Page 49 of The Starlit Ring (The Chronicles of Liridin #1)

My heart stuttered at the thought of him wearing this cloak again. At the thought of what it might mean. Did he want some memory of me to carry with him long after his marriage to Ria? Or would he wear it simply because he liked me?

“Or maybe I won’t have it cleaned, and it will smell of you,” he said, considering. “I think I’d like that the most.”

“People will notice if you’ve stains on your cloak,” I pointed out, trying to keep the laughter from my voice.

Nuzzling his nose to my forehead, he chuckled. “Then I invite them to speculate.”

I adjusted myself in his lap, moving so that my leg nudged against his cock, which gave an excited twitch. I laughed, reached to wrap my hand around it.

Marius froze beneath me, let out a soft exhale as I began stroking, admiring the fullness of him. “Have you had this hiding in your trousers the entire time?” I teased, nipping at his lip.

“No, I swapped it for a larger model this morning,” he said, and rolled his eyes. “Of course I’ve always had it hidden away. Much the way you’ve been concealing your magnificent hips,” he said, gathering my buttocks into his hands, and giving a squeeze. “I believe that’s the nature of clothes.”

I flicked my thumb over the head of his cock and delighted in the fire that lit in his eyes, the way he met me in a kiss that left me positively steaming, warm and pliant against him.

But I wanted more. Wanted to feel that searing length inside of me. Wanted to feel him above and below me, surrounded by his firm thighs, strong hands.

I slipped from his lap, hands falling away from him. I came to a rest on my back and shoved my feet beneath his calf.

An eyebrow raised. “Oh? ”

I let my legs fall open. At once, he was upon me, pressing a kiss to the pulse point of my throat. Hands roved up and down along my sides, pausing to brush over my breasts, the peaks of my nipples.

“At the risk of redundancy, I really must insist that you’re beautiful,” he murmured, his breath ghosting over the shell of my ear.

“You’ve never told me that before,” I told him, wrapping my legs around the backs of his thighs.

“No, but I’m certain plenty have.”

“Yes, but they weren’t…” I struggled to find the words. Faces whirled through my mind, an endless parade of half-forgotten admirers and lovers, all of whom I’d found lacking in some way. “They weren’t the people I wanted to hear it from.”

Marius lifted onto his elbows to look me in the eye, gaze softening into something warm, reverent. “I’m going to assume that statement doesn’t apply to me.”

“No,” I said, running my hands over his shoulder blades, the bumps of his spine. “You’re the only one I’ve ever wanted to tell me that.”

“Then let me say it again,” he said, voice a rumble in his chest. “You are breathtakingly, wonderfully beautiful, and I am incredibly happy to be here with you.”

My eyes slid shut. Lucky. I was lucky to be here, with this man I’d grown so unbearably fond of, in this secret room that he trusted me enough to share. “Marius,” I began, but he nibbled at my ear, and all my words were lost in a moan.

We stayed like that a long moment, shifting against each other, panting, and then I could stand it no more, and reached again for him.

“I’m ready if you are,” I told him, and he bent to kiss me fiercely.

His hips aligned with mine. I parted my thighs to allow him entrance, breath hitching when he bumped against me, the head of his cock hot and blunt .

“Are you sure?” he said, head tilted to the side, the faintest hint of worry visible through his usual brash confidence.

“Yes,” I said, reaching down to grasp his member, and guide him between my legs.

“Alright, then,” he said, regarding me with a mixture of shock and approval. “Alright.”

And finally, finally he pushed into me. I bit my lip, pulled him closer, lost in a haze of pressure and pleasure.

He was big. I knew that already. For all that he was rumored to be sickly and weak, he was incredibly well-endowed. Maybe I should have expected this—he was too proud, too arrogant to have been anything else.

Within a few moments, he was fully inside of me.

The stretch shifted from uncomfortable to incredible as he began to thrust, cautiously at first, circling his hips.

When I moved my hips to meet him, he leaned down to kiss me, gathered my wrists in his hand, and held them above my head.

Hips snapping with newfound energy, he drove into me, and I matched his rhythm so that we moved in tandem, frantic and feverish.

His mouth devoured mine, and I gasped against him, pushing up, trying to fuse us into one.

Intensity built in my core, muscles tightening, heat flooding.

In that moment, I was his. Completely and utterly his, and I wanted nothing more than to stay that way, claimed and debauched, melded at the hips with Marius hovering above me, bringing me closer to the clouds with every kiss, every thrust.

I scrabbled to free my wrists. When he released me, I pulled him closer, moaning and shaking. I came with a sound that was more a sob than anything else, spasming around his cock.

He made a frantic noise and increased his speed. “Talina,” he said, my name like a prayer on his lips. When he came, it was with a low groan that reverberated across the room, a stutter of his hips. I groaned, too, still not fully recovered, and ran my fingertips down his spine .

Our lip met in an open-mouthed kiss, punctuated by gasping laughter. There was an impossible fondness in his gaze, and I wanted to melt beneath it.

He collapsed beside me, laid his head against my arm. I wriggled closer to him, basking in his warmth like a snake fresh from hibernation, soaking in the first rays of springtime sunlight.

“I’ve thought about it a lot,” he said, after a long moment, in which I nearly fell asleep. “More than just that, I mean. All of it.”

I blinked my eyes open. The Northern Lights twisted and stretched above us. Blue and teal and green, they danced together in an exquisite, ever-changing tapestry. “Have you?”

“You might be surprised,” he said, watching me with a mixture of affection and curiosity. The tips of his fingers trailed across my sternum, down my arm, coming to a rest at my wrist. Our hands laced together.

Desire and dread flooded me. I didn’t want to talk about this. Not yet. I wasn’t ready for reality to come crashing down around me.

I was a mistress. To my sister’s future husband, of all people.

At the same time, I wanted to know exactly what he’d thought about. If there was any hope for us. If there might be some tiny glimmer of hope in the far away future, ready to taunt and tantalize.

“I think I have to get back to work,” I said, worried I might offend him, but afraid I’d start crying if I spent any more time with my thoughts.

“Alas,” said Marius, arm and leg tightening around me. “I feared as much.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, and I was. Even with Marius’s cloak providing the only cushioning between our bodies and the floor, I was more comfortable than I’d ever been, halfway to sleep.

“This is one of the things I considered,” he said, and rolled away from me. “There’s no need to be sorry.”

We dressed quickly, and in silence. “The servants might talk,” I said. My hands shook. Nerves flooded me as I imagined everyone gossiping over breakfast, stealing glances at me, giggling amongst each other. “I’m going to be very late returning.”

“Yes,” said Marius evenly. “We’ll… need to be more careful in the future. Well, that is, if you want to do this again.”

Did I? My stomach twisted into knots. Sour bile rose in my throat.

“I do,” I told him, because that was the truth of the matter.

I hated to betray Ria. I hated the way that I longed for Marius.

But I already yearned to be in his arms again, safe in his embrace, laughing at his antics, the subject of his adoration, however fleeting. “But I should go. I’ll see you later?”

“You couldn’t get rid of me,” Marius promised, as if he understood the underlying question. He kissed me on the cheek. “I’ll see you soon.”

I practically ran back to my bed. My cheek was on fire where his lips had brushed it. My hair and clothes were in absolute disarray, but no one woke as I slipped into bed. With any luck, they’d just assume I just got in late.