Free Web NovelChapter 74: Lie To Me Again
"And so what if I do?" Evelina shot back, her calm exterior finally cracking, her voice rising, "I would feel what I need to and I will discard whatever is a burden to me. Feeling things for people in my past left me begging for scraps. I don’t need your passion, nor do I need your territorial madness anymore. It doesn’t keep me safe!"
"Then let me keep you safe!" Ace roared, his hands shooting out to grab her shoulders.
His massive frame trapped her against the vanity, "If you want money, then take the entire Ducal treasury, even the ancestral ones, take my name and use it however... but stop looking at me like I am a stranger."
"You are a stranger!" she cried out, her chest heaving, her hands coming up to press against his bare chest to push him back.
But the moment her palms made contact with his burning skin, the electric jolt from earlier returned with a vengeance, paralyzing her resolve for a moment.
Evelina didn’t know if she had been doing it for so long with the System that she came close to crumbling without it in one day.
She could still handle her business well but her emotions were like the wild waves of a sea, spiralling in all directions beyond her control.
"You, Your Grace, are just... a man who doesn’t know when to stop," she rasped.
"I am never going to stop," Ace growled against her mouth, his breath scorching her lips, "You are never getting rid of me, sweetheart."
The words were a dark promise that completely shattered her composure before his mouth claimed hers.
He tilted his head, bruising her lips with a desperate hunger that had been building for months.
Evelina’s heart hammered violently against her ribs. Her walls dispersed the moment his tongue forced its way past her teeth, tangling with hers in a deep and wet movement.
A soft gasp escaped her throat, and Ace drank it down like a starving man.
He groaned, a low and primal sound that vibrated directly into her chest.
His hands slid down from her shoulders, his large palms gripping her waist before sliding lower to cup her hips, pulling her flush against his hardness.
The friction of her smooth linen gown rubbing against his rough uniform trousers sent a intoxicating shock straight down her spine.
With a rough tug, he lifted her slightly, dragging her further back onto the vanity and sending her silver hairpins clattering across the floor.
His mouth was possessive and completely demanding. He devoured her, kissing her with a madness that left her entirely breathless.
For the first time, Evelina stopped fighting the moment... and him. Her fingers clawed into the fabric of his shirt, tearing at the buttons before burying themselves deep into his dark hair, pulling him down harder as she began to kiss him back with a tongue-tangled desperation that completely consumed them both.
The heat in the room spiked. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
Ace’s lips left her mouth, tracing a scorching path down the sharp line of her jaw to the sensitive skin of her neck. His breath was hot against her skin, making her entire body tremble.
"Say you want a divorce again," he growled against her skin, his touch heavy and territorial, "Say it, Evelina. Lie to me again."
"Ace..." she gasped, her hands tangling tighter in his hair as a vibrant flush crawled up her neck.
Her body was reacting completely out of her control, her mind entirely blank without the cold intervention of the system.
Without breaking the kiss, his hands slid under her thighs, lifting her effortlessly off the vanity.
Evelina wrapped her legs tightly around his waist, her breath hitching as he carried her the short distance to the massive bed.
They went down together into the dark velvet blankets. Ace hovered over her, his broad chest pinning her down as his dark hair fell wildly across his forehead.
He was panting, his gaze dark and entirely unhinged as his large hands caught her wrists, slamming them up against the mattress. His thumbs dragged roughly over her skin, pinning her body beneath his weight.
He bent his head, his mouth tearing a path down the column of her neck, his teeth grazing the sensitive skin right above her collarbone.
The heat in the room was suffocating. Every line of his hardened body was pressed into hers, evocating a strange sensation in her, one she had never felt before.
The moment was so intense, so new, that it finally struck a cord of pure panic deep in Evelina’s mind.
She looked up into his mesmerizing eyes and felt the terrifying hold he had over her senses in that moment. He wasn’t just touching her, he was consuming her, body and mind.
"We... should stop here," Evelina’s muscles went entirely slack, her body turning completely rigid and dead beneath him on the mattress.
Ace froze instantly.
His lips were a hair’s breadth from her bare skin, his chest still heaving heavily against her ribs.
He could feel her pulse fluttering violently beneath his fingers, but when he lifted his head to look at her, the woman who had just been clawing at his shirt was gone.
"Are you done?" Evelina asked softly, her voice remarkably steady despite her shallow breathing, "The Crown Prince is waiting for me in the conservatory, and I need to secure the contract with him."
Something inside Ace seemed to have shattered right there.
He stared at her for a long moment, the coldness in her eyes twisting like a dagger in his heart.
He slowly let go of her wrists, stumbling back off the bed as if the fabric had turned to fire. His fingers curled into tight fists, trying to shake off the fog shrouding his mind. freёwebnoѵel.com
Without a single word, he turned on his heel, grabbed his heavy cape from the chair, and stormed out of the master suite, slamming the heavy oak door shut behind him with a deafening crash that shook the walls.
