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Laurent grasped Given’s hips and gave me an irritated look. “Oh, is one of you finally going to fuck me?”

I kissed Given’s shoulder. “What do you say, halfling? Do you want to ride him?”

“Yes,” she breathed, already rocking. “Please.”

I urged her up with a pat on her ass, then grabbed his dick and guided it to her opening. She was so wet, she took him easily, sliding down with a low, sultry moan that went straight to my cock. She began moving right away, her slim hips rolling as she worked her pussy onto his dick.

“Oh, princess,” Laurent said in a strained voice. He reached up and fondled her tits before squeezing her waist again. She rode him faster, and he shot me a tense look. “Hurry baby. I’m not going to last.”

That made two of us. Moving quickly, I slicked oil over my shaft again, then pushed his legs up and brought my dick to his opening. I teased him for a few seconds, pumping my cockhead inside and making sure he was ready.

His fingers bit into Given’s hips. “Slow down for a second, darling.” She stilled, and I pushed forward. As I sank home, Laurent’s dark lashes fluttered, and his toes curled in the air.

“Fuck,” I said through clenched teeth. He was tight, and I didn’t want to hurt him. Not like this. There were good and bad ways to hurt, and he and I both knew the difference. I clenched everything—my muscles, my ass, my will as I struggled to hold still when all I wanted to do was pound into the hot, slick paradise clamped around my dick. I rested my forehead against Given’s shoulder and squeezed my eyes shut.

She was the first to move. And, somehow, that was perfect. She led us, her sweetly curved body taking us gently forward. And in that moment, I knew she’d understood me earlier when I spoke in her head after Laurent sought the temple instead of the Council chamber.

“He’s going to be a while, my queen.”

She’d looked at me across the table, her blue eyes troubled and full of questions.

The answers were complicated, and I’d held her stare as the lords argued around us. “I understand if you’re angry with him. Just know that no one could ever punish Laurent more than he punishes himself.” Born to parents who hated each other and sought to use him for their own purposes, he’d never been loved for who he was—only for what he could do. And he could never do enough. He tried. He’d spent his whole life trying, nearly killing himself to gain bly’ad and take down his father. He’d studied in the Sanctum. He’d spent his childhood bent over dusty books or trembling on his knees. Sorina had taken him to the cloister in the Wastes, where he’d scrubbed chamber pots between prayers.

He’d done everything he was supposed to do, and it wasn’t enough. It was never going to be enough. Because Laurent wasn’t the god his father had tried to create. He wasn’t the pure, perfect vessel Sorina and Petru had tried to mold. The gods had given him so much power. He’d spent all of his thirty-four years trying to deserve it.

And it was never, never enough.

No one was ever going to convince him. Nobody could make him give up trying. The only way to make him stop for a little bit was to force him. Hurt him. Bend him until he stopped fighting for a spell. And this—not power—was the thing Laurent truly craved. Underneath his irreverence and witticisms and seeming disregard for the rules, Laurent longed to lose control.

Given rolled her hips and gave him what he wanted. She led and he and I followed, the three of us falling into a seamless flow of sighs and soft touches and thrusting hips. Time stopped, and the cares of the kingdom and the prophecy faded away. Right now, there was only this, and only this mattered. Laurent’s ass gripped me, every thrust so hot and perfect I almost wanted to stop so I didn’t have to feel it end. I leaned forward, pushing his knees to his shoulders and folding Given between us.

He kissed her and skimmed his hands up her sides, dipping his fingers into the tiny hollows of her rib cage. And when their kiss ended, she turned her head and gave it to me. I tasted her. Tasted Laurent on her tongue. Tasted the three of us blended together. Where would we go after this? I didn’t fucking care. We’d go together. That was fine with me.

Something drifted past my shoulder, and I turned my head and saw small, white blossoms. They rained down around the bed, falling gently and disappearing before they touched the ground.

“You’re not going anywhere,” I told Given, kissing her shoulder. “We’ve got you.”

Laurent threw his head back, his mouth open and his eyes two burning, silver slits. Dark lashes dusted his cheeks as he gasped in time with my thrusts. I fucked him harder, sweat dripping from my forehead onto Given’s back. I drove into him, my stomach slapping her ass and grinding her onto his dick over and over. Her magic filled the room, her blossoms dusting our skin before winking away.

Laurent gripped my forearm, a choked cry spilling from his lips. A second later, he shuddered, his fangs stabbing down as he came hard. Given cried out and shook between us.

And then I was swept away too, my orgasm bowing my spine as I yelled and spurted deep inside Laurent’s ass. I emptied into him, but it was really both of them, this time between us different in a way I knew I’d never be able to put into words.

We ended up in a heap in the center of the ruined bed, pillows strewn and damp sheets twisted beneath us.

“I’m never going to be able to fall asleep like this,” Laurent muttered, his bent arm over his eyes again.

He was asleep in under a minute.

Given and I faced each other on the pillows. I touched her cheek, and understanding passed between us. We’d solved nothing. The prophecy and Midian waited for us. The Rift loomed, the day’s failure revealing Sithistra as a bigger threat than we’d thought. The Deepnight and the Thicket continued to crumble. We hadn’t fixed any of it. We hadn’t even fixed Laurent. But we’d tightened some of the threads that connected the three of us. And that was enough for now.

It was enough.

Chapter Six

GIVEN

At some point in the night, Varick got fed up with Laurent’s tossing and turning on the rumpled sheets and moved all three of us downstairs to Laurent’s bedchamber. Varick stole my heart a little more by cleaning Laurent up and tucking him into bed. Then he ruined it by insisting on accompanying me to the privy—and standing right there with his back turned while I did my business. I lay awake wondering how I was going to survive never truly being alone. The irony of my situation was so perfect that I smiled ruefully at the canopy above Laurent’s bed. I’d spent my childhood wishing for companionship. Helen had loved me, but she’d been a servant. And, now I knew, another person assigned to watch me.