheets are twisted around me, and I struggle to get out of them, my breaths coming in short gasps. That’s when I hear it, the sound of ice cubes clinking in a glass. I stop moving and listen, awareness trickling in, and I reach out for the lamp.

“Don’t.”

I freeze. “Alexius.”

“You should have said no.” His voice is like the roll of thunder in the dark. “The day at your apartment, you should have said no.”

“Would you have accepted it if I said no?”

“Probably not.” There’s a second of silence. “Definitely not.”

I shift on the bed, narrowing my eyes, trying to see through the darkness. “What are you doing?”

Ice cubes clink again, and I know he’s on the couch across from the bed. “I’m just sitting here watching you sleep.”

“Why?”

“That’s all I’m allowing myself at the moment.”

My skin prickles. “Is there something else you’d rather be doing?”

Silence is his only reply, and there’s a delicate stir inside me.

“Can I turn on the light?”

“No.”

“I want to see you.”

No response.

I narrow my eyes, blinking, trying to see him. “Then I’ll just get up and find you.”

“Don’t,” he warns.

“Why not?”

“I’m already struggling to control myself by just watching you sleep. If you come closer, that will no longer be the case.”

My fingers grip the sheets, heat spreading through my core, and I’m overcome with how badly I want him. “What would happen then?”

I hear the ice. “I’d want to touch.”

My breath turns rapid, and I reach up my neck, brushing my fingertips across my skin, the silk of my nightgown soft against my flesh. “Then touch me.”

“If I touch you, I’ll only want more.” He scoffs. “That’s the problem with me. Nothing is ever enough for me when it comes to you. The more you give me, the more I want.”

He leans forward and into the soft light of the estate’s nightlights weaving through the curtains. I hold my breath when the light catches the blue shades in his eyes—sparkling sapphires looking right at me.

“First, all I wanted was a wife with no strings attached.” He lifts the glass to his mouth, his throat bobbing as he swallows. “Then I wanted your virginity, and as soon as I tore through your innocence, I wanted your every wicked desire. And that still wasn’t enough. It still isn’t.”

“Alexius—”

“Then I wanted you bound to me forever, so I got you pregnant. Locked you in a room.” His elbows are on his knees, dark hair draping down the side of his face. “My greed almost destroyed us.”

“You did not destroy us.”

“I said almost.” His voice is a low timbre of power, vibrating to every bone in my body.

The moisture on my skin starts to burn, and the heat becomes too much, so I kick the sheets down to my feet before pulling my fingers through my hair, smoothing the tresses over my shoulder.

I bite my lip. “What else do you need from me?”

He leans his head to the side, leveling me with his fiery stare, twirling the glass between his fingers. “Too much.”

“That’s not up to you to decide,” I murmur, my body starting to buzz with a mix of adrenaline and need. I’m so hungry for his touch, his kiss, his possession, it’s slowly building, growing strong enough to give me the courage and confidence I need to show him that I know what I want.

I lean back against the headboard, pull up my knees, and let the silk of my nightgown slip down my thighs. His gaze drops to my legs for a moment, then locks with mine again.

I trace a finger along my collarbone. “Maybe that’s been your problem all along. You don’t give me the chance to make my own decisions.”

“Because I like to get what I want.”

“And you think my choices would go against what it is you want?”

“I’m not the kind of man who leaves anything to chance.”

“And I don’t like my choices being taken from me.” My finger traces along the strap of my nightgown, my nail gliding along my flesh. “Perhaps we need to find mutual ground. Some place where you’re in control, and I have the freedom to choose for myself.”

My back arches as I trail a finger over the swell of my breast, my nipple hardening against the soft silk. His blue irises turn to steel, his eyes an iridescence of hunger as he studies me.

He places his glass down and stands, his frame impossibly large within the darkness as he stalks closer, his features striking as he moves deeper into the light, a king clothed in authority who has me chained to him and bathed in magnetism that will always keep me captive. He stops by the end of the bed, and I finally reach out, switching on the dim light. “What are you proposing?”

“When it comes to our lives together, being husband and wife, I get the freedom to have my own opinion, make my own decisions.” I reach between my legs, spreading my knees apart, and a flame erupts in my core when he looks at where I touch myself, slipping my hand inside my panties. “But when it comes to our most wicked desires, you control everything. You’re the dictator, and I am merely your filthy…little…slut.”

He spreads his arms wide, gripping the posts of the bed. “Are you wet?”

“Yes.” I drag a finger through my slit, bucking my hips. “Very.”

“Take off your panties.”

“Is that a yes?” I challenge. “Do we have a deal?”

He slays me with a stare that turns my insides into liquid fire, and my breathing becomes labored. “Take off your panties, stray.”

I obey, biting my lower lip and slipping my underwear over my thighs and down my legs, making a show of it as I drop it on top of the sheets. He lifts a brow when I close my legs, purposefully denying him what he wants to see.

His nostrils flare, and he takes my panties, bunching them up in his palm, bringing them up to his nose and inhaling deep. He closes his eyes, and I watch him savor the scent of my arousal, and I can feel the wetness start to coat my inner thighs.

“The smell of your pussy makes me want to hunt you, eat you, fucking devour you.” His top lip curls in a snarl as he tosses the panties on the floor. “Turn around and get on your knees.”

My chest tightens, my lungs unable to pull the air in deep enough as I turn my back toward him. I can feel his eyes on me. It’s a white-hot flame on the back of my neck. My hair bounces off my shoulders as I pull the dress over my head, and I glance halfway over my shoulder at him, watching him unbutton his shirt. “Do we have a deal?”

“Lay down on your stomach.”

“Do we have a deal?”

I gasp when he grabs my hair and yanks my head back, his cheek flush against mine. “I’m in control here, remember?”

“But—”

“Now lay the fuck down.”

With a jerk, he lets go of my hair, and my skin is an inferno of sensation, my pussy aching and nipples yearning to be touched, the sheets brushing against them as I lie down, propping myself up on my elbows.

“Spread your legs,” he commands behind me, that familiar low tenor forcing shivers up my spine, and I can hardly breathe right while doing what he says.

“Wider.”

The muscles in my inner thighs stretch as I spread my legs as wide as I can, my pussy lips open and sensitive as the cold air laps against my heated, wet flesh.

“I love looking at your cunt, watching it glisten, growing wetter the longer I stare at it.”

My fingers claw at the sheets, and I lean my forehead against the soft silk when I feel his touch on my calf.

“Is this what you want, stray?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not talking about sex.” His fingertip drags over the back of my knees. “I’m talking about this. Us.” His finger slides down to my ankle again. “Me.”

“Yes,” I repeat, this time with more conviction. “You are what I want.”

“Even after everything I’ve done?”

My heart hiccups, and I clutch the sheet tighter. “Yes.” My answer is soft, but it’s true.

“Are you sure, stray?” I hear him unzip his pants and the swoosh of fabric as he drops them to the floor. “Are you one hundred percent sure? Because this is who I am,” he says. “I will never stop being obsessed with you. I will never stop being a possessive, jealous, and maddening bastard when it comes to you.”

I flip my hair to the side. “What are you saying?”

The bed dips, and I whimper when he takes my right leg, lifting it so he can plant a gentle kiss on my ankle. “I’m saying…I’ll try.” Another kiss. “I’m not saying I’ll succeed and that I won’t fuck up, but I’ll try.”

“That’s all I’m asking for,” I murmur, and he eases my leg back down. “I love you, Alexius. I fell in love with all of you, even the possessive, jealous parts.” His hand glides across my skin up the back of my thigh. “You warned me that loving you would be a burden, but it’s a burden I’ll gladly carry for the rest of my life because being without you is just no longer possible for me.” Tears sting the back of my eyes, his touch a leisurely ripple of sensation as he continues over the swell of my ass. “I just…I want to be someone to you and not some…thing.”

“You are so much more than that.”

“Can I turn around? I want to look at you.”

“No.” His fingers bite into my thighs. “I need to say it like this. You’re not just someone to me, stray. You’re everyone. Everything. I could lose everyone else in this world right now, and I’d be okay because I have you. But if I lose you, every other person in my life would mean nothing to me because it’s all you. Just you.”

I settle back down, a tear slipping onto the sheet, causing a dark circle to spread through the silk. “And I’m nothing if I’m not yours,” I whisper.

Both his hands cup my ass, sliding down, his fingers tightening around the arc of my ass, squeezing and easing them apart. “Good, because you will never be anyone else’s. Not in this lifetime or the next.”

His thumbs brush along the outline of my pussy lips, and a moan slips from my mouth.

“This cunt is mine. And this little hole,” he presses a finger against the tight ring of my ass, “will be mine, too. Soon.”

I shiver, an ache spreading to every corner of my body, and I don’t know if it’s the weight of the moment or desire. Maybe a little of both. It’s been too long since he’s claimed me, and paired with his heart’s confession, it has catapulted me into a frenzy of emotion and desire. I’m already writhing on the sheets, and he’s barely touched me.

“Alexius?”

“Yes, stray.” His fingers prod and play everywhere except where I yearn for it.

“Please, I need you.”

“I know you do,” he says behind me. “I can see it. Your pussy is all swollen and pink. And so fucking wet.”

“Then fuck me.”

“I want to play with you just a little longer.” His hands press against my cleft, pushing outward, forcing my legs farther apart. “I love looking at your cunt.”

My clit quivers, and I press down on the mattress, needing the pressure.

“Oh, no, you don’t.” He slips his hand underneath me, my sex now against his palm. “If you feel the need to fuck something, you fuck me. Whether it’s my hand, my thigh, my face, or my cock. You don’t fuck anything else.”

My legs are spread impossibly wide, and when he slowly sinks a finger into my hole, I moan, fisting the sheets tighter, pushing my hips down, and grinding my pubic bone against his palm. The sensation is indescribable. Every inch of my body is hypersensitive to the subtlest touch. Even my hair slipping down my shoulder, brushing along my collarbone, is intense, his finger easing out and back into me.

“I’ve missed you,” he growls behind me. “I’ve missed your body, your moans.”

“And yet you choose to drag this out when you could be fucking me senseless right now.”

“I’m not dragging it out. I’m savoring.” He moans when he sinks a second finger into me as if he can feel the pleasure it gives me. “Your pussy is so warm and tight, baby.”

I continue to rock myself against his palm. “You’re torturing me.” My hips flex, and I push down, taking his fingers deeper, spreading my pussy wider. “Please, Alexius. I need you so much it hurts.”

He moves to hover over me, the tip of his cock brushing along the crease of my ass as he leans down, placing delicate kisses all along my spine, his tongue painting my skin with delicate strokes. “I love the way your skin tastes and how you shiver whenever I touch you.” His fingers continue their slow rhythm, and I’m sinking into mindless oblivion where nothing but his touch matters.

Abruptly, his fingers pull out of me, removing his hand from under me, leaving me empty and aching. “Beg,” he commands, settling his arms on either side of my waist, towering over me, the head of his dick nudging at my entrance. “Beg for my cock.”

“Alexius, please.” I’m drowning. I’m suffocating. “I need you inside me.”

He keeps his cock at my entrance, placing more kisses on my back. “Why?”

“Because I need you.”

“Why?”

“God, Alexius. Please.”

“Why do you need me?”

My body is in so much agony. It’s like I’m being torn apart simply by not having him. “Because I love you.”

“Why else?” He peppers soft kisses along my shoulder blades.

“Jesus,” I moan, trying to push down so I can take him inside me, but he merely rears back, denying me.

“Why else?”

I fist my hands, tears burning my eyes, every bone aching. “Because it fucking hurts if I don’t have you.”

He enters me with one swift slide of his cock, and I twist underneath him, moaning as he stretches me. “It hurts me, too, when I don’t have you, stray,” he whispers against the back of my ear. “That’s how I felt every single minute you hated me.”

“I never hated you.”

“That’s what it felt like to me.” He flexes, pulling out and sinking back into me.

“But I didn’t,” I breathe out.

“Just like I never thought of you as a possession.”

“It felt like you did.”

He moves, balancing on his arms, kissing gently behind my ear, and rasps, “But I didn’t.”

“What are you saying?”

He spears into me with a hard thrust, causing me to cry out. Then he stills. “I’m saying that sometimes what we feel because of someone else’s actions or words is not always the truth. Emotions, feelings have so many gray areas, it’s easy to get lost within what’s real and what’s not.” This time he pulls out completely, steadies himself on one arm, and wraps his other hand around my throat, driving into me hard and deep. “But this, what you feel now, this is real. My love for you will always be real, no matter how many times I fuck up. Do you understand that?”

“I do.”

“Good. Now swear that you’ll never deny me this body of yours again.”

“I swear,” I whimper, his hand tightening around my throat.

“Swear you’ll never doubt my love for you again.”

“I swear it, Alexius. Never.”

“That’s my baby girl.” He kisses my shoulder, lapping his tongue across my skin while he fucks me, and I lean my head to the side, needing his tongue and lips everywhere on my skin.

“You have to promise me something, too.”

“Anything.”

“Never shut me out again. Ever.” This time the tears spill free while my body is consumed with the feel of him inside me. “Never shut me out and leave…again.”

He moves his hips in a way that drives me crazy. It’s a rhythm I know so well. And his thick girth fills me, his cock reaching the deepest part of my core, and it feels like I’m being stretched to the brink with his every thrust.

“I swear it.” His thrusts turn frenzied. And the sound of his heavy grunts and rapid breaths are like ecstasy to my system. I try to rock back, lifting my hips off the mattress, giving him more access to enter me deeper, but his control over my body in this position is absolute, and he gives me no room to move, no chance to challenge the way he chooses to fuck me.

I’m helpless and entirely at his mercy, but it’s the way I want it. It’s how I need it. “Fuck me harder,” I plead. “Please.”

“God, I love it when you’re desperate to be fucked.” His cock throbs inside me, and he does as I ask, slamming into me, his pelvis slapping against my ass, the sound of skin hitting skin intoxicating the air.

My orgasm starts to trickle down my spine, my pussy clenching around him, and I struggle to keep my legs stretched wide as he pounds me into the mattress.

“Do not fucking close your legs.” Alexius lets go of my throat and pushes himself up, twisting to the side, and reaches for my thigh, forcing it wider so he can fuck me deeper. “I want to fuck you so hard you’ll feel me for days.”

“Alexius, I need to come.”

“Come, baby,” he grits out breathlessly. “Drench my cock in your cum.”

“Fuck!” I cry, my body squeezing him tight as pleasure erupts deep inside my core.

He doesn’t let up. He doesn’t slow down as my orgasm crests, my screams filling the open space around us, and he rocks into me relentlessly. It would hurt if it weren’t the most pleasure I’ve ever felt. His cock would tear me apart. But I’m so wet, my pussy so slick with my cum gushing out of me, his dick pummels into me with ease.

He lets go of my thigh and presses his palm on my waist, pinning me down so I can’t move. “I’m going to fill you up good, slut,” he growls. “Do you want it? Tell me you want my cum.”

“Yes,” I say, out of breath. “I want your cum inside me. Every last drop, please.”

“Jesus. Fuck.” His hips jerk while he’s buried to the hilt inside me, and his breaths are sharp snarls and low rumbles.

His body is rigid, and I can feel his girth swell as he comes, his cock throbbing as he spurts his hot cum inside me.

He sits up, and I flinch when he pulls out of me. His hands are on my ass, and he spreads me wide. I peek over my shoulder to look at him, his gaze fixed between my legs. “I want to see my cum drip out of your pussy.”

I clench my inner walls, and he bites his lower lip when I feel hot liquid drip from my sex.

“God, look at that. My cum creaming your pussy.” He reaches down and scoops it up with his fingers, shoving it back inside me. “I want it all inside you.”

I smile and lean my head down on the bed. “I’m already pregnant.”

“I don’t give a fuck. My cum inside you is the hottest goddamn thing.”

He wraps his fingers around my waist, and with a swift move, he turns me over and pulls me into his arms. I curl into him, welcoming his familiar warmth—and I’m at ease for the first time in so long. Comforted by his presence.

“I love you,” he whispers against my hair.

I smile and nestle closer. “I love you, too.”

Laying my head on his chest, I can hear his heartbeat, and it’s the most beautiful sound.

“Leandra.”

“Yeah?”

His chest stops moving. He’s holding his breath, and I feel his muscles tense.

“What is it?” I shift and look up at him, his jaw set and firm. “Alexius?”

When our eyes meet, he cups my cheeks and pulls me close, our lips colliding in a desperate kiss that has the power to erase the entire world around us. His tongue is hot and wet, like velvet against mine, and I wish he could kiss me forever because I won’t ever get enough of his taste. But this one feels different. He’s not claiming. His kiss isn’t consuming or possessing.

His kiss is desperate, urgent, and I feel it penetrating my soul. I don’t think he’s ever kissed me like this before.

A moan slips from my lips when he pulls back, placing his forehead against mine. “I’m sorry,” he whispers, and my heart stops. “I’m so…fucking…sorry.”