Page 45 of Dance of Stars and Ashes

Today, it stood empty. She pulled out the book she’d tucked into the back of her pants, deciding an adventure into her favorite story might help settle this constant churn of worry in her gut. She settled on a fountain edge and flipped it open, losing herself in the comfort of the familiar words.

Though she’d probably read it at least a hundred times, it was still her favorite. She became too engrossed to notice the footsteps approaching until he was upon her, a shadow darkening her page. Zarya flinched as she looked up, finding Rabin with a deep glower on his face.

What the hell was he doing here? Did he follow her? She looked down and tried to continue reading, hoping he’d take the hint and go away. She would do everything she could to feign disinterest, as though her entire body wasn’t reacting to his presence.

Refusing to acknowledge him, she flipped the page with enough force to nearly tear it out.

“What are you doing?” he asked, but she continued ignoring his looming presence. When he didn’t appear to be taking the hint, she slapped the book on the ledge and stood, folding her arms over her chest.

“What does it look like I’m doing? What happened to keeping your precious father safe? Shouldn’t you be in the courtyard terrorizing another poor family?”

The sizzle of his silent glare practically singed the hairs on her arms.

“Argh,” she cried and threw up her hands, storming past him.

“Wait,” he called. “You forgot this.”

She whirled to find him now holding her book, a triumphant gleam filling his eyes.

“Give it to me,” she said, holding out her hand, but he backed up, flipping the pages.

“Give me that!” she screeched, knowing she sounded shrill, but she didn’t care. “What are you? Five?”

“His hand slipped under the silk of her nightgown, his fingers burning trails up her thighs,” he read in his deep voice. “Her breath hitched in her chest as her nipples turned into peaks of ecstasy.”

He raised an eyebrow and looked at Zarya with a smirk.

“Is this what you’re reading out here?”

“That is none of your business,” she said, folding her arms and straightening her shoulders. She had nothing to be embarrassed about.

He flipped the page and continued reading. “His tongue slipped over her heated sex, swirling over her nub of pleasure, making her moan.”

Zarya swallowed the knot in her throat as a gush of heat flared between her thighs at his deep voice reading those words out loud. She was not imagining his tongue anywhere in her heated-nub-of-pleasure vicinity. No, she was not.

“Nub of pleasure? This is very scandalous, Princess,” he said.

She placed a hand on her hip and made a dismissive gesture. “I didn’t know what it was about. I just picked it up somewhere.”

“This is underlined and highlighted, with little stars and hearts,” he replied. “And, look, your name is written inside the front cover.”

“Oh, shut up,” she snapped. “Give that back immediately.”

He circled around the back of the fountain, still reading.

“I think I’m enjoying this, though.”

He flipped the page. “His enormous member felt like a rod of iron silk,” he read. “He thrust it inside her wet channel as she let out a breathy sigh.”

Zarya growled low in her throat from anger and irritation and also an inconvenient flare of arousal. Somehow, her daydreams had never included someone else reading these passages to her.

Fine. She’d take it if he wouldn’t give it back. As she withdrew her sword, the zing of steel drew his attention towards her.

“Give it to me,” she said, pointing it at him.

He closed the book and tucked it into the back of his pants.

“Care for a friendly duel, Princess?” he asked, baring his teeth in the least friendly way possible. “If you win, then I’ll return it?”