She tore at his shirt, letting it float to the floor as threads slipped from her dress. She tried not to choke on smoke and flame as his lips moved over her neck and chest, any semblance of control over his bloodline vanishing into the ether. Her fingers grazed the scarred flesh on his shoulder, the skin remarkably healed but still tight where she’d hit him. Before she could catch sight of it, her head fell back as fingers traced the curves of her sides. Stars fell from his lips as he trailed from her neck to her shoulder, stepping back to dispose of his pants.
Only wisps of lace underthings remained against her skin, a sight that darkened his eyes as they committed every gentle slope to memory. His chest lifted and fell, a hesitation settling within him.
“You’ve seen me less clothed than this.” Astra’s mind slipped back under the steamy waters of the hot springs in Celene.
His lips twitched into a simmering smirk.
“I didn’t get to appreciate it then.”
“I wouldn’t have minded.”
His hazy gaze narrowed. “Yes, I know. You felt it then, didn’t you? The Tether? I was so afraid it was happening, but you stopped…”
She slipped a finger beneath the lace strap over her shoulder, pushing it down over her arm and letting the fabric fall away, baring her breasts as he spoke. His sentence trailed off as his eyes glazed over.
“I didn’t know that’s what it was, but yes. I felt it knocking against my ribs. It was all-consuming.”
“I remember.” Lux flashed a devilish grin that undid any lingering doubts she should have been considering. The risk was never being with the commander—it was being without him. Whether he saw it or not, she felt it in the way her blood called out for his, singing through rippled time just like his looking glass or the thrones.
Searching for him.
He moved closer, finally satisfied with his staring, trailing a fingertip from her collarbone to her navel. His voice was dangerously low.
“I’ve thought about that dream every night since we left Celene.”
“Oh?” she managed, thoroughly hypnotized by the proximity of his mouth.
He dipped his head, placing a long, smoldering kiss on her lips, holding nothing back from her now. If he was going to cross this line, he might as well cross all of them and enjoy his Descent into the Nether below.
When he reluctantly broke their contact, desperate for a breath as she ravaged at any remaining sanity clinging to his mind, she whimpered, her breath catching.
“You have no idea,” he hummed into her ear, fingers closing around her neck, wrecked by the rhythm of her pulse in his hands. He’d worried so many times it would awaken something dark within him—but what stirred in his chest was a bloodlust of another nature entirely.
“No idea how badly I wanted to cross the hallway and tear off that moonstone—tell you everything.”
He kissed her cheek with a reverent brush. His eyes sparkled with memories of lying across the hall, counting her breaths, not even allowing himself the relief of imagining what it might be like to hold her—steeping in the fear it would create an unstoppable beast no moonstone or man could fend off.
“Gods, I wanted to bury myself inside of you. To hear my name on your tongue. To be claimed by your fire for good.”
She snagged his lips in a blazing kiss, slipping her tongue over his softly as his hands found their way over her breasts, worshipping at a crested altar. The room went up in smoke and ash, flames bursting between them as the rest of their clothes vanished—she wasn’t sure if only she saw the embers or if they’d burn the whole damned palace down, nor did she care.
He pulled Astra by the hand to the chair he’d spent hours sitting in, watching her read or write, lecturing her, teasing her.
Wondering what it would be like to be the man who put that blasted ring on her finger.
“Don’t go wherever you just went,” she breathed, climbing over him and resting a palm on his chest. “Stay right here, stay with me.”
Her knees dug into the soft velvet on either side of his thighs, hesitating as she waited for him to close the gap between them. Lux’s hand carved a burning trail through the tattoos on her spine, lingering at her hips. She closed her eyes against the soft pressure between her thighs, holding her breath as he gently guided her over him, a thrill rising from her belly to her chest as they fit together.
“Gods be damned,” Lux sighed, inhaling sharply as she wrapped one arm behind his neck and let the other rest on his chest, gently weaving her fingers into the dark hair that guided her down to where they met. “Dreams don’t do the truth of you justice.”
She rolled her hips forward, enjoying the slow, sweet sting of him inside her. The motion drew low sighs from both their throats, the sound of his hushed need spurring her into a steady rhythm.
His chest bloomed in shades of deep violet and peony pink, scarlet waves, and glittering gold. The Tether between them shimmered awake as they moved together, though still choked by that damned cord around his neck. His hands and lips were everywhere, setting little fires all along her freckled skin, connecting the gilded dots as he went.
“Just like that,” he groaned as she sank deeper and twisted her fingers into his curls. “Gods, you’re fucking perfect.”
“Finally,” she laughed, gasping for breath. “The commander has no complaints.”
