Accusations and Revelations

Wald's burning lips left a trail of heat along the slender side of her neck as he walked them backward toward the messy bed. Madison gasped sharply when the backs of her legs hit the edge of the mattress, her knees buckling as he crowded her with the hard, powerful planes of his body. She fell back onto the tangled sheets in a messy heap, looking up at him with heavy, want-filled eyes.

The prince towered over her, a feral gleam in his bright blue gaze as he drank in the sight of her flushed, longing form. Slowly, he began unlacing his shirt, stripping the garment off to reveal the rippling expanse of his muscular chest and abs. Madison couldn't stifle the small desperate sound that escaped her at the display, her eyes greedily tracing every groove and bulging muscle.

Sensing her rapt attention, Wald smirked wolfishly as he reached for the hem of her plain maid's dress and tore it over her head in one swift, violent motion, leaving her barely clothed for his burning stare. His hot gaze raked over her scantily clad form, making her shiver with a mix of arousal and vulnerability.

"Gorgeous," he growled in a voice made husky with lust. "My fierce little wildcat, all dressed up like an obedient little mouse. But we both know the truth now, don't we, pet?"

With that, Wald pounced on her, claiming her parted lips in another dizzyingly intense, all-consuming kiss. Madison moaned into his mouth as those big, callused hands roamed over her exposed flesh with rough possessiveness, sparking tiny jolts of pleasure-pain wherever they touched. She squirmed beneath his solid weight, her body quickly heating up like a fire as he stoked the embers of her desire.

There was no sweetness in his touch this time, only the scorching intensity of primal, carnal hunger. Wald took her with the ferocity of a starving beast, pinning her beneath him as he pounded into her with punishing thrusts that soon had her crying out deliriously. He was everywhere, surrounding her, overwhelming her senses until she drowned in the dizzying sensations.

When the mind-blowing waves of climax finally crashed over her, Madison collapsed back in a limp, sated heap, chest rapidly rising and falling as she struggled to breathe. Wald remained nestled between her parted thighs, his forehead pressed to her sweat-dampened shoulder as his own ragged breaths gusted hotly over her flushed skin.

Long minutes stretched as they lay tangled in sweaty disarray, their harsh pants slowly evening out into deep, even breathing. Just as bone-deep tiredness began pulling Madison under, Wald stirred beside her, propping himself up on one elbow to gaze down at her with heavy-lidded eyes.

"Tell me, sweetling," he rumbled in that deliciously husky tone that made her insides clench with renewed want. "What secrets are you hiding from your prince?"

Madison stiffened, the lazy afterglow of bliss vanishing in an instant as worry took its place. Did he suspect the truth of her mission? Had her lies finally been uncovered? Her mind raced as she searched for a way to deflect or mislead.

"I don't know what you mean, my lord," she said carefully. "I'm just a maid, with no secrets to speak of."

Wald made a disapproving growling sound as he traced the swell of her breast with lazy fingertips. "We both know that's a lie, little maid. There's a fire burning in you, an untamed spirit that refuses to be tamed." His touch drifted lower, callused fingers ghosting over the flat plane of her stomach. "I think you've been playing an elaborate game with me since we first met. One I aim to unravel completely."

Despite herself, Madison shivered at the dark promise in his words, at the hint that he wouldn't stop until all her secrets were stripped bare. She opened her mouth to deny it, but Wald stopped her with a look that allowed no argument.

"Don't bother trying to deceive me more, pet. I know you're no simple servant, but something much more...dangerous." His hand moved lower, fingers slipping through her damp curls to stroke her most intimate flesh in a way that made her breath catch. "I can smell the blood on you, sense that killer's instinct lurking just under the surface. You've taken lives before, haven't you?"

The blunt accusation made Madison's heart pound in her chest. How could he possibly know about her dark profession as an assassin? Was her disguise really so flimsy and easy to see through? Frantic denial warred with the urge to confess it all, to spill every sordid detail of her quest for vengeance against his bloodline.

But before she could decide which way to go, Wald's fingers found that sensitive bundle of nerves, stroking with just the right friction to make her gasp.

"Don't try to answer yet," he murmured against the swell of her breast. "Let's see if I can't unravel some of those mysteries first."

With those ominous words hanging between them, Wald set about exploring every inch of her body with his mouth and hands, swiftly dragging her back under with intense sensation. Madison couldn't stop the helpless cry that spilled from her lips, her back arching wantonly off the mattress as her prince reduced her to a thrashing, incoherent tangle of limbs and primal need.

She knew, in the dwindling rational corner of her mind, that he was deliberately breaking her down. Stripping away her defenses, stoking the raging fire of lust that made her crave his touch with an almost animalistic desperation. By the time the tremors of her next mind-blowing climax finally ebbed, she was utterly unraveled, laid bare in every sense.

"Now, sweetling," Wald growled against the sweat-dampened hollow of her throat, his scorching breath fanning over her over-sensitive skin. "I want you to tell me everything. And this time, no lies or half-truths."

Against her very last shred of self-preservation, Madison knew there was only one path forward now - brutal, unvarnished honesty. But If she began to speak, to confess every part of her dark mission and the reasons driving her solemn quest for vengeance on the Lycan bloodline.

She would face the prince's judgment, his rage...and quite possibly, her execution. But in that moment, with his searing touch still branding her from the inside out, she had never felt so exposed, so utterly disarmed of all shields and secrets.