Nyte’s lips pressed to the top of the stem, and I didn’t expect him to be so calm at the sight. He pulled back to hold me with eyes of nothing but adoration and promise before claiming my mouth in a surge of passion.
I moaned and let him undress me, tugging at my dress bodice until it came undone enough for him to close his mouth around one nipple while his hand massaged the other. My legs wrapped around him tighter, as I was desperate for friction between my legs. Nyte groaned at my neediness and began to bunch up my skirts, slipping his palm along my inner thigh.
Nyte pulled his head back suddenly when his fingertips brushed along the crease between my thigh and stomach. His golden irises were ablaze with desire.
“Were you expecting this, since you left your rooms this morning without underwear?” he asked thickly.
I smiled coyly. “Not here in particular, but I quite like your choice.”
Nyte made a strangled sound, kissing me. “You are the life and death of me, Astraea Lightborne.”
Without warning he pushed my skirts around my hips, slipped an arm around my back to pull me right to the edge of the throne; then his tongue lashed at my core, and I cried out unashamedly, driving my fingers tightly through his hair. My other hand gripped the arm of the chair for purchase.
He slipped a finger into me, teasing me slowly while his mouth devoured. Nyte undid the fastens of his pants, and I watched his arm flex, pumping himself while he pleasured me, and that surged me toward a climax.
“Yes, right there,” I panted when two fingers hooked into me now, hitting a spot inside me that built pressure in my lower stomach, and his mouth sucked with the right amount of—
Whatever that twist of his fingers was threw me over the edge I was steadily climbing. My back bowed awkwardly with the pleasure seizing my body tight. He kept licking, stretching out my orgasm to near delirious heights.
I had barely had the chance to come around from it when he lifted me by the waist, guiding me to the side of the throne.
“Bend over for me,” he ordered.
I did as he asked, planting my hands on the purple velvet cushion with my abdomen folded over the arm. Nyte lifted my skirts around my hips and parted me when I widened my stance.
“So damn beautiful,” he murmured.
A blush fanned across my face as he had to be staring between my legs. Hiscock pressed against my entrance and he pushed inside slowly, savoring every inch until I was full. Nyte fucked me like that for a while, the hall echoing with a mix of our breathless pleasures. He called me sweet names and said scandalous things. Every word he spoke was like vibrations directed right to the sensitive bud at my apex, and I was so close again.
My hand reached back, stopping him from his next plunge into me.
“I want you to sit there this time,” I said in a needy breath.
Straightening, I felt there was something so erotic about witnessing Nyte fully clothed on my throne, fisting his cock and watching me with eyes swimming in pure adoration and lust.
I climbed onto his lap and he lined himself up for me to sink back onto his cock. Our eyes kept locked on each other, twisted with pained pleasure, until I took all of him.
“I love you,” he murmured, kissing my chest.
“Now, then, and always?” I breathed.
He smiled, as brightly as the moonlight that flooded through the open stone behind us.
“Yes, my love.”
I kissed him deeply as I moved, taking my time to feel him and feel powerful. Where we were, on the throne that was ours, I was overwhelmed with joy.
We came together, hearts bruising against each other, passing breath between our mouths hovering shy of touching. Neither of us moved. Nyte showered my skin with tender kisses as the heat we created started to cool.
Right now I had never been more grateful to be mortal. I was created by gods, but they made me in this image. To love and feel and break. I would rather live this fleeting single existence surrounded by love than spend an eternity alone, within the stars, feeling nothing.
It was then I thought I understood… the true reason why I was created at all.
49Astraea
The tall statues of Dusk and Dawn loomed proudly and dominatingly in their temple in Vesitire. The last time I’d stood here to reach out to them, it hadn’t been pleasant. Now they had mortal bodies; I didn’t know if they would hear me.
Their mortal depictions were a far cry from the faces of Katerina and Aquilo they’d stolen to walk this land. I wondered how they chose these faces to appear to the first of humanity long ago, giving them this image to carve into stone for mankind to kneel and pray before.
