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Chapter Thirty-One

Annora

My eyelids grow heavier with each passing moment, but I fight against the exhaustion. Every precious second with Jasce matters more than sleep ever could.

“Stay with me.” I run my fingers up and down his arm as I continue. “Please, just a little longer.”

Jasce’s eyes soften as I shift in his arms, straddling his hips.

“I don’t want to fall asleep,” I say as I reach down and stroke him.

“Annora,” he says through his teeth as he threads his fingers through my hair, holding on to me as I scoot back on his thighs and lower my mouth to his cock.

It doesn’t matter that I’ve never done this before. It feels right, worshiping his body this way.

He’s everything I never dared to dream of—a partner, an equal. Someone who sees me, who believes in me even when I struggle to believe in myself.

He grips my hair, guiding me in a slow, relentless rhythm, and I let him take that control as he angles my head, speeding me up with subtle shifts of his hips.

Greedily, I revel in this dance of power and submission, conceding to his lead while knowing he’s the one truly trapped. I hold the power to either grant him release or keep him wanting more.

He’s so hard, so thick, that my jaw aches, but I don’t care. I want to give him this, to show him how much I love him, how much I need him.

With a sharp tug, he pulls free of my mouth and spills into his hand. His chest heaves as he catches his breath, eyes closed tight.

“Did I do it right?” I ask, suddenly shy.

Jasce’s eyes flutter open and lock with mine. “Perfect,” he breathes. “You’re perfect. That was perfect.”

Heat flares across my cheeks at his praise. I duck my head, but he tilts my chin back up.

“Don’t hide from me, Annora.”

My heart skips at the tenderness in his touch, the way his eyes trace every detail of my face. The scars that used to make me want to shrink away feel different under his gaze, like marks of survival rather than shame.

His thumb traces my bottom lip, still swollen from our intimacy. “I love seeing you like this. Flushed. Confident. Taking what you want.”

He shifts to lying on the marble floor and pulls me until I’m straddling his chest. His eyes hold mine as he tugs me closer, tears away my undergarments, and buries his face between my legs.

My fingers tangle in his hair as he licks me with long, lazy strokes of his tongue.

“Jasce,” I gasp as his fingers join the fray, mimicking the sensual glide of his mouth.

I squeeze my thighs around his head, eliciting a deep groan that reverberates against my swollen flesh. Slowly, he suckles, pulling gently, then presses flat, languid licks that unravel me.

Every thrust of his tongue pulls a nonsensical stream of words from me. “More, please.”

He laughs and pulls back to speak. “Be specific, Annora.”

“I need…” My voice catches as his thumbs part me, and his tongue teases my clit. “You know what I need.”

He stills, and I’m lost, bereft without the touch of his mouth. “Tell me.”

The command ignites something primal within me, and I can no longer wait for him to ignite me with his mouth. I need to be filled.

I plant my hands against his chest and slip down enough to sink onto him in one swift motion.

He locks his eyes with mine. “Ride me, wife.”

Jasce’s hands grip my hips, guiding me, lifting me as I ride him harder. Our mouths find each other, kissing deeply, moaning into one another as the pace becomes frantic.

He lifts me suddenly, turns, and lowers me onto the marble. Before I can say a word, he enters me from behind, and I cry out at the new, intense angle. His hands grip my hips hard, almost painfully, as he pounds into me.

His breath catches when I reach between my legs and stroke myself.

“Tell me how it feels, Annora.”

“It feels perfect,” I say as I continue touching myself.

He moves one hand to my throat, applying just enough pressure to heighten my senses. Not to hurt me, but to possess me. To let me know he’s in control now.

My body instinctively clenches around him, and he moans—a deep, guttural sound that sends a thrill through me.

“Tighten around me again. Let me feel you.”

I comply, and a strangled groan tears from his throat.

Jasce hauls me up, my back to his front, and his arm wraps around my waist, holding me secure as he takes brisk strides toward the marble steps. “Lean forward. Put your hands on the step.”

I obey, placing my hands on the cold marble, bracing myself as he lifts my hips and enters me from behind again. My breasts fall forward, aching to be touched, and he knows what I need. His free hand roams forward, plucking my nipples into tight peaks.

“Harder.” I arch my back, pushing myself onto him.

And he obeys. The gods help me, how he obeys.

He strokes my nipples harder, pounds into me faster and faster.

“You look so fucking beautiful like this, Annora.”

I dig my fingers into the step, trying to find purchase as he plows into me with a relentless rhythm.

“Let everyone know whose wife you are and how much you love my cock.”

My release crashes over me, and I cry out as my body surrenders to the pleasure.

If only I could stay like this forever. No war, no magic, no death. Just love, pure and simple.

But even as I think it, I know it’s a futile wish. Reality waits outside these walls, and it won’t disappear just because I want it to.