Daughters of Lyra: Heart of an Emperor by Felicity Heaton

they were
last in this room together, ebbing and flowing through him, through
her. Looking him over, she sighed at the cuts that marked his pale
skin, cutting over the contours of his muscles. No one had admitted
hurting him. Had they all been guilty to some extent? Even his
friend and the emperor? Even her father? She supposed they weren’t
to blame if they had hurt him in order to protect themselves. After
all, he had been attempting to kill the Count of Aeris when she had
arrived at the cell.

    “ Are you
alright?” she said and touched his cheek. His blood red eyes never
left her face. “I’ll clean you up.”

    She went to the bathroom,
unsure of what to do. She had never had to clean wounds before. She
ran water into the stone basin until it felt cold and then wet a
cloth with it. She returned to Regis and sat beside him on the bed.
He turned to face her when she did and for a moment, his eyes
flickered to her throat. Ignoring the spark of desire it lit in
her, she cleaned his cuts, carefully washing away the blood, and
bound the wound on his arm. She couldn’t help noticing how
fantastic his body was, or the white scars that marked his skin. He
wasn’t a stranger to wounds and pain.

    Her gaze wandered his body
until it reached his hands. They rested on his knees, relaxed but
holding them. She could sense the tension in him, the desire to
touch her. It seemed he was in control of himself, at least for
now. She frowned when she noticed a black finger thick band that
ran up both of his arms on the outside. She looked a little closer
at it, fascinated by the intricate markings that created the line,
markings that varied from slashes to swirls to what looked like
symbols. Her eyes followed the black line upwards over his biceps
to his shoulder and from there up his neck. They were
beautiful.

    Without thinking, she ran
her fingers down the line nearest her, tracing it and revelling in
the warmth of his skin. The marks were familiar but nothing came to
her—nowhere she had seen them before or what they might
mean.

    Dropping the cloth, she
took hold of his hands, one in each of hers, and then ran her
fingertips along the marks, following both at the same time towards
his neck. When she reached it, she caressed the line of his jaw and
then brushed his lower lip with her thumb.

    Regis growled, grabbed her
upper arms, and pushed her onto her back on the bed.

    Give him blood.

    That was what they had
told her.

    Sophia shut her eyes when
his mouth closed over hers, his kiss stealing her breath and
setting her body on fire.

    Give him blood she
would.

    ****

    Chapter
6

    Sophia stared at the
ceiling when Regis’s mouth left hers and he kissed a trail along
her jaw and then down to her throat. She swallowed and lay sprawled
out on the bed, ready for anything. Ready for everything. A moan
left her lips when he kissed her throat and then wrapped his lips
around it, sucking the skin. She longed for him to use his
teeth.

    She ached for him to bite
her.

    She would give anything to
feel it again.

    Involuntarily, her body
arched against his, her thigh rubbing between his legs. He growled
and sucked her throat harder, but still didn’t bite her. She would
surrender everything to feel it. Her birthright, her family, her
blood. There wasn’t anything she wouldn’t sacrifice in exchange for
him.

    It didn’t matter that he
wasn’t the emperor or that her species would gain nothing from the
match. She didn’t care.

    She only wanted
him.

    She loved him.

    Her eyes shot wide when he
nicked her neck with his teeth and she shuddered along with him
when he growled and sunk against her, his body half covering hers.
Her hands swept up his arms and she clawed his back, lost in the
glimmer of pleasure and the promise of exquisite ecstasy. His hand
roamed down the other side of her neck and covered her right
breast. She bit her lip and moaned her approval, hoping to
encourage him.

    They had told her to give
him her blood.

    She