Page 76 of Starborn Husbands

“Let me see it,” I say. Just because I can’t glow, doesn’t mean he shouldn’t.

“No.” He shuts down his glowing. I don’t like that. I don’t want to make him feel horrible for caring about me.

“You’re allowed to have feelings about your husband, babe.”

The “babe” brings the smile back. It’s somehow become our thing.

“Do you have any feelings about me? Besides the feeling that you want to wrap your hands around my neck,” he says when an evil smile spreads to my face.

“Right now, all my ‘feelings’ are in my dick, Centaurus. Fuck me first, then we’ll see how I feel.” Shit. I look around to see if we’re alone.

He puts a finger over my lips. “We’re alone. Be as vulgar as you like. I plan on it.”

Keeping me trapped by increasing his hold around my arms, his fingers digging in, he kisses me and steals all my breath.

First, I lose my crown, and good riddance to that thing. What’s the point of crowns? Like we don’t know royalty is “special” without them. They never let us forget it. Then he peels the white leather jacket from my body and it’s lost to the poolside.

I work on the clasp to his cape when I remember that, yes, I get to debase him now. I glow on the inside again, and I wish I could show him. I suppose I could tell him, but words feel vapid in the place of actions. I’ll show him with touches instead.

Marveling all the way from his neck to his wide chest, my spread hand smoothes its way over his pectoral.

Mine. He’s mine.

“D-Did you save yourself in general or for me?”

He places a hand over mine. “In general at first and then for you.”

“What if we never married? That was a real possibility. Only the threat of me being executed made this happen.”

“Maybe. Or maybe that’s how it manifested. We don’t control the how. It was still meant to happen in my books, Mr. Centaurus.” He kisses my hand. “But—hypothetically—if we had never married, it wouldn’t have changed anything. I would have remained devoted to you.”

“It’s kind of bizarre how it works. As your taken in hand I serve you, but you?—”

“I worship you. You serve my desires, and I make sure you have what you need by utterly worshiping you.”

“Jeez, Centaurus. Becoming my husband has made you a real sap.” I pat his face with my free hand admiringmyscar on his cheek in a new way.Mine.I own a few places on him now, including having some of my star running around in this body.

He scowls. “I’m going to wear my hand out spanking you, aren’t I?”

I smirk. “Likely.” I get a good shiver, though, because I’m an odd bird who likes the idea of him wearing out his hand on my ass. Tugging my hand away from his, I move to the hem of his shirt. “Time for me to view the goods, Centaurus.”

He sets his glare on me, but I have a good feeling I’ll get anything I want from him tonight. Crossing his arms over the front of himself, he grips the bottom in each hand and pulls up.

Wow. That twenty-pack of abs is in top form. His torso makes the perfect “V” toward his waist—wide at the top, narrow at the bottom. His loose red hair fans around him, his circlet crown pressing the roots down. He tosses that too.

“Your turn,” he says.

I don’t get insecure about my body. I have a sexy body that I love. But fuck, Zhang has the body of a God. “You know what? Maybe I leave my shirt on for this.”

“Are you getting shy, Orion?”

“Orion? Aren’t I a Centaurus now? It’s written in the book of the Gods and everything.”

“Not when you’re being ridiculous. I adore your cat-like body. If I wanted someone the same size as me, I would have followed them around like a lost soul instead of you.”

Heat creeps across my cheeks. “All right, then.” I unveil said cat-like body for him and there’s a flash of glow he can’t contain. Not gonna lie, that helps a great deal.

And fuck. Now Iwantto love him. I wish love could be turned off and on, but it can’t. When I do turn love on, it never turns off. Oh, Gods. What if he’s in the friend zone? No one gets out of the friend zone. I wish I understood my feelings better.