Page 148 of The Faceless Queen

I bucked beneath him, my toes starting to curl, my chest growing hot.

“Fuck,” he groaned.

He was close. I could feel it. But so was I.

And then our minds connected, and I was in his head, staring down at me, watching his cock slide in and out, watching him fuck me.

Beautiful, he thought. Beautiful, she’s so beautiful.

It was the same thought he’d had at Geoffrey’s. But I was getting the full picture this time. He was staring into my eyes, watching the way they lit up and darkened, listening to the sounds of pleasure escaping my lips, the specific way my body moved, undulating beneath him. The way I was tightening around him from inside. The way I smelled, the way I met his eyes when he couldn’t be any deeper inside me. He lifted his hand to my breast, unable to help himself from squeezing it again, rolling my nipple between his fingers until I bucked.

He was enthralled. Enthralled with me. With all the parts of me that were mine, that were true. My heart raced so hard, and he was building up so much pleasure inside of me with such ferocity, I was pushed out of his mind, back into my body.

My core tightened, and I reached for his head, pulling his face down.

“B-Brennan,” I gasped, my hips rolling, shaking. “Fuck. I’m going to come. I’m going to come.”

His breathing grew erratic as he thrust inside of me again and again, his pubic bone right where I needed him, right at my core.

The crowd was cheering, yelling, and for a second, I almost lost it. But then Brennan held my gaze and sealed his mouth over mine with a kiss.

“No. They don’t get to hear you,” he growled. “Only I do,” and when he kissed me again, I came apart beneath him, moaning and yelling his name into his lips.

Sweat beaded across my body, every part of me shaking and trembling, until Brennan’s pleasure followed. He stilled and twitched, his body shuddering, before I felt his release fill me. He groaned one more time and collapsed on top of me, breathing hard, His spend already spilling from between my legs.

I pushed his hair back and kissed his forehead.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his eyes closed, his skin beginning to pale. Carefully, he lifted his hips, hissing as he pulled out of me.

“I’m fine.” I hugged him closer, my heart pounding with fear. “Brennan? Brennan,” I hissed. “Open your eyes.”

“As you command,” he said sleepily, “my love.”

I was distantly aware of the room beginning to empty. The king left first, surrounded by his guard, followed by the high priest who was ushering everyone out the door, and out of the cabin. Everyone had been ordered to return to the hunting lodge, to give us time to rest and have some true privacy.

But Geoffrey lingered at the door, and so did Jaron, the two of them watching me, their eyes dark. My stomach twisted, but I couldn’t worry about them. I was worried about Brennan, and what effect the Azete had had on him. I’d had sex with men before, and I’d left them drained and exhausted.

And I’d been in charged moments with someone who loved me, who was pouring their love into me.

But I’d never had both at once. The Azete inside of me was as full as could be, and Brennan—Brennan was so still. My heart pounded. Memories of my mother flooding my senses. Her final words. Her insistence that I take it all, take what she gave me. The sacrifice she’d made.

When the door finally closed, I tried to rouse him again, my heart hammering.

“Brennan, I need you to open your eyes. Please. You need to look at me.”

He did, but barely. “So that’s what it’s like,” he said. “To be with an Azete.”

“Yes,” I said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take so much.”

He shook his head against me, unable to keep his eyes open. “It was worth it,” he said. “You were worth it.”

And then he was asleep. I let him keep his head on my breast, and watched him, praying he recovered as the Hermit’s prophecy ran through my mind.

Upon the conception, there will be an end to House Lafir as they know it. Never to rise again. From what I have seen, his life all but ends as soon as the conception is complete.

I pressed a hand to my belly. Was it possible? Had it already begun?

Gods, I hoped not. I reached past the bed, and found a trunk with blankets—the ones we’d been denied for the ceremony. I threw it over Brennan, and then held him close and closed my eyes.