Page 164 of Tale of the Heart Queen

“I left Atlas alive,” Nadir says, shaking his head. “I had him right there, but I just couldn’t do it.”

He bites his lip and looks at me. “It’s funny, though, isn’t it? If I’d killed him that day, then he would never have schemed to get you out of Nostraza, and you and I might never have met.”

I nod. “Maybe. But none of this seems bad. You did what you had to.”

“No,” Nadir says. “It’s what came after. I returned to my father, half-starving and weak. He blamed me for getting myself captured and, as punishment, sent me out to destroy a blockade that was preventing supplies from coming to our camp. I could barely move. I never slept. I was a wreck.”

Nadir sucks in a sharp breath as his hands tighten against my hips.

“It was inside a village, and he promised that everyone had been evacuated. I took him at his word, and we set it on fire,” he says, his voice rough. “By the time we realized there were innocent people—whole families—still living inside, it was too late.”

He swallows, and his distant gaze returns to me.

“I spent a lot of years hating myself for that. I still do. The screams . . .” He shakes his head. “I still hear them.”

With my hand against the back of his neck, I lean in and kiss his cheek, pressing my nose against it. I don’t tell him it wasn’t his fault because I know it will make no difference. Only he can decide that, but I want him to understand that it also changes nothing. We’ve both had to make choices against impossible circumstances. We’ve both been manipulated and abused by the Aurora King.

“I love you,” I say. “I will never stop.”

“Thank you,” he says softly as he wraps his arms around me and holds tight. We stay like that for a while, feeling each other’s heartbeat. Eventually, I pull away to study his face, tracing the contours of his cheek. I press my thumb into his bottom lip and lean in, our mouths hovering an inch apart.

His hand slides up my nightgown, his thumb digging into the crease of my hips.

“In one more day, this throne will no longer be mine,” he says. “I think we’re here because I needed to say goodbye.” He crooks up an eyebrow with a suggestion in his smile. “And there’s something I’ve always wanted to do.”

“And what’s that, oh Prince of The Aurora?”

“Fuck the woman I love in this chair,” he growls, and those words send a wave of liquid heat between my thighs. Thanks to the fact I’m wearing nothing under my nightgown, I immediately feel him growing under me, the fabric of his pants brushing my sensitive core.

“You’re telling me you’ve never been with anyone in here before?”

“Never,” he answers solemnly.

His hand slides up the back of my neck and into my hair, before he pulls me down for a kiss. Our bodies press together as I roll my hips, seeking the friction of his thickening cock. We moan into each other’s mouths, and then he stands, lifting me up before he spins around and settles me back on the seat.

He drops to his knees, hooking my leg over his shoulder as he bites the corner of his mouth and peers up. “Since the day you threw yourself at me at the Ball, I’ve thought about the sounds you’d make when I ate you out on my throne.”

I let out a breathless laugh as he dips down, running his nose through my wetness.

“Fuck,” he breathes. “You break me every fucking time, Lor.”

Then he drives his tongue into me, circling my clit as my head tips back with a moan. His hand slides up my body, under my nightgown, and over my stomach, leaving a trail of fire. He kneads my breast, pinching the tip hard enough to make me gasp. One of his fingers dips into me, curling as he sucks and nips, causing heat to build at the base of my spine.

“Oh gods,” I groan as I clutch the back of his head with one hand, the other gripping the armrest. He pumps his hand in and out as his tongue caresses rough circles over me. It doesn’t take long before I’m cresting, my limbs shaking and my stomach bottoming out.

“Beautiful queen,” he says, and then I blow apart with a ragged moan, waves rolling through my limbs. He pulls away and then stands up, lifting me from the seat to wrap my legs around his waist.

My arms loop around his neck as we kiss, the taste of myself on his lips. Then he flips around and drops back into the seat. I waste no time, reaching between us, my hand dipping under his waistband as I take his cock in my hand.

I squeeze as he groans and pump for a few languid strokes before I position myself over him.

“Lor,” he growls as I take him inside me, adjusting to his presence inch by inch, sliding down slowly. His hands grip my hips, and then, a moment later, he thrusts up into me, my back arching in response. We shudder together as my forehead tips against his.

“Ride me,” he says as he shifts my hips back and forth, grinding me against him. I cling to his shoulders as he thrusts up, over and over. My hands move to the back of the throne, my body curving as our foreheads meet again.

We breathe into each other as we churn together in a wash of heat and heavy breaths. In this space where we exist, fighting for each other and everyone we love. Inside this nebulous future we’re both clinging to with all of our hopes, I will see us through this no matter what it takes. Because if I can’t have him like this every day of my life, then nothing else matters. Then nothing I’ve done will mean anything.

We continue moving, becoming two pieces that fit together perfectly because that’s always what we were meant to be.