He also knew better than anyone that a person couldn't feel pleasure and pain at the same time.
And he refused to hurt her tonight.
Reluctantly, he let go of her hand and raised himself up on his arms to look down at her. He was used to the darkness. So much so that he saw her eyes tightly shut.
“Don't be afraid,” he whispered, skimming his hand down her body until he touched her between her legs again.
Livia sighed as his hand stroked her nub. The pain receded behind a wave of building delight.
“That's it,” he said before he slowly started to rock his hips against hers.
Livia arched her back as his hot touch washed away the pain. He felt so good inside her, and every stroke seemed to reach deeper as she clung to his broad, muscular shoulders. She'd never imagined it could feel so wonderful.
Adron watched her face as she surrendered herself to him. He ground his teeth at the incredible feel of her. She was so wet and hot beneath and around him. He'd forgotten the pleasure to be had in a woman's arms.
Had forgotten the incredible feel of someone just holding him in the darkness.
He lowered himself and took her into his arms, where he cradled her head in his hands as he thrust against her. Her breath fell against his bare shoulder, burning him.
She turned her head to kiss his neck as she ran her hands over his back.
He growled, scalded by the bliss of it.
Gah, let me die right here and right now.
Before the pain returned. Before he remembered what a worthless piece of shit he was.
Desperate for her, he didn't want this moment to end.
Livia wrapped her legs around his lean waist. He held her so tenderly that it touched her deep inside her heart. Krista had told her he would use her without any feelings for her whatsoever.
But it didn't feel like that.
Not the way he held on to her like she was unspeakably precious.
He returned to her lips, and she moaned at the taste of his tongue. He stroked her faster. Deeper. Harder. She held him close as her pleasure started building again. Oh goodness, what was it about him that made her feel like this?
And this time when her release came, he joined her. He growled low in his throat as he delivered one last, deep stroke and shuddered in her arms.
Adron collapsed on top of her. Completely spent, he lay there, holding her as he waited to drift back down from heaven and into his body. So much for meaningless sex. There had been absolutely nothing meaningless about what they'd just shared. And what terrified him most was the fact that he didn't want her to leave.
He didn't want to return to the vacant emptiness of his life. He'd been alone for so long. Had lived without anyone other than servants and family.
But she'd changed that, and he didn't want to go back.
“That was amazing.” Her breath teased his ear. “Can we do it again?”
He laughed, and was shocked to feel his body already stirring. “Yes, we can.” In fact, he wasn't going to stop until she again begged him for mercy.
TWO
Adron came awake slowly to the most incredible feeling he'd ever known.
Livia by his side.
She lay nestled in his arms, facing away from him. He wasn't sure what time they'd finally fallen asleep. All he knew was that he'd never experienced such peace. Such warmth.
And there was no pain. Neither physical nor mental.
Reveling in the moment, he buried his face in her hair and inhaled the fresh, sweet scent of her as he pressed his skin to hers.
His body stirred immediately.
How?
After the night they'd shared, he should be sated for days to come, and yet here he was craving her in a way that was almost inhuman. He didn't understand it.
He pulled away to kiss her shoulder, then froze as he saw her skin in the faint morning light. Frowning, he ran his hand over her bare shoulder and the vicious scars that marred her back. She'd been beaten. Severely by the looks of it.
Was she a runaway slave?
She sighed contentedly and snuggled against him. Adron forgot the scars as her buttocks collided with his erection. He tightened his arms around her while he nudged her legs apart with his thigh. God help him, but he wanted more of her.
Livia came awake to the sensation of Adron behind her, filling her again. “Oh my goodness,” she breathed as he thrust himself deep and hard into her body. Biting her lip, she groaned in pleasure. “Don't you ever get tired?”
“Not of you, I don't.”
She smiled at that. No one had ever made her feel so treasured. And she had to admit, a woman could get used to waking up like this.
Closing her eyes to savor his long, luscious strokes, she surrendered herself to him.
She came an instant before he did.
Livia rolled over to see a gentle smile on his face as he stared at her in wonder.
“Thank you, Livia. For everything.”
She returned his smile. “Thank you.” She placed her lips against his.
Adron's senses swirled as he cupped her head in his hand. He was definitely going to keep her in his bed for the rest of the day.
“Adron, you're not going to believe whatâ” His father's voice broke off the instant his bedroom door swung open. Gaping at them lying entwined on the bed, his father froze.
Then, all hell broke loose.
Livia dove beneath the covers at the same time a fetid curse rang out.
Adron looked from her cowering in his bed to the six men surrounding his father. Two of them wore royal Vistan robes, marking them as an emperor and his heir. The other four wore the dark-gray uniform of imperial bodyguards.
“I told you it was true!” the elder Vistan snarled at Adron's father. His dark-brown eyes were filled with hatred as he tilted his head to look up at Adron's father. At six foot six, and a former League assassin himself, his father wasn't the kind of man you addressed in anything except the most reverent of tones.
Not unless you wanted to die, anyway.
And he saw the warning glint in his father's eyes that denoted a wrath the Vistan emperor would do well to fear.
“The informant was correct when he said your son left with her.”
Adron arched a brow at the contemptuous sneer on the man's face. And it was then he realized the Vistan emperor had hair the same color and hue as the woman cowering in his bed. And as he scanned the younger Vistan heir, he saw further confirmation of who Livia really was.
Shit.
He'd slept with a Vistan princess.
“You whore!” Her brother threw the covers back and grabbed Livia by the wrist.
Adron removed her brother's hand from her and shoved him back. “She didn't do anything wrong.” Oblivious to his nudity, he left the bed and put himself between Livia and her family. “You touch her and I'll tear your heart out.”
Rage descended on her brother's face, but Adron saw the fear in the man's eyes as he took in Adron's height, build, and vicious scars.
Her father, however, wasn't so easily intimidated. “Take her,” he said to his guards.
Livia hung her head as she wrapped the sheet around herself. The guards lifted her from the bed and took her to stand before her father.
Adron ached at the frightened look on her face. And the sight of his bloodstained sheets kicked him hard in the gut. There was no doubt what the two of them had done.
Or how innocent she'd been before he'd touched her. Her father raked her with a scathing glare. “Modesty isn't becoming of a whore who spreads her legs for a man she meets in a filthy bar.”
Before Adron realized what he was doing, her father yanked the sheet from her body. Tears filled her eyes as she tried desperately to cover herself with her hands.
“Take her outside and beat her.”
Rage flooded him. “Damn you to hell.” He grabbed the first guard and shoved him away from Livia.
He pulled her behind him to protect and cover her. Then he retrieved the sheet from the floor and wrapped it around both of them. Livia stood so close to his back that he could feel her trembling.
And it made him even angrier. How dare they ruin this and embarrass her so. What kind of people were they?
If her father wanted a fight, Adron was ready to give him one. No one would hurt her for what she'd given to him. Not unless they wanted a taste of him first.
Her father narrowed his gaze threateningly, and Adron saw the look in his own father's eyes that warned of death if her father attacked him. “Boy, this is no concern of yours. You've done enough damage.” Her father took a step forward.
So did Adron's father. And Adron knew that look preceded death and dismemberment.
He had to do something.
And in that instant, he knew exactly what.
Adron refused to release her to her father. “Whatever concerns my wife, concerns me.”
Livia froze as soon as the words left Adron's lips. Last night, she'd had no idea that he was the Andarion heir. But Emperor Nykyrian Quiakides she knew. They'd been introduced a few days ago when she and her family had arrived for a meeting and the preliminary nuptial preparations.
Indeed, it was business with Adron's father that had her getting married on Kirovar to begin with.
Now that the two men were together, she saw the similarities between father and son. Nykyrian had the same white-blond hair, the same firm, sculpted jaw. They also shared an identical height and build.
And a lethal air that was truly frightening.
Her father shifted his cold stare from Adron to her. “Is this true? Are you his wife?”
Livia swallowed. If she said yes, Andarion law would recognize them as married.
“Adron,” his father said sternly. “Do you understand what you're doing?”
Adron turned to face her. He tilted her chin up with gentle fingers until she looked into those icy blue eyes that were laced with pain and torment. “It's entirely up to you. You're welcome to stay here with me if you want to.”
Aghast at his offer, she stared at him. She'd never known a man so honorable. He could have left her to her father's wrath, and yet here he was offering her sanctuary. There weren't many men who would be so thoughtful, and it brought tears to her eyes that he would be so kind.
“Are you sure about this?”
“No.” A hint of a smile played at the edges of his lips.
“But then, I've never been sure about much of anything in my life.”
She glanced past him to her father's angry face, and her brother's. If she went home, they would have her beaten until she passed out. But if she stayed . . .
She had no idea what that would be like.
The known or the unknown.
“Take her,” her father ordered.
Adron turned and put himself between them.
“Quiakides, tell your son to step aside. He is interfering with royal Vistan business.”
For the first time, Livia noticed the deep, angry scars bisecting Adron's body. His back was completely covered by them. It looked as if someone had once carved him into pieces.
Her gaze fell to the skull-and-dagger tattoo on his left shoulder that marked him as a League assassin. She trembled. She knew absolutely nothing about him.
Nothing except for the kindness of his touch. Nothing except for the way he'd made her feel when he kissed her. The way he made her feel wanted. Safe.
And in that instant, she made up her mind. “What happens to me is the business of my husband.”
Her father's face turned to stone. “Then your ties to our house are severed.” He glanced at her brother. “Come, Prinam.”
Her brother's features softened a degree before he caught himself. Without a word, he followed her father from the room as the guards fell in behind them.
Nykyrian stepped forward with an amused light in his green eyes. “Some things must run in our blood.”
Adron frowned. “How do you mean?”
“Ask your mother one day about how we married.” He smiled at Livia. “In the meantime, welcome to our family, Highness.”
Adron's frown deepened as he regarded his father suspiciously. “You're being awfully understanding about all this. Should I be afraid?”
Nykyrian laughed. “Probably. I hope this means you'll rejoin the world again. We've missed you.”
A tic started in Adron's jaw.
Livia wasn't sure what the undercurrent was between father and son, but there was something just below the surface that she didn't understand. Some history that they had yet to work through.
Still, his father's face was kind and not the least bit judgmental as he looked back at her. He honestly seemed glad to have her with his son. “You know, you'll have to bring your wife to the palace to meet the rest of your wayward siblings.”
“And Mom?”
His father inclined his head.
Something strange flickered across Adron's features. Something Livia couldn't define, but it looked as if Adron wanted to avoid his mother. “When?”
“Tonight.”
Adron curled his lip as if he'd rather be gutted. “Will Jayce be there?”
“He is your brother.”
Hatred flared in Adron's eyes. “He's your son. He ceased to be my brother the day he refused to uphold the League's Code.”
Nykyrian sighed, then looked at Livia with sympathy in his eyes. “I hope you know what you've gotten yourself into.”
The bad thing was, she didn't.
“You two have a good day. I have an international incident I have to go prevent over this.” Nykyrian went to the door and paused. “God help me,” he said under his breath before he left. “Let the bribes begin.”