Page 64 of Zenith Tower

“A cruel condition, but yes.”

She gave me a look that belonged to the Astra I knew, impatient and alive, and reached for the fastening at my waist.

Her hand closed around my cock.

I sucked in a breath. She stroked me slowly, watching my face with maddening attention, checking every change in it for pain. There was none. Only the heat of her palm and the clean shock of wanting without a clock starting somewhere beneath it.

“Still honest?” she asked.

“Pain is no longer the problem.”

Her mouth curved. She bent and kissed me while her hand moved again, firmer this time. My hips lifted before I could stop them.

I put my hand at her waist and turned us onto our sides.

The mended shoulder met the mattress beneath me.

Astra went rigid. “What are you doing?”

“Lying down.”

“On that side.”

I shifted my weight against it. The joint held without a spark of pain. Through the bond, she felt the truth of it before I spoke.

“It works,” I said.

She touched my shoulder, then ran her palm down my arm, checking the whole length of it.

I caught her hand and kissed the center of it. “Turn around.”

She did, slowly, settling with her back against my chest. I loosened the ties at her dress and drew the fabric from hershoulders. The shift followed, pushed down beneath her breasts and over the curve of her stomach.

I kissed the nape of her neck. Her head tipped aside, giving me more room, and I followed the line of her shoulder while my hand closed around one breast.

Her nipple tightened beneath my palm. I rolled it between my fingers, feeling the answering heat pass through the bond.

“Kieran.”

I loved my name in her mouth when she was trying not to make noise.

My hand traveled lower. She opened her thighs before I reached them.

She was already wet. I slid my fingers through her slowly, coating them before I circled her clit. Her hips pressed back against mine, trapping my cock between us.

“There,” she breathed.

I kept the pressure steady. With my mouth at her throat and her body fitted along mine, I felt every change in her breathing. The bond gave me the rest: the rising heat, the pleasure tightening low inside her, the exact moment she needed more.

I slipped one finger into her, then a second. She reached behind us and caught my hip, pulling me closer as she moved against my hand.

“Like that,” she said.

I curled my fingers and worked her clit with my thumb. Her legs opened farther beneath the tangled dress. Each stroke made her body tighten around my fingers, and each answering pulse came back through the green-gold line.

Her hand found mine between her thighs. She did not stop me. She pressed my fingers harder against her and held them there.

“Don’t slow down.”