Page 48

“When was the last time you slept, Luc?”

My soulbound didn’t turn from where he stared out the windows overlooking Duskfell’s gardens and the city beyond. “When the soulbond activated.”

Moonlight framed the blue-black of his tousled curls and the bronze of his bare skin. He’d removed his doublet, but his trousers remained, hiding that perfect ass of his from view.

I meandered across the rugs at the end of our daemium bed, wearing nothing beyond my favorite rings and the rubies in my ears. “That was five nights ago.”

“We stayed awake for a week at the siege of Trost.” Luc’s gaze flickered briefly to me as I slid into his periphery. “What’s four days?”

I sighed. The turmoil within him was like a distant storm, flickering on the horizon. I hadn’t noticed it clearly while Nessa was awake. Her pain had been fresh, jagged tears in her heart that consumed my attention until she’d finally fallen asleep. Luc’s wounds were centuries old, injuries reopened by Orlagh Halloran’s revelations and the mere sight of our new bride standing before Corinne’s grave in the falling light. “Luc—”

“I’m fine, Jules.”

Things were truly dire if Luc had resorted to lying to me. I stepped around until I blocked whatever shrub he’d been glaring at. Instantly, tension flared in my shoulders. I tried to roll out the sensation, but it was nothing more than an echo through the bond.

Stars, the man shouldn’t have been this tense, especially after his orgasm in the library. I’d never seen him come that hard before.

But I’d never seen him this stressed before, either. He’d weathered inheriting his throne on the eve of tragedy, Marisol and Corinne’s blood still warm on his skin. He’d persevered through the century of war and conquest that followed, building our kingdom into an impire. He’d navigated court politics and backstabbing with ease, ever the ruthless warlord.

Only to be bested by a soulbond with a human.

“You need to sleep, darling,” I murmured, with a light brush of my knuckles against his chin. “I can guard us tonight. I’ve had more than my fair share of rest these last few days.”

He didn’t respond, but at least he stopped trying to glare through me. Those shadow-rimmed silver eyes met mine. In the comfort of our apartment, of our soulbond, the cold mask of the Conqueror slipped, his fear and grief suddenly clear in his gaze.

“Oh, Lucey.” I wrapped an arm around his shoulder and closed the final inch between us until our chests touched. If only we could share our godcurses through our bond. Luc deserved the peace of an hour without emotions.

He tensed, even though I had been creeping closer for minutes now. My two soulbound were similar in that regard, both requiring a gentle approach. Though their reactions, if I weren’t careful, were polar opposites. Nessa only blushed and stuttered, but Luc snapped and snarled.

“Do you not trust me to keep us safe, darling?” I asked, my words soft. “To protect our small, vulnerable bride?”

He let out a long sigh, a deep rush of breath. “You’re the only one I trust with that.”

“But?” If he wouldn’t say it, then I would. “She’s not Corinne, Luc.”

He flinched, the smallest twitch. His rage thundered briefly through the bond—then disappeared just as quickly, without even the slightest growl. He dropped his forehead to mine. “I know that.”

“Do you? Then why are you guarding us in the depths of our very own palace? An enemy would have to penetrate layers of wards to get in here.”

Luc frowned. “Corinne died in this palace, protected by layers of wards.”

“A bad comparison.” I nipped at those soft lips of his, banishing his frown. “Luc, I’m not going anywhere and neither is our new wife. I am yours forever. Have been yours forever. And now she’s ours forever, too. Though she’s deliciously soft, she won’t suffer any harm. Nothing will get past the two of us, not this time.”

“Jules—”

I kissed him gently. “No more arguments, darling. It’s time to come to bed.”

When I laced my fingers through his, he didn’t resist. I pulled him toward the bed. Our bride curled up in the center of the large mattress, a flash of copper and peach amidst black silk, dwarfed by the imposing daemium headboard. It stretched up the entire wall and curved gently onto the ceiling.

Nessa had drifted to sleep on a sofa almost immediately upon entering our Duskfell apartment, the poor thing utterly exhausted. It wasn’t a surprise given the week she’d had. She had only just recovered from her illness, too. I’d smelled hints of blood when we both fucked her today, but I hadn’t noticed any pain through the bond. But we’d taken it slow, gentle.

Not that she’d necessarily agree.

But if she hadn’t been bedbound just yesterday, I’d have fucked her in so many other places. Coming on my tongue as she woke. On the floor in the closet as we dressed. In the stables, bent over a barrel of hay. In an alley off Tenebra de Mar’s market square, her nails digging into Luc’s back as I watched him rail her against the wall.

He’d have his turns, of course.

Garden. Table. Shower. Bed. Bed again. Stars, I’d be fucking her now—

Luc pressed into my back and his warm hand circled my hardening cock.

I stilled. Fuck. But my expression didn’t even twitch as I twisted to Luc and slowly raised my brows. “You’re such a tease, Lucey.”

“Tease?” My soulbound gave me a rough stroke. Pleasure flared through me, but I only smirked at him. The pain was still there in his eyes, but his lust rose alongside mine, slowly sweeping everything else away. “Don’t be silly, Julien. You know I don’t tease.”

Holding my gaze, our breaths mingling, Luc stroked me from base to tip, again and again. This time, I allowed my gasp to slip free.

“I take,” Luc whispered.

I grinned. Now there was my Conqueror King. “If you’re taking, why am I the one that gets to come in your hand?”

Luc growled before he claimed my lips, plunging his tongue into my mouth. I broke the kiss a second later to turn in his arms. A rumble started in his throat, but I swallowed it eagerly, burying my hands in his soft, dark curls. Claiming him back. Wanting him as fiercely as he wanted me.

Luc and I had always been equals, neither besting the other. Didn’t matter if it was in the fighting arena or the bedchamber. Every inch he conquered, I swiftly reclaimed. Even now with his hand stroking, stroking, stroking…

He stepped forward, the backs of my thighs brushing the sheets, and nudged a hard thigh between my legs.

I bit his lip.

Luc pushed me down onto the mattress with a small snarl. “You coming in my hand and me taking your ass aren’t mutually exclusive things, Julien.”

He had his trousers unlaced and on the floor a second later, his cock hard and thick for me. My mouth went dry at the sight. He crawled forward, herding me backward, pressing me deeper onto the mattress. Nessa didn’t stir, even as Luc pushed me down an arm’s length away from her, settling his knees between my spread legs.

His hand reclaimed my cock as his lips brushed against my abs, my chest, my collarbone, my chin. I groaned loudly. Uncaring if it woke our bride. I had watched Luc fuck her earlier. She could watch Luc fuck me this time around.

With a wide grin, I spread my legs and bent my knees until my calves brushed his ass. “Prove it.”

Luc pulled back. A grin spread across his face, one that promised bliss. My heart skipped a beat. Stars, he was gorgeous when he smiled like that. He needed to do so more often. Just like he needed to fuck me more often. How long had it been since we’d last had sex? Two weeks? As companions, we’d tended to share thralls more often than each other.

But he was mine now. Forever. I didn’t have to share him with anyone outside our soulbond again.

I raised my feet, resting them on his shoulders, open and waiting just for him.

The shadow of his eyes swallowed the remaining line of silver. Luc nudged the thick head of his cock against the tight ring of my ass. Heat blossomed across my skin as his finger traced a small rune, making me slick for him.

If he didn’t fuck me soon, I was wrapping a leg around that torso and claiming that cock myself—

Luc thrust into me in one powerful stroke.

Fucking finally.

I groaned, my back arching. “Oh, fuck, Lucey.”

My hands clenched in the sheets as Luc started fucking me. His hand didn’t leave my cock, stroking me up and down in perfect rhythm with his possessive thrusts. I moaned, stars bursting across my vision.

With every ram of his hips against my ass, his piercings rubbed through my tight channel.

With every stroke of his skin against mine, I saw a flash of divinity.

With every grunt from his lips, our bodies shuddered in tandem.

Fuck, I was going to come.

I wanted to come so hard it felt like dying. “Harder.”

“Ask nicely, Julien.”

I almost whimpered. The bastard loved nothing more than pathetic begging.

And I wanted to orgasm, so I begged pathetically. “Please fuck me harder, Lucey. I want you to make me come.”

Luc’s grin darkened. “Again.”

“Please fuck me so hard, darling,” I groaned out the words. “I want to come for you. Please make me come for you.”

Luc managed a soft chuckle. “Very well.”

With his next thrust, I nearly slid up the silk sheets, my hand slamming out to catch myself just before I hit the headboard. Shadows coiled around my wrist. I could have shaken off Luc’s control, commanded the shadows to release me, but I didn’t.

Instead, I raised my other hand.

Shadows seized my wrists, pinning them back against the headboard. With every pulse of his hips, I inched closer and closer. Again, again, again. I had asked Luc for harder and he delivered. He always delivered. My head fell back into the pillow, my hair a mess of blond waves over black silk.

Luc grunted, the sound shifting into a growl as he took in every inch of my glistening, pale skin beneath him. Stars, I loved when he looked at me like that, like I was the most beautiful thing that existed. He was every bit my perfect match above me, a dark-haired warrior godstar made of bronze. I ached to thread my fingers through those tousled dark curls, to kiss him breathless until we both came, gasping against each other’s lips.

Fuck, he needed to make me come. Now. My hands tightened into fists against the daemium. Perhaps I’d surrendered a bit too hastily.

A soft gasp sounded to my left. Nessa had twisted toward us in her sleep, her brow furrowed ever so slightly. Her nipples were hard rosebuds against the black of the sheets. Her hand slipped between her legs at the tension. At the echo of our pleasure. The sensations from our bond were far stronger when her sleeping mind couldn’t stop our soul from drifting closer, bridging the distance between its pieces.

Was she watching us fuck in her dreams right now?

Stars, I hoped so.

Luc grasped my jaw, pulling my gaze sharply back to him. “This is just you and me, dearest. If any naughty voyeurs wake, they’ll have to fuck themselves.”

I almost shook Nessa awake at the thought. The only thing that could make this better would be watching our proper Maboni bride touch herself to the sight of Luc fucking me. I wanted her to come on her fingers so I could lick the nectar from her skin.

Fuck, no, wait. I wanted her to ride my face as Luc took my ass. That would be true divinity.

Luc tightened his fist, drawing my attention back to him, to the present. “Pay attention when I fuck you, Julien.”

True divinity would have to wait for another day. “Yes, darling.”

The pleasure spiked in me, reaching and reaching crescendo—

I fell.

“Fuck, I love you,” I nearly shouted, my nails digging into my palms as I came. My body arched sharply, trembling with every pulse as my release spilled hot over Luc’s hand and across my abs. My vision went white, my senses overwhelmed by the blinding intensity of my climax. I closed my eyes, surrendering as wave after wave of bliss dragged me down, drowning me in pleasure.

Luc followed me a second later. The warmth of his bliss and his cum flooded deep inside me. Marking me as his. Forever. Always.

When the euphoria finally receded, I sank limply into the mattress beside Nessa, breathing heavily. Our bride whimpered softly in her sleep, reacting to the lingering ripples of our pleasure. The scent of her arousal mixed intoxicatingly with our own.

One day, when our bond was closer to settling, the sensation would be strong enough to make her come alongside us without a single touch.

I couldn’t fucking wait for that day.

Luc collapsed at my side. His expression had already shifted back to seriousness. I almost frowned. Was he fucking kidding me? If another orgasm couldn’t make him relax, nothing could.

“Jules...” he began quietly.

Oh. He didn’t need to say anymore. I knew exactly why he was frowning.

I’d said I loved him.

We’d exchanged those words before, of course, but always as companions. Brothers-in-arms. Lovers, occasionally. Eternal soulbound. Even when my heart had longed for something deeper, I’d held myself back.

It meant something different this time.

“You don’t need to say it, Lucey.” My gaze remained locked on his, wanting him to feel the truth of my words. Not that we could lie to each other, but our bond had only changed days ago. Love took time even for heartmates. Even if we had teetered on the edge of it for centuries. “It’s okay if you don’t—”

Luc kissed me, cutting off my words. “Of course I love you, you fool. I’ve always loved you and I always will.”

A fluttering filled my chest. He loved me. He had always loved me. He always would love me. I smiled against his lips. “Say it again.”

The Conqueror obeyed without hesitation. “I love you, Jules.”