“Perhaps it takes the broken to mend what has been sundered,” he answered.
He hadn’t said he wanted to be with me. I didn’t ask if he wanted to be with me. So like the two of us, always avoiding the real questions. His fingers slid a little higher, playing with the hem of my dress. I shivered.
“Should I stop?” A hoarse whisper above me, his hand stilling on my skin. An out, if I wished to take it.
I didn’t. It was so easy to give in. To allow my body to relax, to let my legs part just a little in invitation, one single word escaping my lips.
“No.”
He sighed, and then, thank the stars, his hand resumed the slow exploration of my body. I drowned in it all. Each delicate caress, each languid circle of his fingers brought him inexorably closer to where I wanted—needed—his touch the most. My unwavering focus on the stars above was the only anchor preserving my sanity. If I looked at Noctis and saw he was as wrecked as I was, I would unravel. Completely.
I was quiet the entire time, my teeth sunk into my bottom lip, restraining every moan and sigh that threatened to spill out. The only sounds were our ragged breaths and the faint whisper of fabric against skin, as if we both knew that even the softest word could shatter the fragile spell we were under.
His fingers brushed against my clit, another surge of arousal piercing through me. My control shattered. A soft whine escaped me, my hips canting up in a wordless request for more. Another deep intake of breath from him. Then an elegant finger finally slid inside me in one glorious push. There was no resistance, only irresistible hunger. I clawed at the grass beneath me, writhing in desperate need, trying to get the cursed man to move, to give me more of this feeling, more of him. Why shouldn’t I get what I wanted for once? Perhaps he was right, and we were heading straight into death.Let me be selfish, just one more time.
I tossed my head from side to side, overwhelmed by the intensity of my longing. His caresses drove me insane, shallow strokes that felt so good but were far from enough.
Noctis swallowed audibly, his pace slowing even more. I groaned in frustration. Did he want to torment me? Punish me for every time I had rejected him? My desire eviscerated my pride, like dry leaves consumed by a forest fire. If he wanted me to beg, tonight I would.
“Baradaz. We shouldn’t…” A tremble went through him, so violent I could feel it in my very core. He was holding on to his control by a fine thread. Curse his newfound consideration for my feelings. He wanted to talk, to define what we were to each other, where this alliance might lead us.
Too bad I didn’t. I only wanted to feel.
My hand closed around his wrist in a hard grip, keeping his finger buried deep inside me as I pushed him down and rolled on top of him in one smooth move.
“Light.” The look of surprise on Noctis’s face as I straddled him, my dress hiked up indecently around my waist, was nearly comical. Desire quickly replaced the astonishment when I rolled my hips against his hand, the exquisite friction making me moan. Stars, yes,that was it. Something primal had awakened inside me, something that would not be denied.
Noctis indulged me, sliding another finger inside me when I moved up and down on top of him, fucking myself on his hand in a relentless rhythm. My gaze searched for the sky again, the comforting vastness of space. This was painfully intimate. Because those were his hands on me—inside me—bringing me pleasure. Yet it felt oddly detached. The shadows hid his face, allowing me to pretend this was just another harmless fantasy, a dream I did not want to wake up from.
My climax built up quickly, only to stay frustratingly out of reach. Sweat trailed down my temple as my movements sped up. I was so close, so close, just a little more to send me flying over the edge—
“Please.” The broken plea tumbled from my lips.
In some ways, Noctis could be merciful. He gave me exactly what I craved. I moaned helplessly, head thrown back as he worked a third finger inside me. The initial stretch was delicious. Delightful sparks sizzled through my limbs, down to my fingers and toes. His fingers curled within me, and then he pulled them out, the loss making me gasp—only for him to thrust inside me once more, hard and deep enough that I cried out, shuddering in renewed ecstasy. He set a quick, firm rhythm, his thumb pressing against my clit every time his fingers plunged as far as he could reach.
I was coming apart, nothing more than a firestorm of sensations, burning as wildly as a shooting star. All thoughts gone. Utterly, gloriously free.
Noctis pulled down my dress with his unoccupied hand. My breasts spilled out, the cool night air washing over my sensitive skin. Clever fingers twisted my nipple. All the coiled-up tension inside me spilled over in one wonderful, intense explosion.
I was shamelessly loud then, crying out into the night sky as I rode out my climax on top of him. A fractured mix of Aurean words and his name, too far gone to care what I revealed. His fingers stayed within me as I clenched around them, catching every single tremble he coaxed from me. He didn’t allow me to come down from the high, resuming his tireless ministrations, reigniting my desire at once.
“Again,saeraery. Let go for me.”
My body obeyed his command, starved for his touch, as if it could not get enough of the sheer bliss he offered me, tensing up in another peak as if I were nothing more than an instrument he was expertly playing, until I was sure there was no pleasure to be had anymore.
I collapsed on top of him, utterly spent, trembling in aftershocks.
“Stars, yes, my queen,” Noctis groaned, his hand fisting in the hair at my nape to tilt my face up to his. “Finally you’re mine again.”
It wasn’t the words that shattered my passionate haze, but the tone—vindictive, triumphant, and harshly possessive. His lips trailed over my throat, my jaw, seeking my mouth.
I turned away just before our lips could meet. Furious disappointment replaced my bliss as I scrambled off him, tears blurring my vision as I yanked down my dress with trembling hands. How could I have been so foolish as to believe he had changed? This was just another attempt to use desire to reel me in again.
“Let me go!” I fought against Noctis’s grip as he captured my wrist.
“No,” he ground out, his hold unbreakable. “Rage at me, curse me, but I will not let you run away from this, from us. Not anymore.”
“This is your fault,” I snarled, my instinct to flee, to protect the fragile shell my heart had become, stronger than ever.
