222: Crossing another line (part 3)

Crossing another line (part 3)

He stood up, a sudden surge of anger evident in his posture.1

"Don't ever say that again."

Refusing to back down, she rose to her feet and glared defiantly up at him.

"You. Are. A. Deceiver." Her tongue wrapped around each word. "You claim you didn't believe I was considering another man's proposal, yet you were consumed by jealousy!"

He scooped her up with one hand, holding her firmly, and lifted her over his shoulder as she struggled, kicking and clawing.

"Put me down!"

She was appalled when she felt the stinging sensation of a smack that she received on her uncovered behind. Next thing she knew, she was pinned to her own bed by him.

"Jealous, you said?" He questioned, both of their chests heaving. "I am consumed by jealousy... So jealous... I envy even the fabric that surrounds you."

With one forceful pull of his hand, the two upper buttons of his jacket came loose and fell to her side, exposing her chest to him. She watched his eyes darkening, his pupils dilated with lust, their gaze moving from one of her breasts to the other.

To her pure mortification, she felt something wet sliding down her thigh.

He smirked.

"Calling me jealous... That is the greatest understatement of the decade, Adelaide,"

Dipping his head down, he inhaled deeply, right in the middle of the hollow between her breasts, and then with his nose, he traced a full circle around her right breast.

"I am jealous of the air around you," he confessed, pulling back slightly and staring at her breasts intensely that she felt a strange inner tug and a tingling sensation wherever his gaze fell. Her nipples tightened so much that they became almost painful.

"Are you heaven... Or are you hell?" He seemed to ponder that question for a moment before lowering his head again.

Her arms snapped up instinctively to cover her breasts now that she felt his tongue and lips sucking like an infant would do. His actions puzzled her to no end.

"No," he murmured, pinning both of her arms behind her head with one hand. "You will let me, and you will enjoy it, both of us will."

Placing his other hand beneath her back, he pushed her up and began inflicting one of the most pleasurable punishments she had ever experienced. His soft lips, one by one, devoured her breasts. He was smelling, licking, and kissing her with so much passion that her head became dizzy.

"Crossing…We are crossing another line," she said between lustful gasps.

"You will wear my ring," he said between the kisses, "You will move to my house," he said between the licks, "You will come for me day in and day out. I will earn your trust again."

"Ssst!" She hissed when she felt something grazing the tender flesh on her neck. A cold sensation washed over her, and she frowned at the weight that had been lifted. Propping herself up, a surge of fear came over her as she saw Egon pressed to the corner of the furthest wall away from her.

"Egon?"

Her question seemed to snap him back to reality. He took human steps towards her this time and crouched by her side. Taking her thumb, he moved it over his lips, and she felt the abnormal size of his teeth there.

"What is this? These are not how your teeth are..."

"These are my fangs. They grow down whenever I let him out."

"Let him out?" She whispered, puzzled.

"To you, it is the blood in my eyes."

She focused on his face and noticed that his eyes were now red.

"The beast wants to claim you once and for all. I want to claim you... Adelaide. I want to drink your blood and finish my transformation. Become as strong as Andreas and keep you always by my side. Preferably locked up on an island of our own..."

His dark tone matched his dark words, alluring, forbidden, and scary. It reminded her why she had called him a liar in the first place.

She was scared of him.

"Please... We need to talk... We must talk about who you are, about your lineage."

"What is there to talk about? I am a lost heir of a lost Empire. Neither me nor my father or my brother, none of us have dreams of a throne."

That did not sound right at all.

"That was some declaration you made back then when you wouldn't bow to His Majesty."

He looked a little disappointed.

"Think. What happened after that?"

Her father and Aldric came and wrapped it up nicely. Heat crept up her face, thinking that it was another staged occurrence, one that her father might have been in on.

He read her face, "Right... See what you are seeing. I am not working alone on this. I have to be a part of those who want to protect you, just to make sure they don't screw up."

She took a deep breath. "Are you telling me that you do not advocate for the Emperors that came before you? Your ancestors?"

His face took on a shade of green. "What links me to them is a sense of deeply rooted shame. I know what they did to your people. And I disapprove of it. Andreas has his claims about all of it, but this... This was the one thing I don't think I could ever forgive him for."

Hearing him speak of Andreas so openly, when he is usually so closed about him, brought happiness to her heart. She felt that she was somehow breaking through Egon's impenetrable defenses.

"Adelaide..." He looked and sounded desolate all of a sudden. "I carry... shattered perceptions and expectations of those gathered around me. People who descend from loyal families... People bound by the many oaths that the crazy Empress forced and manipulated those around her to make for her... These are all things that I would gladly lay by your feet if you would ask me to."

She cradled his precious head, burdened with so much, and delivered a tender kiss on the crown of his head.

"I am so sorry I slapped you."

He laughed boyishly. "It did not hurt at all... I am sorry for breaking the painting you gifted me with. I was as you said. Angry and jealous. I was the one who hurt you. And many things I said back then, I truly meant them."

She didn't want to think about that now. She held his head closer to her heart.

"I am sorry I sent Kannen back..."

"Don't be. Wherever that falcon is, he shall always belong to you. Just like I do to you. Just like you do to me."

All of a sudden, commotion by the door jolted both of their heads its way. The shouts heard were ones that had the blood freezing inside of Adela's veins.

"The King!" Someone shouted.

"Emanuel de Lanark!" Shouted another.

  Adela and Egon looked at each other, her panic reflected in his widened eyes.

"Emanuel de Lanark has been murdered!"

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