Carmell was frozen in his arms, the warmth of his breath fanning over the top of her head and soothing her. Her face was buried into the top of his chest, the muscle below her raising and falling with his short breathing. Lust-filled thoughts brimmed at the edge of her mind, the tingling across their bodies and the burning desire causing her hold to tighten and push her breasts into him, a low groan rumbling through his chest and into her ear.
"I'm so sorry, I-"
"Don't apologise. I am with you now, I swear. I will keep you safe," Darrius shoved his pride so deep he wondered if he was worthy of being the King of Pride one day.
He couldn't help but smile at the weight of his loyalty to a woman he had met a few hours earlier. He never wanted to let her go; to let her go would have allowed the growing emotions and desires filling the empty pieces in his heart to die and wither away.
His thoughts drifted to the day his mom died in an uprising of the Greed Kingdom when he was five years old. He was old enough to remember how kind and intelligent she was and how they never found her body, assuming the cursed creatures and wildlife had eaten her along with the royal family of Wrath.
Life continued to punch him in the gut as his dad found a second-chance mate barely a year later, and she was the fairy princess of Humility. She was so bright that he chuckled out loud, catching the wide eyes of his family as they watched them from the doorway. Carmell pulled away and lifted her head slightly to look at him. Being close to the same height has a few perks.
"What's so funny? I nearly knocked your lights out," Carmell said with an exasperated sigh.
Darrius snorted indignantly, turning his nose up and looking down on her hard enough to earn a sharp eyebrow raise.
"I'm a vampire, Carmell. If anything, you would have knocked me out of the window and into the sun. I'd have fallen the thousand floors and smashed into the floor…" Darrius spoke with an uninterested shrug.
Carmell's eyes widened, and she turned her head to the window with a frown.
"You have got to be joking," Carmell replied, trying to remove her hands from his waist, but he clamped his arms down. "That's insane. There is no way I would have knocked you out of the window like that! I would surely put you to sleep where you stood, but throwing you off your feet is a stretch at best," She huffed, pulling harder to move away from him and failing.
"Fuck he's strong, I'm pinned. That's so hot. Don't give in to dominance every time," She chided herself as her body relaxed and moved closer.
"Do you say Fuck often? What does it mean because this context sounds positive?" Darrius asked with a sly smirk.
"I, what? I said that… out loud," She froze, her head lowering enough for her hair to fall forward and over her reddening face, "it- it means… ha-ha. Urm, in this context, it is a positive version," She stammered, cursing herself for having the epitome of a foul mouth.
"So, there is a negative version?"
"Haha, there are at least three definitions, and two are positive."
"It's a capital offence against the crown to attack a prince," Annika interrupted from the doorway with a snicker, her eyes widening and shining with fear when Carmell lifted her head a fraction to see over Darrius' shoulder.
"If I were going to die, it wouldn't be from hitting Darrius," Carmell replied darkly, her eyes and smile gleaming with malice and rage.
Annika's body jerked back as her instincts kicked in, and she retreated to her kingdom's kitchen to make notes in her Illusion book. Carmell snickered, her eyes lighting up with mischief when she took note of the reactions of Zyn and Cassie, their wide open-mouth laughs, and their hands clutching their stomachs to try and control some of the pain.
"It's pretty clear that when you're not caught off guard, you don't necessarily need anyone's help," Cassie said with a lighter laugh.
"There's a slight adjustment period. The Pride family are suspiciously decent people," She replied, grumbling as Darrius loosened his hold and raised his arm over her shoulder so that he could spin to face his family.
Carmell quickly glanced in her peripheral vision, and she saw Dylan watching her intently with a hint of sadness and longing. A feeling of familiarity washed over her, her legs moving of their own accord to head over to him, but she lost focus as Darrius tightened his hold around her shoulder and pulled her back to him and towards the exit, but not without turning on Dylan while Camell's gaze was ahead and shooting him a look that made his blood run cold and his body recoil in his seat.
Cassie gave Dylan a warm smile as she moved with Zyn to follow behind them. The twins were beginning to stir, groans leaving their unconscious bodies. Darrius sped up to the lift down the left and pressed the button. Carmell turned around to see their eyes opening and upper bodies lifting into a sitting position, and she wished she had a giant mallet to bash them with. The lift dinged, and the group piled in the large space. Darrius and Carmell were up against the back corner, the side of Carmell's body was casually leaning against the front of Darrius, and he was trying to shift his legs and hip a little to move her away from his hardening cock.
Zion hopped into the lift before it closed the door, his eyebrow raised as he saw Darrius trying to adjust his body. A snicker left his lips, and he moved to the right side to stand next to Cassie and Zyn. Carmell smirked in satisfaction at the feeling of Darrius shifting around next to her. She leaned some more of her weight onto him, casually dropping her hand next to his bulge and giving it a light touch. A short intake of breath, and Darrius lost all sense. His focus fell to her hand, his eyes widening for a second to crack his stoney face.
The lift jolted before it announced reaching the ground floor, Carmell's hand following the jolt and pressing over his crotch with a small squeeze, shocked to find she couldn't take the whole thing in her hand. Now her eyes widened, and her cheeks reddened as she locked eyes with him, and her body slid down slightly when her core began to pulse for him.