Page 22 of A Promise of Lies (Shadows of the Tenebris Court #3)

21

Bastian

I lifted Kat onto the pool’s shallow shelf, enjoying how pink the heat had made her tan skin. Her tits heaved, so tantalisingly placed.

I’d never been much good at resisting temptation—at least not when it came to her—so I bent my head to them and sucked each nipple into my mouth in turn, gripping her thighs so she couldn’t squirm. I sent shadows to help me, clasping around her arms and middle, holding her hair back, so I could reach any part of her skin I wanted.

And I wanted it all.

Her nipples pulled tight under my ministrations, and when I flicked my tongue over them, she arched against my hold, whimpering.

“So many things I’ve missed wrapped up in one person,” I murmured, voice thick as the taste of her, the feel of her, the sound of her threatened to overwhelm me.

Every night I’d reached across our empty bed, and every night it had been empty of all these things that were so utterly her.

Her eyes grew bright, but I didn’t want her to be sad or think about our time apart. I was going to erase that with the moment we had.

Not just erase it—obliterate it.

So, gently, my shadows laid her down, and I eased her thighs apart. Her crimson hair floated on the water, spreading around in a glorious, flaming halo. My shadows slithered amongst the strands, serpents who had found their equal and opposite and wanted nothing more than to be close to her.

The lights clustered close, like they too wanted to be near and light up the curves of her body, the planes of her face, all the shapes that I had been starved of for too long. They orbited her, glinting in her green eyes as she blinked slowly.

I was staring. No one could blame me, though. Not when I got to have this.

Though I wasn’t the only one who was supposed to be enjoying the view. The water rippled as I stepped to one side, letting Caelus see my ember in all her glory. His lips parted as his cock strained in his hand.

“See the effect you have on him, love?” My shadows supported her head and shoulders, letting her watch him watching her as I teased her inner thighs, working my way slowly higher.

My balls clenched as her pupils grew wide, taking us both in. I needed to be buried in her. I wanted to lose myself in her. Forget all the shit that waited for us outside this chamber.

Part of me wanted to show Caelus that she was mine, no matter what Cyrus thought, no matter the awful argument we’d faked in the gardens.

And another, deeper part of me needed to prove it to myself.

When my shadows were biting into her soft skin because she strained against them so hard, desperate for my fingers to touch just a little higher, I smiled down at her. “Was there something you wanted?”

She let out a frustrated little huff.

Teasing her was so sweet, and it made her eventual pleasure all the sweeter. “Hmm?” I edged higher, very nearly at her glistening wetness.

“Please.”

A low rumble came from my chest. That word from her lips would never grow dull. “See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

She gave me a murderous look, but it was quickly replaced by her eyebrows peaking together as my thumb glided over her entrance and up to her clit. She arched against the restraints, eyelids fluttering shut as she gave a deep groan like she’d been waiting a lifetime.

“That’s it,” I murmured as I lifted and spread her thighs wider, testing her limits. Tension trembled through her, building with each circle I made. Shadows crept over her, teasing her nipples, squeezing her breasts, winding her tighter still.

My heart thundered, harder and louder with each whimper she let out. My love. Mine.

I looked back, a feral smile baring my teeth as I saw Caelus had come closer. His hand pumped his length now, thumb sliding over the glistening tip. He could think about her all he wished, but she was mine.

I watched him as I slid two fingers into her pussy, thumb circling a little faster, and was rewarded by her cry as she tightened around me and came undone. She pulsed around my fingers, as Caelus gripped the pool’s stone edge, knuckles white.

I had done that to her. Her pleasure was mine. Her body was mine. But most of all, her heart was mine. She’d given all of herself to me and I would work to prove myself worthy of such a precious gift.

Cheeks flushed dark, Caelus met my gaze as I continued working her towards a second climax. He wanted to be where I stood. He wanted to feel what I felt. He wanted her.

I’d been forced to trust him to get her here, but maybe part of me had wanted this. The part of me that had been jealous seeing Cyrus near her. The part of me that had rebelled against our false argument. The part that had relished in shoving Cyrus against the wall.

My shadows grew as though feeding on my jealousy and twisted mercilessly around her nipples, sending her over the edge once more. Caelus gave a hoarse cry as he came.

I gathered Katherine up as she trembled through the aftershocks. “You’re so good at that, love,” I murmured in her ear, sending goosebumps chasing over her skin. “Did you see what you did to our friend? My ember always does so well.”

She smiled into the kiss I gave her, arms loose as they looped around my neck. Her eyelids drooped like she was half asleep.

Caelus had watched me made her come at the party back in Lunden, but he hadn’t seen more than that, and I needed to check what she was comfortable with. “Do you want to leave it there or…?”

Her eyes sprung open. “You’d better be about to fuck me, Bastian Marwood.”

I chuckled, cock twitching at her eagerness. Shrugging, I shook my head. “You give such mixed messages.”

She gave a warning grumble, then ran her tongue over my pierced nipple, sending a shockwave through my nerves.

“Fuck,” I blurted.

She only smirked as I laid her in the shallow water, on her side this time.

I slid behind her, cock aching at the sight of a waist shaped perfectly for me to hold and her backside so delightfully cushioned for me to pound against. “You’re in a lot of trouble for that,” I growled in her ear and soaked up the shiver that ran through her.

Roughly, I grabbed her thigh and lifted it, pulling her flush against me. My dick slid between her buttocks, and I barely bit back a groan at the feel of her. I continued forward, gliding along her entrance as I slipped one arm under her and brought her face to mine.

I claimed her mouth as I claimed her pussy, and she arched into both. Fuck, she felt like… like everything.

Tight and sweet. Slick and warm. Sunshine and comforting darkness. Spring growth and autumn rain.

“Lift your hips, let Caelus see how well you take it.”

She obliged, and I caught her watching him, biting her lip at the way he watched her tits bounce with every stroke.

Mine. Fucking mine.

I squeezed her, fingers digging into her thigh and breast, needing to hold her, have her, feel her close, closer, closest. My hips snapped against hers, edging the line between controlled and feral. My tongue delved into her mouth, meeting hers, twisting with it, tasting chocolate and something floral.

I explored every part of her I could reach, needing to remember that this was us—this was real, not that argument. Needing to be the first to so rigorously map the precise curve of the roof of her mouth. To be the first to find the exact spot in the front of her pussy that made her cry out and drench my dick in the evidence of her pleasure. To be the first to know her love and to give it back to her a hundredfold.

Because there was something more important than her being mine.

My breathing grew frantic, consuming as I pressed my cheek to hers. Our wet bodies slid together, perfect pleasure in movement. “No matter what, I am yours, Kat. Yours.”

She whispered back. “ Mine. All mine . ”

That was what sent me over the edge. The thrumming tension in my belly exploded into her, obliterating, pure white hotness that blinded me. My low cry echoed from the cavern walls, mingling with the ones I drove from her.

When I could understand the world again, I kissed her once, twice, a hundred times. “Sorry,” I murmured in between. “I meant to get you there again.” But I’d been too consumed with that word she’d given me. Mine . She’d claimed me even more thoroughly than I’d claimed her.

Softly, she chuckled and shook her head. “You are a wonderful idiot. No apology required.”

Another million kisses. I couldn’t stop raining them down on her. But I would have to. Because she had to go back to Dawn and me to Dusk.

When I finally managed to pull myself away, I found Caelus’s eyes boring into us. I was still inside her, but he watched our faces, eyes wide, and when I met his gaze, he turned as though suddenly ashamed to be caught staring.

I slipped from her and washed her clean before going right back to the same position. I held her as long as possible, arms around her, her hands squeezing mine. It had to be past sunset now, and every second ticked into dangerous territory.

Eventually, Caelus cleared his throat, and I looked up to find him wrapped in his robe, holding out Katherine’s. “We really should?—”

“I know.”

Kat’s hold on me tightened and for a moment she screwed her eyes shut. I shared that moment of denial.

This was real. The going back was not.

But she disentangled herself from me and rose, each movement cracking my heart. I helped her into the robe, helped pin her hair with the lock picks, and even snapped the bracelet around her wrist—anything to put off the inevitable.

Caelus went ahead, waiting by Dawn’s entrance.

We stood at the edge of the pool, lights drifting around us, glistening in her overbright eyes.

“I’ll see you later,” she said, voice thick, belying how casual her words were.

I swallowed back the gritty, hot feeling in my throat and nodded. “You will. I’ll be there in bed with you, just the other side of the veil. Lie on the left side and place your hand in the middle. I’ll hold it all through the night.”

Her chin trembled, and I stood ready to hold her and let her cry as long as I dared. But it lasted less than a second before she inclined her head, once, firm. “And listen for me telling you how much I love you.”

“I will.” My eyes burned, and I screwed them shut as we kissed, hard and slow like we could stretch time itself. Even after she pulled away, I didn’t dare open them.

It was like waking from a wonderful dream into a living nightmare—as soon as I woke, it would be real and the dream would disappear.

When I opened my eyes, she was gone.

The next day, I did feel better. I slept more deeply than I had since Kat had been taken, and I swore I could still feel the ghost of her touch when I woke.

My assistant Brynan even commented on my good mood when he caught me humming as I tidied my desk. Stacks of paperwork weren’t unusual, since there was always more of it than I could keep up with, but they had grown unruly even for me, threatening to spill to the floor if I passed too quickly.

Clearing some space gave me room to breathe and made things seem better. Sure, Dawn’s throne was occupied by a self-serving megalomaniac with a particular dislike of me and the woman I loved as hostage, but we weren’t entirely helpless.

My mood had improved so much that when Orpha appeared in the doorway, unseen for long moments, and asked for some time off to deal with a family matter, I waved her off and wished her luck.

I was just tackling the last pile of paperwork when Faolán swept into my room. The dark furrow between his eyebrows made me stop, mid-signature.

Even worse, he just… stood there.

Faolán wasn’t a man of many words, but those he had usually came without this much trouble.

Now, though, he opened and closed his mouth, licked his lips, clenched and unclenched his fists.

“What is it?” Slowly, I stood. “Is it Rose? Has something happened?”

He shook his head, gaze sinking from mine. “It’s your father.”