Bad Apple (6 page)

I
work to push through the fog filling my mind as I stare up at Darien over me.
His gorgeous mouth hovers over mine, and I long for him to kiss me. Filing
through my thoughts, I can only remember an old woman on the road turning into
Queen Miriam. The memory strengthens as I recall what she said about my mother.
About my lineage.
And then I relive the blackness of
my death. A scream shoots from my lips.

“
Snow!”
Darien cries out, clutching to my body.

I
try to wrap my arms around him, but my limbs refuse to do as I will them to.
Words stick behind closed lips, and frustrated tears ripple over my cheeks.

“
Snow, are you alright? Speak to me,” Darien pleads.
His frantic gaze traverses my body and locks back onto my eyes.

Tremors
rip through my body as I force words from my mouth. “Darien,” I whisper.

He
presses back my hair and pulls me to his chest.
“Snow.
Oh thank God!” Rocking me against him, his salty tears mix with my own and
slick my lips as we kiss.

His
tongue sweeps over mine, and energy flows back through my veins. The venom
leaves as love refills my heart. His kisses bring me life. I knew that the
moment our lips first touched. And now I know why. We are meant to be.

As
control returns to my limbs, I wrap them around Darien and pull him closer. I
never want to let go. “You saved me with true love's kiss.”

He
sucks in a gasp and clenches his jaw. “I wanted to kill her. Seconds away from
crushing her, I felt her life draining in my fingertips. Such anger inside me
I'd never felt before. I wanted to drown in it and let it take me whole so I
could take her life in exchange for yours. What kind of man am I?”

I
shake my head and clutch the sides of his face with my hands. “Don't think like
that. I'm here. You saved me.” Sadness and anger war in his eyes. My heart
hurts watching his pain. “I'm glad you didn't. You are not that kind of man.
You are filled with kindness and love.”

He
nestles me against him until I straddle his lap on the floor. “If it weren't
for Marcus....I couldn't do it, Snow. I couldn't kill her.
Even
after she killed you.
After what she did to Marcus and her allegiance
with
Hestor
in the dark arts...I still could not do
it.”

“
Marcus is still a good man, but he is what you
cannot be. And you are what he cannot be. And I love you, for who you are. For
who
you taught me to be.” I stroke the worry lines along his
face. “Murder, no matter what the circumstance, is not in your nature. And I
don't want it to be. You will be a king of the people, for the people.”

He
stares into my eyes, but they're no longer filled with the playful joy and love
I remember. Pain hollows out the life that once sparkled in them. “I don't know
what I would've done had she killed you.”

 
Leaning
in, I brush my mouth over his trembling lips. He needs me now, as I needed him
before. Darkness sits in his heart, waiting to eat his soul. I will not let it
have him. He is mine.

“
I'm right here,” I whisper against his lips. Draping
my arms across his shoulders, I curl my fingers against the back of his hair. I
must feed him back the life he gave me.

Pressing
my breasts to his chest, I twist my mouth against his and sweep him into a
kiss. Shudders attack his body in my arms, and I tighten around him as I deepen
our kiss. He stills, as if he's afraid to kiss me back.

“
Snow, I'm no longer the same man.” Water sheens his
eyes.

“
I know. You're an even better one now.” I rip open
his doublet and shred the linen shirt underneath. Palms flat, I rub along the
hairs of his chest, letting his warmth fill me. I slide the clothing over his
shoulders, and it puddles on the floor alongside him.

Unlacing
my corset, I remove the bodice and toss it to the floor. He stares at me,
bewilderment replacing the sadness and anger. My gaze trains his face, down his
chest to his trousers as I work him out of them. I slither out from my skirts
and chemise, laying them down as a pallet for us on the cold stone floor.

He
refuses to look upon my naked body, where at one time he could not look away.
Heaviness weighs my heart, but I continue on. Despair will not take him from
me. I crawl over his lap, straddling him. Gripping his hands in mine, I cup my
breasts as my long hair falls over my shoulders and tickles our bare skin.

Air
hitches in his throat, and I watch as his Adam's apple bounces. A smile curls
on my lips as I run his hands from my breasts down to my thighs and place them
on my bottom. His fingertips twitch against my skin.

Leaning
forward, his cock rubs against the soft patch of hair between my legs. He must
feel every part of me, know that I am real. Skin to skin, I will bring him back
from the edge of the darkness and into my arms where he belongs.

Running
my hands along his chest, I cradle the back of his head as I rock my lower lips
against him.
Teasing him.
I force him to look into my
eyes and fill mine with everything that's in my heart for him.

His
fingers curl deeper into my flesh and it zings warmth to my belly. I trace the
outline of his lips with a fingertip. Swiveling my hips, I increase the depth
of my movements, rubbing against his growing cock. Life filters back into his
eyes as his hunger grows.

“
Feel how real I am, Darien. How much I need you.” I
lean in, squishing my hard nipples against his chest and press my lips to his
ear. “How wet you make me with arousal.”

 
I
nestle against his cock, and the tip slips between my lower lips. He sucks a
gasp through clenched teeth. My slickness surrounds his tip as I wiggle against
him, sliding him with ease along my clit. Breathy moans escape my lips still
pressed against his ear, and he tenses beneath me at the sound.

“
Snow,” he chokes out as he grips my ass with both
hands.

“
I'm here. Don't leave me now.” I slide his cock to
the entrance of my channel, positioning my hips on top of him. “Come back to
me.”

Easing
my hips down, his cock slides inside me.
His eyes close as a grunt rushes his lips. Lifting
my hips, he slips back out. Desire burns in his eyes as he reopens them. I inch
my hips back down his shaft, and this time I'm met with his hips thrusting
upward in response.

His
hands run the length of my bare back, triggering goose bumps to dance along my
skin. I work my hips in rhythm with his as I straddle his lap. Pulling me
closer, my breasts squish against his chest as if we're dancing.

A
groan rumbles in his throat, and he fists his hands through my hair, gripping
my head like a hungry animal as he crushes his mouth to mine. He assaults my
mouth with his tongue, unleashing a moan of my own. I love it when he makes
love to my mouth as if it was my pussy. He wants all of me, and I want all of
him.

We
sit,
a tangled mass of arms and legs in an undulating dance.
My breasts wring with soreness, rubbing hard against his chest with each of his
thrusts. He dives face first against my neck, suckling on my flesh as my back
arches, and my arms go limp at my sides like a doll.
His
hands palm against my back, bracing me to him as if I'll break if he lets go;
one hand cradling the back of my neck and head, the other my lower back.

Burying
his face against my breasts, he releases a moan so loud it rattles my bones.
Tense muscles beneath me tell me his orgasm takes hold, and with one final
thrust into me, he throws his head back and growls. I ease my rocking and rest
upon his hips.

As
I fight for breath to return to my lungs, he whips me to the floor, laying me
on the pallet of clothing. He disappears from my view, but as his tongue
presses against my dripping clit he speaks to me. Thrusting my hips apart, he
works his mouth over my pussy. The sensations riddle my body with ecstasy, and
I writhe beneath his touch. He spreads me further, as if trying to drown
himself in my flesh.

Gripping
my ass with one hand he slides a finger in a hole he's never entered before,
and I nearly come off the floor. I
suck
in a gasp of
air, and a moan chokes in my throat. He flicks my clit with his tongue, probes
my ass with a finger covered in my arousal, and thumbs my channel all at once.
I am lost. The world spins and I don't know which way is up or down, and I do
not care. The more he massages my clit with his tongue, the deeper he plunges
his fingers. A scream climbs its way up from my belly and releases as my orgasm
spirals through me.

My
body spasms as he slows his movements until the shudders cease. I fight for
breath. I fight to move, but my body lays in a helpless mess on the cold floor
in a pool of my own arousal.

Darien
crawls over me, sliding his sweat slicked body along mine until our eyes lock.
“I love you, Snow.” Words fail me as I stare into his eyes. He covers my mouth
with his and pulls at my lips in a kiss. “Marry me.”

With
wide eyes, I shake my head. “But...I'm a com—”

“
Princess.
Snow, you're a princess. Even if you weren't, with
mother gone, and Marcus abdicating, the throne goes to me. I will change that
law by royal decree; we will forever be able to follow our hearts. I want you
by my side, Snow. Help me take this kingdom back. Be my wife, my lover, my
safety.” He cradles me against his chest, cupping a cheek with his hand.

“
What your mother said was true? I'm really a
princess? My mother was really royalty?” I say the words, but they hold no
meaning for me. I don't believe them.

Darien
nods. “She must have been in order to have been a threat to my mother.”

“
I still can't believe it,” I whisper, and swallow
back the lump of emotions clawing at the back of my throat.

“
We will make this kingdom what it once was, a place
of prosperity, free of oppression. And I will fill you with lots of babies.” A
smile beams across his face. “You will be such a wonderful mother, Snow. Say
you'll be my wife.”

His
words fill the hole in my heart, and visions of cherub babies with dark hair and
joyous smiles run through my head. “Yes.” Warmth floods his blue eyes, driving
out the sorrow. I cup his cheek, feathering a fingertip along his skin. “I love
you.”

“
I've longed to hear those words from your lips. Your
note crushed me.” He pulls me close as if I'll slip from his arms.

“
I went looking for Rose while I waited for your
return, with full intentions of telling her to take the
cottage,
that
I planned to remain here with you, in the castle. They were hidden
away in their bed chamber of course, so as I made my way back to my own, I came
upon a mirror.” The vision of
myself
as an evil queen
rampages through my head as fresh as if I'd just witnessed it. “It showed me my
future, as an evil queen with blood on my hands and darkness in my heart.”

Darien
shakes his head, running his large, warm hand along the bare skin of my back.
“It was a mere parlor trick of my mother's.
Hestor
mentored her in the dark arts. Do not believe in it, Snow. You are the purest
of hearts.”

“
But what if even the pure and innocent can be swayed
by darkness? One touch of your fingers inside me and I lost myself to the
pleasures of the flesh. What if that happens with evil in my heart?” Fear
floods my veins and pools in my eyes, releasing in streams of tears streaking
my face.

“
Snow, I am to be your husband. You deserve to be
pleasured by me. It is my duty and honor and pledge as the man who loves you.
To enjoy my touch, to indulge in the ecstasy of us becoming one should not be
shamed. It is love that binds us, not sin. I knew, from the moment I met you
that day Rose took me to your cottage, that there would be no other for me to
ever look upon. When your heart finds its other half, it knows.” His lips dot
kisses along my chin, making their way to my mouth. “Evil will never penetrate
your heart. You brought me back from the edge of darkness by giving yourself to
me. I pledge to you, I will do the same.”

Hope
drowns the worry in my soul as his words fend off my fears. He is to be my
husband.
My husband.
I repeat the word in my head
until it sounds funny and no longer makes sense. But it bubbles warmth in my
belly, and I let the word escape my lips.
“My husband.”

His
lips curl into a smile.
“My wife.”

A
giggle makes its way from my throat. “Can we go tell Rose and Marcus?”

He
nods.
“Of course.
She needs to know you're alive. We
should hurry. She was wrought with grief.”

He
pulls me to a stance and assists me back into my clothes. As he slips back into
his trousers, I stop him and stroke his cock one more time.