Libra (The Zodiac Queen Book 7) Read online

  I can’t argue with him, can’t even pretend to hide behind a facade of fear…even though fear should be a natural response to someone beholding the trait of tyranny.

  But I’m not afraid. I’m ashamedly aroused.

  My heart breaks at the realization, guilt and sorrow fracturing me down the middle. I thought my heart made its choice, and maybe it did, but my body feels differently. The intense moment snaps, and Liam backs away, allowing me a sigh of relief.

  A reprieve until the next time he corners me in the trap of his desire.

  “We should get some sleep,” he says, turning down the covers. “Tomorrow, I have plans for you.”

  “What kind of plans?”

  “The kind you’ll need a good night’s rest for.”

  So cryptic and vague.

  And it’s such a Liam Castle type of answer.

  5

  White sand beaches, cobalt skies, and a gorgeous half-naked man glistening in the sun. If I know nothing else about this isolated oasis, I can’t fault the views.

  Any of them.

  “Are we almost there?” I ask as sweat drips between my breasts. We’ve been hiking for the past two hours under the blazing sun.

  “A few more minutes.” With an excited smile, Liam helps me over the root of a rugged tree. “The hike will be worth it, trust me.”

  As we descend between mountainous rocks and thick vegetation, my cotton shorts stick to my skin, and I begin day-dreaming about a long shower to wash off the hot trek. No sooner than the thought enters my head do I detect the roar of rushing water. We appear at the mouth of a clearing.

  “It’s gorgeous.” I gape at him. “How did you know this was here?”

  “I researched the island months ago.”

  I return my attention to the view, overwhelmed with awe. A waterfall cascades down the cliff face before crashing into a lagoon surrounded by rich flora. It’s an oasis, a paradise cove, and utterly intimate and romantic.

  Liam’s smile is contagious. We exchange wordless grins as we dress down to our swimwear. I’m not sure who makes the first move, but suddenly his arms wind around me, and we crash as one into the turquoise pool. Separating in the deep, we kick until we break the surface.

  “So was it worth it?” he asks, shaking the water from his hair.

  “Very much so.” I fling my soggy braid over my shoulder, glad I had the foresight to secure my hair for the day. After a morning of French toast in bed, Liam told me to dress for a hike and choose comfortable shoes. I found the walk-in closet off the bedroom stocked with a variety of clothing in my size, most of it designed for hot weather. Thinking about the collection of lingerie sends a different kind of heat down my neck.

  We swim toward the waterfall, where the lagoon is shallow enough to stand under the flood of nature’s refreshing shower. I tilt my head back and close my eyes. The last time I felt this content…

  A fist encloses my heart as I remember Sebastian’s beach cottage and the perfect day we spent there. But torturing myself with the things I can’t control won’t improve the situation now. It won’t change a thing. Somehow, I need to find the courage to make the most of this time with Liam.

  Because short of stealing his boat and seeking help in an unfamiliar country, I’m stuck.

  My lids drift open, and through the mist I find his hooded gaze on me, studying every angle as if he’s in the presence of a masterful work of art.

  He urges me out from underneath the spray and slides a palm along my cheek, those deep brown eyes still studying me. “I’d give anything to kiss you right now.”

  My breath hitches. “What’s stopping you?”

  His eyes widen the slightest bit. “Is that an invitation?”

  With a shrug, I lick the water from my lips. “Just curiosity.”

  “Your hesitancy is the only thing stopping me right now.” As his attention lowers to my mouth, I avert my gaze.

  But I can’t fight the feel of his smooth hand against my cheek. I lean into his touch, unable to stop myself as the rush of water thrusts us into a magical realm of unbroken hearts and innocent, lustful dreams.

  “God, you’re exquisite. I could get intoxicated from the sight of you.” Slowly, he drops his hand from my cheek, trailing down the column of my throat. My chest rises and falls too fast, nipples hardening against my wet bikini top.

  “Liam,” I warn, but his name is lost to the waterfall and the thundering beat of my heart.

  “I see it in your eyes.” His desire smolders as he steps closer. “Say the words, and I’m yours.”

  A hard swallow forces the ache from my throat. “I can’t.”

  “You mean you won’t.”

  “Giving in will only hurt you both.”

  “Stop thinking about what he wants, or what I want. What do you want?”

  Six months ago, I wanted Liam. But just last month, my reckless love for Sebastian got him whipped and exiled.

  “I don’t know,” I say, the answer as solid as the soft white sand under my feet.

  “Don’t lie to me.”

  “It’s not a lie.”

  “It’s not the truth.” He cups my chin, his thumb rubbing across my bottom lip as if his caress will erase the protest there. “And I bet I can prove it.”

  “H-how?”

  He tilts his head. “Remember the promise you made to me the day you left my house?”

  “Of course I remember.”

  “Did you break that promise?”

  Not liking where he’s going with this, I hesitate. “No.”

  “You didn’t touch yourself?”

  I shake my head.

  “Then part of you wanted to please me, or you wouldn’t have kept that promise.”

  “You weren’t the only one forbidding masturbation.”

  “That might be true, but the rest of the time, when you were alone and perfectly capable of touching yourself, you held back, did you not?”

  “You know the answer to that,” I say, grinding my molars.

  A satisfied grin sneaks across his lips. “Deep down, you know what you want. So just say it, Novalee.”

  “Part of me wants you both.” The confession is long overdue, and it settles between us, immovable as a pillar.

  “I’ll learn to share if it means being with you.” He frowns, his brows furrowed over wet lashes. “But I doubt Sebastian will say the same.”

  He’s right. The lion is as possessive as Liam is protective. Sebastian Stone wants all of me.

  But so does Liam, despite what he says, or he wouldn’t have brought me here.

  “I can’t give you what you want.” I step back, my feet sinking into the sand.

  The attempt to put space between us doesn’t deter him. He picks me up and sets me on a smooth boulder hidden behind the waterfall. I gasp as he drops to his knees, his hands reaching for my bikini bottoms.

  “What are you doing?” I shriek, squirming on the rock and trying to get away. Instead of hindering his efforts, the fight only aids him. His forearms glisten from our swim as he flings the swimsuit bottoms into the lagoon.

  “Spread your legs.”

  “No!”

  “We both know I’m going to win.” He grips my thighs. “Spread them, my sweet girl, or I’ll do it for you.”

  The sun beams through the wall of water, casting an ethereal glow over him. Those rays turn his determined eyes to caramel and bring out the copper highlights in his damp hair.

  Liam is the epitome of a sex god, oozing sensuality and unquestionable determination.

  And all I can do is utter a stupid question. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m rewarding you. Keeping such a promise deserves a reward, don’t you think?”

  That unwanted twinge he evokes morphs into a full-fledged throb, and my legs part of their own volition.

  “Good girl.”

  “Liam, please,” I choke, my breath stalling in my lungs. He’s not playing fair. Little by little, his alpha-like will
is destroying my resistance.

  “Take off your top,” he orders, dragging his eyes from the sight between my legs. He sucks in a breath. “Let me see your pretty nipples.”

  “You promised you wouldn’t touch me.”

  His fingers press into my splayed thighs, holding me in place. “My hands won’t stray, I promise.”

  Heart pounding with an excited beat, I remove my top and set it aside. Though his hands are nowhere near my nipples, the weight of his stare shoots white-hot need from the tips of my breasts to the bottoms of my feet.

  “Touch yourself, Novalee. Not for me, not for him or anyone else…do it because you want it.”

  “But I don’t want this.” My resistant tone doesn’t match the lust-induced chaos in my head, and he picks up on it, plowing right past my feeble attempt to reject him.

  “Would you rather I start eating you instead?” To drive home the threat, he blows on my pussy, making me whimper.

  My nipples become tight and achy.

  Intense heat spreads over my skin.

  The pulse at my core is unbearable.

  Strength flees my upper body, and I fall back on the rock. I can’t fight this. I’m not sure I know how.

  As his hands keep me spread wide, I begin an exploratory mission down the flesh of my body, fingers tentatively grazing my nipples. A moan tumbles from my lips, and I trail a hand over the quivering desire in my belly.

  His grip on me tightens, owns, demands. I’ve never been so turned on by someone’s hands on my legs. But God, his thumbs are so close to where I’m aching to be stroked.

  The instant I dip my fingers into my slit, rubbing a steady and firm circle on my clit, I know I’m not coming back from this. There’s no stopping the plummet now. It’s an inevitable conclusion, ground into stone as soon as my legs opened for him.

  It takes but seconds for the pressure to build, the heat to flare, the arousal to flood. I’m tired of giving and giving and giving…

  My head screams at me to take.

  To be the weak one for once. To stop obsessing over how my actions will impact my future and the lives of the two men that have me torn down the middle.

  This orgasm is mine.

  I increase the pace, catapulting higher and straining toward my hand. “I need to come.”

  He groans. “You’re incredible. Keep going.”

  My whimpers and soft moans echo in the cavernous space. I’m about to take the plunge, my thighs quaking in his strong hands, but he won’t let me move the way I need to.

  I try to buck, try to widen my thighs, and finally resort to begging.

  Just like he said I would.

  “Please,” I gasp.

  “Wait for my permission.”

  “Please…I need…” Through my delirium, I spot his sly grin.

  “You can wait. Slow it down. I want you to take yourself to that place again and again.”

  “Don’t torture me.”

  “This isn’t torture. The longer you hold it back, the more explosive the pleasure will be.”

  With a long groan, I halt my rapid pace, stalling in wet heat.

  “Don’t stop,” he says, the command thick in his throat. He squeezes my thighs again, making my pussy throb with increased blood flow.

  My heart pumps overtime, pulsing in my ears, pounding so hard and fast it feels like it might break out of my chest. Our private slice of paradise whirls around me as my hand takes on a frantic, unsanctioned pace.

  “Slow down, my sweet girl.”

  “Please…oh my God…I don’t think I can hold off.”

  “Not yet.” Leaning over me, he commands my eyes. “Tease yourself. Let the pressure build.”

  The pressure is already at an all-time high, and I can’t imagine it increasing. But Liam locks me in his sights in a way only he can—with persistence and absolute authority. I fall under his spell, listening to the timeless crash of the waterfall as I close my eyes and concentrate on restraint. A whimpering plea sounds in the back of my throat, and it takes a massive amount of willpower to hold myself on the ledge.

  Willpower I don’t have.

  “I can’t stop it.” Even as the warning slips past my lips, I’m tipping over the edge, the rush of blood releasing and sending warm tingles from my buttocks to the back of my knees. Toes curling, I cry out and grab onto his shoulder. The orgasm tears through me, violent and ferocious and more forceful than the sea during a storm.

  Liam’s presence unleashes a hurricane in my blood, a sizzling wire at the center of my sex even as his powerful hands ground me. Despite the rush of endorphins overloading my system, coming down from such a high leaves me wonderfully spent. My body is like deadweight against the rock’s smooth surface. After the last spasm ebbs, we stare at each other, our rapid breaths meeting in tandem.

  “You came without permission.”

  “You seduced me without permission.”

  Amusement pulls at the corners of his mouth. “Fair enough.” Letting go of my thighs, he rests on his elbows to keep from crushing me. “I could punish you for it, but I’m incapable of doing so after watching you lose yourself like that.” His voice turns seductive. “It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

  Emotion gathers in my throat, rendering my voice useless. I raise my palm to his cheek, trying to convey everything I’m feeling.

  Confusion.

  Intimate connection.

  Something close to awe.

  Maybe I was wrong. Maybe the heart is more than the sum of two halves. Maybe it’s built like a diamond, every facet capable of loving in its own unique capacity.

  He leans into my touch, those soulful eyes threatening to drown me. “This could be our life.”

  Just him and me…forever.

  That’s when reality pummels me, the incisors of my betrayal ripping me to shreds. I push him away. “You said the choice was mine, remember?”

  Liam opens his mouth to respond, but before he gets out a syllable, I fling myself head-first into the lagoon to search for my bikini bottoms.

  6

  I never did find the bottom half of my swimsuit. The white fabric must have sunk to the depths of the lagoon, same as my will to resist Liam Castle.

  As we trek back to the house in silence, my anger over his underhanded seduction tactics intensifies. I allowed myself to get caught up in the moment, allowed my body to think for me when keeping my head on straight is paramount for survival. We’re no longer stuck in a small room on a ship, but the same tension spirals between us, stronger than ever. It’s only a matter of time before we cross a line.

  A dangerous line—one armed with barbed wire and inevitable, messy heartbreak. Because eventually, we have to go back to Zodiac Island, and once we do, Liam will be thrown out of the auction.

  Unless he breaks his word and holds me here indefinitely. He’s determined enough to do it.

  The threat hangs over my head every day that I spend in his secret, imprisoned paradise. Since the incident in the lagoon, he’s given me space, his exercise in patience admirable. But I don’t need an interpreter to understand the intense longing in his expression every time he looks at me.

  Like the way he’s looking at me now.

  A light breeze rustles his coppery locks—on the longer side now that he’s gone without a trim since he kidnapped me over three weeks ago. Liam holds my gaze, his lips parting the slightest bit as he moves his queen three spaces to the left.

  “I don’t know why I keep playing this stupid game with you,” I say. “You’re impossible to beat.”

  He shoots me a tilted grin. “It’s not impossible.”

  “I’m finding that hard to believe.”

  “To be fair, I’ve only known one other person capable of beating me.”

  As I move my last pawn, I lean forward, shifting my ass on the blanket. We decided to play today’s game outside, staying cool under the shade of a palm tree. Rhythmic waves crash onto the shore a hundred yards away. “Who had the
pleasure of besting the unbeatable Liam Castle?”

  “Oddly enough, your brother.”

  I jolt at the mention of Landon. Hearing Liam refer to him as my brother is as disconcerting as it was the first time he told me he knew the truth.

  “Were the two of you close when you were younger?”

  “My father raised me to be a leader, not a friend.” He says it matter-of-factly, without a hint of sadness, but I’m sad for him anyway. Maybe because I know what it’s like to have someone dictate my life to me, from the people I’m allowed to call friends to the man I’ll marry. Liam is as guilty of caging me as my uncle, and no matter the level of chemistry between us, I can’t erase that fact from my mind.

  “Were you close to any of them?”

  “It’s a day for ironies, my sweet girl.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Sebastian and I got along well at one point.”

  “What happened?”

  “Duty happened. You happened.” He takes his next move, his expression as calm as ever. “Historically, meeting a queen for the first time tends to drive a wedge between budding friendships. Lines are drawn, allegiances are formed…tragedies change things.” His show of calm turns into sorrow, all traces of nonchalance gone as his mind returns to the past. “Being the future chancellor is a lonely existence.”

  “Did you ever want something different for yourself?”

  “I guess I never thought about it.” He glances at the turquoise waves. “But I’m thinking about it now.”

  What he’s thinking about makes me nervous, because Libra’s time comes to an end soon, and I still don’t know if Liam will take me back to Zodiac Island. After spending these weeks with him, on the ship and in our private paradise, it’s difficult to want to go back…

  Until a certain sexy-as-sin man invades my thoughts.

  Letting the subject drop, I study the chessboard for several minutes, mentally calculating the possibilities, but I can’t find a way out of this. With a resigned sigh, I knock over my king.

  Liam leans back on his elbows and smiles. “I think I deserve a prize for making you surrender. Come swimming with me.”