The Red Queen by Meg Xuemei X Read Free Book Online Page A

her breasts.
    As his hand tightened while cupping her, Lucienne inhaled. The pleasure was like no other. She’d been such an idiot to deny herself this unmatchable carnal joy. She ground her hips atop him, feeling his body hard and taut as a bowstring.
    He couldn’t help but gasp. Then he seemed to collect himself, if only barely. “Lucia, stop.” His voice was rough, husky. “If you don’t, I won’t be able to stop later.”
    “I don’t want you to stop, now or later,” she said, pressing herself harder against him, desperate to remove any negative space between them. “Nothing can stay between us now. Undress me completely.”
    A ravenous hunger twisted his face. He pulled her robe above her head, followed by the torn remnants of her shirt, tossing them onto the ice-like roof.
    “This long pent-up passion is killing me,” she said. “Release it.”
    “Nectar, your perfume,” he murmured as if drunk.
    Lucienne bent down. Just before her lips touched his, he pulled her face up and held it there. “When you become yourself again, you’ll hate me as much as you’ll hate yourself,” he said. “And I’ll never forgive myself for taking advantage of you.”
    His talk of hate and consequences was like unexpected cold water spraying on her face. However, that ounce couldn’t quench the fire inside her. “I am myself,” she said, “and I’m yours to take and savor.” She fought to get free of his hold. Once her mouth moved over his, he’d never resist her again. But he was stronger. He was as strong as any of her warriors, and that surprised her. “You said you want me!”
    “You have no idea how much I want you.” A low, hoarse laugh escaped him. “I want to make you belong to me and only me forever, but I’ll hate myself for taking you like this. Not like this.” He jerked up and sat straight, so she fell on his lap.
    She pulled him toward her again, but he grabbed her wrist. “Don’t do this, Lucia,” he said with a ragged breath. “I love you. I can’t leave a chance for you to despise me. I want this to feel right, so that we’ll have no regrets.”
    The muscles along his jaw twisted. Agony spread in his light gray eyes. The Lure’s penalty had descended on him. 
    “Stop resisting it and the pain will go away,” she said. When he didn’t abide, she cast him a withering look, bracing for the same pain to run through her. It didn’t come this time. But the pleasure it had bestowed deserted her, as did the heat between her thighs.
    He held her bitter gaze, heartache brimming in his eyes. It was the same ache she saw in Kian, her nanny, her guard, even her jolly friend Ziyi. She wanted to escape it. She brought Ash here to escape it, and yet he brought it right back to her.
    Lucienne felt drained.
    When Ashburn picked her up and put the tattered shirt and red robe back on her, she didn’t fight him. When he carried her toward Spike in staggered steps and placed her on it, she remained passive. He mounted the machine behind her.
    “Thank you for sending me back to my prison, guarded by the Czech prince and the sentinels assigned by Chief McQuillen,” she said when Spike banked away from the ring of snowy mountains.
    He didn’t say a word but fastened an arm around her waist.
    While the taste of bile and the humiliation of his rejection lingered on her tongue, the world suddenly shifted.
    A veil of mist lifted from her.
    Where was she? And why was she with Ash, traveling above the ocean at such tremendous speed?
    She looked down. She wore a red robe, with a wrinkled, torn white shirt inside.
    As she cringed close her eyes, everything that had happened since she’d woken up this morning flooded back to her. It was like watching the reflection of another person act inside her body. She remembered it all this time. However, being able to recall the day’s events added only misery.
    She untied the red robe, shrugged it off, and tossed it down to the endless water beneath. It twirled