Evil Twin by Kati Wilde
2
Bane
The princess was glorious.Absolutely glorious.
Her body was exquisite, too. Not that he’d had more than a glimpse of her nude figure before his gaze returned to her face and his brain seized up. That cunning gleam was lighting her eyes again.
Because she’d made a plan that was just like his.
Almostjust like his.
She’d come to his chambers so that her parents would be forced to let them marry. But the princess meant to wed Tamas—with the intention of securing two kingdoms. Yet upon marrying Bane, she would only rule one.
He would ruin her plans. He would disappoint his wife before their marriage even began. Yet Bane could not—he could not—let this glorious woman marry his twin.
And it was not as if she loved Tamas. They’d only just met. Bane would only crush her ambitions. Not her heart.
So his deception was not so very bad.
Yet he knew it was. She would despise him when she learned the truth. She would hate him. Rightfully. A hard, painful lump formed in his throat. Remorse. Dread. He shoved the emotions down, where they lodged in his chest, at the center of a heart that thundered with new purpose.
No more did he care about claiming Phaira’s crown. No more did he care about what that kingdom owed him. All he cared about now was taking this princess.
Because she was his, not his twin’s.
But he’d waited a damn long time to respond. At least, his mouth did. His flesh had an instant response. That glimpse of her bare skin had stiffened his cock into a thick length of burning stone. Yet as all the realizations had collided in his head—the similarity of their plans, the pain that would come from his deception, the need to make her irrevocably his—wariness veiled the bold gleam in her eyes and she dropped her gaze away from his. As if she thought his hesitation was a rejection.
Never.
“You want me to claim you?” he asked hoarsely. “You want me to make you mine?”
“I do.” Her gaze lifted to his. “My king.”
She meant Tamas. But when Bane married her, when he stood at her side, he would be her king. And she would be—
“My wife,” he rasped. Hating himself. Helpless to stop. “My queen.”
Fierce pleasure lit her expression. Her lips parted and Bane claimed them before she could say more—before she could call him by his brother’s name. At the firm press of his mouth, her body stiffened. Surprise? Uncertainty? Or was it her first kiss, too?
Whether it was or not, he should have made it better. She would be his wife. His kiss shouldn’t have been designed to prevent her from saying the wrong name but to steal her breath and render her incapable of saying anything.
His head lifted. She watched him, her eyes dark and expressive. And calculating again—though not filled with cunning. Instead her gaze searched his, as if she’d encountered something new and unexpected and she was suddenly reconsidering the conclusions she’d previously made about him.
Or perhaps reconsidering what she’d thought her response to him would be.
She’d come to seduce him. Most likely, she’d thought to remain unaffected—just as Bane had believed his cock would never harden for an empty-headed princess. Perhaps she’d thought it would be a struggle to pretend arousal with an empty-headed king. Instead a flush rose under her skin when Bane slowly lowered his head. Instead her breath stuttered when his mouth covered hers again. And instead of stiffening when his tongue teased her lips apart, she moaned deep in her throat and melted against him.
Yes. At her response, happiness lightened his senses. She’d only come here because she wanted a kingdom. But he would make certain she left wanting his touch, wanting his kiss, wanting him.
On a sudden laugh, she slid her mouth from his. “I thought you’d be more difficult to persuade. Or that you’d demand more first.”
“I can be more difficult.” He could be anything she wished. “How did you plan to persuade me?”
“While on my knees.”
Sucking on his cock. Those full lips wrapped around his shaft, those cunning eyes locked with his.
Bane groaned at the image, burying his fingers in her black curls, craving what she offered but unwilling to release her and relinquish the feel of her full length of her soft body against the hardness of his.
“That was my plan. To use my mouth.” She wrecked his control with every word, her breath hot against his skin. “I haven’t before. But I’ve read books. Listened. Watched. I planned to please you.”
He’d done the same. Never had he been with anyone because he would never be as his brother was. Using lovers. Discarding them. But he’d seen enough to know what pleased a woman. She must have seen enough to know what pleased a man.
“What did you watch?” Jealousy and arousal warred through his chest, picturing her—spying, seeing, needing. “Who did you watch?”
“Do you want me use my mouth to tell you?” That sly amusement again. “Or should I use my mouth as I’d planned?”
Only one thing did he want more than her lips around his cock: to have her bound to him. Forever.
Hooking his arm around her waist, Bane lifted her against him. “Your mouth isn’t where I need to plant my seed, Princess. Not this time.”
But they had almost an hour left. So maybe it’d be the next time.
An hour left before she learned the truth of who he was.
Dread clawed at his chest as he carried her to the bed, desperately kissing her mouth, filling his senses with her taste, her scent.
He wouldn’t let her hate him. He wouldn’t let her regret.
She gasped as his lips found a spot on her neck that made her shiver in his arms, and then a throaty laugh escaped her. “I’d also planned to lock you away in a delightful little chamber after we were married,” she said. “But perhaps I won’t.”
Because he’d pleased her. Then this was just the beginning.
“I’ll taste every inch of you,” he vowed and dropped her onto the bed. And by the gods, he felt like a king merely looking at her—brown skin against white velvet, her plush lips swollen from his kisses, her eyes glazed with the pleasure he’d already given her. Her curls spilled over her shoulders to curtain her breasts as she pushed up onto her elbows. “I can’t wait to eat you up.”
“No time for that,” she panted as his big hands began to push her thighs apart. He groaned when her cunt was revealed to him. So luscious. And so wet. For him. “There’s no time to waste.”
“Tasting you could never be a waste of time, Princess.”
“When they realize I’m gone, they’ll come looking for me.”
He froze. “How soon?”
She bit her lip. Not shy this time, but as if in brief apology before she admitted, “Fifteen minutes. At most.”
A laugh barked from him. Fifteen minutes. She’d been more confident in her seduction than he’d been. He’d planned a full hour before discovery.
But then, she’d come to Tamas. Servant gossip had likely told her she’d only need to spread her legs and his brother would be between them.
Yet now his brother would never touch her. Only Bane would.
His fingers dug into the softness of her thighs, shoving them wide. “Not every inch of you, then,” he told her with hunger thickening his voice. “Just the most important inches. Just enough to get this little cunt slicked up and ready to take my cock. So I can get every inch of me deep inside you.”
“Then they’ll find us.” Her fingers fisted in the white velvet counterpane when his breath stirred the curls between her thighs. “But it’ll be too late.”
Much too late. It was already too late when he had his first taste of her mouth. And now this, this. Perfection under his tongue. She stiffened up again at his first long lick, as if she wasn’t sure what to expect, as if she wasn’t sure if it would hurt. But if there was any pain, it was his, knowing he’d gone all the years of his life without this. Without her. All those years, worth nothing now that Bane knew what he’d been missing.
But by the gods, he would not waste another second.
Her stiffness eased on the second lick, the rigid muscles of her thighs softening under his hands. He heard her sigh, and watched her teeth catch her bottom lip again, but her gaze locked on his face said that it was to keep herself quiet so that she wouldn’t distract him.
As if anything could tear him away from her before she came.
What had she done to him? And so quickly? He would think her a sorceress, but no magic could fill a heart like his was being filled. No spell could overturn a man’s will or his purpose. Yet his had been. He’d had a plan, but now he gladly followed hers. He’d intended to be a king, but now he only cared to be her king.
But whether she was sorceress or queen or goddess, it hardly mattered. Either way, he’d worship at her cunt.
Never before had Bane feasted between a woman’s thighs, but he’d heard enough and seen enough to know where to focus his attentions—and her gasp when his tongue glided over her clit told Bane that his education hadn’t been amiss. But the rest, he learned from her. From the surprised cry she made the first time he sucked on that pulsing bud. From the endless wetness that slicked his mouth and chin when he fucked his tongue past her entrance. From the frantic movement of her hips that forced him to pin them down.
Then her thighs began to shake before she clamped them around his head. She was about to come, he realized. Pride and awe stuffed his chest full. He was about to make her come. Hungrily he went after her clit until she was crying out and bucking against his mouth, her hot flesh pulsing against his tongue.
“Oh,” she breathed in wonder, falling back against the bed as if boneless. “That was much better than my fingers. I might enjoy this marriage after all.”
Enjoy it? Bane drew back, licking the lingering wetness from his lips. He would make her love it. Feral purpose took hold of him. He would make her come again, but this time on his cock. He would have her squirming beneath him, crying out—not his name, not yet. No, he would have her so hard and so good that she’d make no sounds at all except for her moans and her screams that she loved it, she loved it.
At least she wanted him now. Her dark eyes were on his as he shoved the court robes from his shoulders. Urgent need fumbled his hands until his fingers ripped open the laces at his waist.
Abruptly she laughed.
Not the reaction he expected after her first glimpse of his cock.
Bane scowled.
Her grin enchanted him all over again. A sorceress, for sure. “When I was in the gallery, I thought—anyone who needs such a vainglorious portrait to convince people of his magnificence probably also wears padding.” Her appreciative gaze roamed over his chest. “But you don’t need to.”
No, Bane’s muscles needed no padding to appear as large as they did. And Tamas—eight years past, when Bane had visited the palace after spending a season at the training grounds, his twin had said he looked like an overmuscled barbarian from the Dead Lands, scorning the labor and hard work that had made him so. But that same year, after Bane had returned to the army, Tamas had begun padding his clothes.
“You’re so very strong.” Her heavy-lidded gaze traced the breadth of his shoulders before sliding lower and halting on his erection. Her pink tongue slicked over her bottom lip. “And big all over.”
Did that frighten her? “I’ll be gentle.”
“You can’t be.” Her gaze snapped back to his. “You must be brutal. You must make me bleed.”
Rough her first time? “I would not—”
“There can be no mistaking what we’ve done—and that you are the only one who has ever spent his seed inside me.”
So her parents could not argue a child was not his or that she was pregnant before she came to his bed.
Yet he meant to care for her. Not hurt her.
“I saved my maidenhead for this, my king,” she added softly. “To secure a kingdom. And I will not break. So take what I give to you.”
Bane couldn’t tell her that he’d saved himself for her, too. Tamas had obviously not abstained. She’d think him a liar.
Bane was a liar. But he’d never let her be sorry for what she was about to give him.
“Then open those pretty thighs for me, Princess,” he ordered hoarsely, climbing onto the bed and walking forward on his knees until he reached the space she made for him. Slowly he made his way up her body, pausing to suck on a hardened nipple, to rake his mouth up the length of her neck, then finally to claim her lips.
Her needy whimper when he stroked his tongue into her mouth was everything.
He needed no kingdom. He needed no crown. Only her kiss.
“No more of this!” She broke the connection with a frantic shake of her head. Her harsh breaths filled the air between them. Her fingers clutched at his shoulders, her knees rising up alongside his hips. “Hurry.”
Because they had not much time left before they were discovered. Before she learned of his deception and learned to hate him.
But with the blood and his seed as evidence, they would be made to marry. The princess would be his.
Then he’d spend all the rest of his days earning her forgiveness.
Blood thundering, he guided the fat head of his cock through her folds, the searing heat ripping a groan from his chest. Though drenched in her need, her tight little entrance was an unyielding well of flesh. So little. All of her was small compared to him, a glorious collection of curves and cunning with a massive beast hovering over her, his body shaking with tension.
The tilt of her hips urged him on, her eyes glittering.
“My king,” she whispered.
Gritting his teeth, he snapped his hips forward and drove his cock into slick, resisting flesh. Her scream pierced his chest. The sound of her pain slashed slashed through his heart, a white hot flare that joined the lightning jolt of being wrapped up in her tight cunt.
Partly wrapped up. Barely past the tip.
But even that much was pure bliss. The hot grip of her sheath took hold of him, from his cock to his bones. Venom seared through his veins. His body shook with the effort of remaining still. Because she’d screamed. Now her face was buried against his chest. Hiding her pain.
His blood was afire. He needed to take care of her. To protect her.
But he was the one hurting her.
And he couldn’t think.
Except he needed to get deeper. To do as she’d told him. To give her what she wanted.
A kingdom.
Dragging in a ragged heave of air, Bane rolled his hips. He sank deeper.
Her scream this time was muffled against his chest. Her teeth dug into his pectoral—punishing him for hurting her or to silence the end of her scream, he didn’t know, didn’t care. And if he bled, he’d proudly wear the scar from her bite for the rest of his life.
Another short thrust. Another, working farther into her snug, slick heat. Another. Another. Until he was full deep.
And she was his.
Dazedly, he looked down at her. “My queen.”
Each word was choked up, thick. As if he were drunk on the pleasure of her. Her cunt was strangling him. So tight.
A growl replaced Bane’s slurred pleasure when she raised her face to his. Tears streaked her cheeks. But quickly she hid them, wiping her eyes, turning her head away.
One day, she would turn to him when she was in pain. But for now, he let her retreat.
Her whisper was strained. “Is there blood?”
He had to pull back to look. Bright streaks of crimson on her inner thighs, along the length of his shaft, staining the white velvet beneath them.
“There is.”
Her throat worked and she nodded, visibly gathering her strength. When her gaze returned to his, her eyes were determined, focused—and he was completely hers. “Now give to me your seed. Do not let them take me from you.”
Bane would kill them all first. Even Tamas. The vow he made to her now overrode any he’d made before.
Slowly, he pushed deep again—and went still at the sound of her gasp. Letting her adjust to his size. Letting himself adjust to the soul-shattering pleasure of his cock sheathed in her wet velvet heat, of her body trembling beneath his.
Never would he adjust, Bane knew. Never would he become accustomed to it. Just as he would never grow tired of kissing her.
He did now, gently. Tenderly. Her lips clung to his, her fingers buried in his hair—then tugging, hard.
“If you do not soon move,” she said fiercely against his mouth, “then the chamber that I lock you in will not be so delightful. You must come.”
No doubt that he would. Sooner than he’d like. Electric tension already drew his sac up tight, began winding around the base of his spine. He only held back for her, his muscles juddering with the effort of remaining still, giving her time instead of rutting rutting rutting.
Another gentle thrust tested his control. Her breath shuddered, her back arching. “Oh,” she gasped.
Just as she had before. In awed surprise. With unexpected delight.
He stroked into her again, his smiling mouth following her lips. “Oh?” he echoed her gasp. “You came to me thinking you wouldn’t enjoy this?”
Her throaty laugh rippled over his skin. “There is gossip.”
What gossip?But he knew.
Because Tamas never satisfied his lovers in bed. He was known for how selfish he was.
Bane buried himself in her harder. Again. “We will make new gossip.” His voice became ragged, his thrusts unrelenting. “When the maids see the blood, they’ll say I was the first—the only—one inside you. And when they see the wet soaking the bed, they’ll know you loved the way my thick cock stretches your cunt. They’ll spread the word just like you’ll spread your thighs every night for the rest of our lives.”
Even as her arms wreathed his neck to pull him closer, she bared her teeth in a sharp grin. “And if you keep on in this way, they’ll say you never filled me with your seed.”
His laugh was but a heave of air. He kissed her hard, his heart full. “One day, Princess, I will make you love me.”
Her beautiful mouth twisted under his. “I am not fool enough to love anyone.”
“You have already made a fool of me.”
Hot emotion flashed through her eyes. Pain. Anger.
“Just fuck me,” she hissed.
He couldn’t have done anything else. Not when he was so close. As was she. She gasped and moaned with each rough thrust, her cunt tightening, tightening. Beastlike grunts ripped from his chest as he pounded deeper, only aware of the approaching voices in the part of his mind that would always keep a watch over her.
The princess let out a triumphant laugh against his throat.
“My parents are here. Harder now, my king,” she urged him. “Fill my cunt with your hot spend. Let them know how you’ve claimed me and made me yours.”
A red haze covered his vision. All he saw was her. All he felt was her. His princess. His queen.
His brother bellowed his name. As if Tamas had finally seen his own bride beneath Bane’s massive body, her legs locked tight around his waist and her small frame jolting as she bore each powerful thrust. But Tamas couldn’t feel what Bane did—his bride’s cunt clenching on his pulsing shaft as she writhed against him, her teeth marking his shoulder when Bane pumped his seed deep, deep, deep.
Endlessly he came, each hot spurt a victory. Under him, the princess’s body quivered in the aftermath of her pleasure. Her lips journeyed from his shoulder to his neck, leaving kisses on his skin. Praising him. Thanking him.
He must be crushing her.
Sweat rolled down his spine as he lifted his weight onto his forearms. His chest heaving, he met her eyes. She smiled slyly back at him. And from behind, came a breathy voice—
“Oh, sister. How could you?”
Sister? Bane glanced over his shoulder.
Tamas glared at him, his face an angry red ruby set beneath his gold crown. Standing beside him were Phaira’s king and queen, staring at the bed in abject horror. And with them was—
Sapphira. In her white silk gown and diamond hair pins.
But…?
Bane’s head whipped back around. The same face as Sapphira’s…except for her eyes, which had narrowed as she looked at Tamas. The same full lips as Sapphira’s, but smashing into a tight line before twisting into a snarl.
Her gaze blazed back to Bane’s. “If he’s the king, then who the fuck are you?”