He pulled at her lips with his teeth, losing himself in her, squeezing and kneading and biting and taking any piece of her he could access. When she did finally burst, her cheeks flushed a stunning shade of red as she arched her back, her heavy breaths laced with his name, which only pushed him over the edge.
She gasped as he lost control of himself, a melody of low notes from his throat crashing against her shoulder as his teeth cut into her flesh. The sting of the bite compared to the fullness of him inside her eased the tension of the Tether, buzzing with a different sort of energy now.
“Gods above,” he sighed, claiming every breath she managed to take, his kiss just as maddening as it had been on the Plutonian cliffs, but now he was hers to hold.
Hers to enjoy.
Hers.
Lunelle could hardly think. Not a single thread of words stuck to the walls of her mind as her king brought her to his bed, curling around her in an effort to absorb as much of her as he could in whatever time they’d have together.
When she sought out the prince, it was to distract herself from the complete overwhelm of her world. And it had worked for a mere moment. But the quiet never lasted—the safety from her thoughts was only in the thrill of the risk.
With Mirquios, with the other half of her so close and sharing her breath, her mind was at ease despite the understanding that they had nothing but trouble coming.
But they could face it together.
He tucked his head into her chest as she stroked his hair, a million questions racing across her tongue.
Most of the answers seemed too difficult to find, so she asked the one simmering under her fingertips since she’d arrived back in Lunaria.
“Do you think the commander knows my sister is devastatingly in love with him?”
Mirquios laughed into her skin, the soft reverberation dissolving over her stomach. His bright eyes flashed toward hers, half-closed in her dazed bliss. He sat up, leaning against his headboard, and pulled on her hand, an invitation to climb over his lap as he thought about her question.
Lunelle settled on top of him, her pale skin glowing in the morning sunlight that streamed through the window. Mirquios pressed his lips to her throat, his hands wandering her back. He forced himself to come up for air, though she knew he’d have rather spent every second exploring which spots on her neck made her breath hitch.
“Not to answer your question with a question, but do you think your sister knows the commander is so in love withherhe can’t see straight?”
A quiet smile overtook her lips as she leaned forward, the friction distracting both of them.
“What a mess.” Lunelle rested her hand against his neck, feeling the warmth of his pulse as it quickened beneath the surface. “Leave it to the Fire Queen to find herself entangled with a Solarian.”
Mirquios leaned into her touch, letting it soothe all of the misery that had built up in his veins like poison for months.
“Leave it to Luxuros to fall for the only woman I’ve ever met who could go toe-to-toe with his strange mind.”
Lunelle sank her hips lower. A stifled groan rose from his throat in return as he leaned forward, pulling her into another intoxicating kiss. How she’d gone so long without the chemistry of this, the depth of sensation between them, she could not fathom.
“Perhaps if we make them wait long enough, they’ll sort themselves out,” she whispered, hooking an arm around the back of his neck.
“You know,” he said between sizzling nips against her neck. “I cannot remember what I worshipped before you.”
As she rolled her hips forward once again, she felt the stirrings of his devotion between them, a welcome offering that she would bless again and again, for however long the gods allowed.
ChapterTwenty-Seven
“Oh!”
Oestera set her book on the table across from her chair.
“Sorry Mother, I thought I’d be alone here,” Lunelle said, her arms filled with books she’d brought back from the Mercurian library.
“I was waiting for you, actually,” Oestera said, her face worn from the heightened emotions of the last few days.
“Me?”
Her mother sighed, gesturing to the chair beside her.
