Page 103 of Zenith Tower

I drew my tongue slowly through her, tasting her beforesettling over her clit. The first firm stroke pulled a broken breath from her. I repeated it and felt her thighs tighten around my shoulders.

The bond heated with her. Pleasure moved through it in warm pulses that deepened whenever my tongue found the pressure she wanted. I kept my attention on her body rather than the bond: the quickening rise of her stomach, the tremor beginning in her legs, the way her hand left the blanket and entered my hair.

She did not guide me gently.

I held her hips and gave her my mouth without restraint.

Astra’s heel pressed into my back. Her hips lifted from the bed, and my name broke apart in her throat as she came. I kept my tongue against her through each contraction, easing only when her fingers loosened in my hair.

Her breathing filled the room.

I rested my cheek against her thigh and looked up at her.

“Do not look pleased with yourself,” she said.

“Too late.”

She pulled me up by the shoulders and kissed me. Her mouth opened over mine without hesitation, tasting herself there. The force of the kiss brought me between her legs, my knees against the bed frame and her thighs closing around my hips.

Her hand moved down my stomach and opened the fastening at my waist.

My cock was hard enough that the first stroke of her hand bordered on pain.

I caught my breath against her throat.

“Still the arm?” she asked.

“Not the arm.”

She stroked me again, slower, her thumb passing over the head. I pressed my mouth beneath her ear and let myself move into her hand.

For years I had known exactly how much force to permit,how much desire could show in my face, how quickly to master any physical response before another person noticed it. Astra watched all of it now. The bond left nowhere for the wanting to retreat, and I had expected that exposure to feel dangerous.

Her hand tightened around me. I pushed into her palm.

I pushed her gently back onto the bed.

She moved farther up the mattress and drew me with her. I settled between her thighs, keeping my weight on one knee and my uninjured arm.

“Is this what you want?” I asked.

Astra reached between us and guided the head of my cock through the wetness between her legs.

“Yes.”

I entered her slowly.

Her body opened around me by degrees, hot and slick from my mouth. I watched her face as I pressed deeper, stopping when her breath caught and continuing when her legs tightened around my waist.

I pressed in until our hips met. The line flared.

Astra felt it too. Her eyes opened, and her hand found my wrist against the bed.

The completed bond carried more than pleasure. I felt the remnant of her fear in Kieran’s cell, the shock of all three lines settling into place, and the exhaustion she had been moving through since the bridge. She felt the years of suppression still echoing through my body and the disbelief of being inside her with nothing held beyond her reach.

I bent and kissed her.

“Keep looking at me,” she whispered against my mouth.