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My hips swivel on instinct, grinding against the growing hardness below his waist. It doesn’t take as much fumbling to get his cock free as I would have feared. I rear up and gently lower myself onto his shaft as he continues to maul my breasts. Tiny fires flare through my skin, leaving a trail of his loving touch.
A hard moan erupts out of me as I settle atop his cock, legs straddling his lap. A smile stretches my face as I meet his gaze, glazed with desire.
“I’m all yours, Corin.”
He kisses my neck, grunting and growling low like an animal. I hang onto his big bull neck, fingers locked into muscles that could snap tree trunks with ease. Heat pours off him in waves, yet it doesn’t burn. It’s more like the heat one feels from a glowing, well tended hearth in the dead of winter. Comforting for all its intensity. Yet unmistakably a fire.
I ride him like a stallion as one hand slides down my back. He grabs the curve of my ass, claws digging into flesh but not piercing it. He guides my movements, in charge and in control even if I’m on top.
The climax rips through me like a bolt of lightning. I cry out, leaning back in his grasp, throwing my arms over my head and arching my back until my hair brushes the floor. He bears me down in his embrace, laying me flat on the stones before climbing atop me and thrusting for all he’s worth.
My breath explodes out of me in a wail not born of fear or pain. My nails rake down his shoulders without finding purchase, the skin too tough for a mere human to pierce. He collapses atop me, and envelopes me in his embrace.
Afterward, long after we’ve donned our garments and our breathing has returned to normal, we remain close together on the couch while the fire cracks softly nearby. My head rests against his shoulder. One of his hands remains loosely tangled with mine while the other traces absent patterns against the fabric near my knee.
The calm between us feels earned.
Dangerous.
Necessary.
Corin finally exhales slowly. “All right,” he says quietly. “Planning.”
I tilt my head upward toward him. “That sounded almost responsible.”
“Don’t mock me. I’m trying growth.”
“It’s very inspiring.”
He squeezes my hand once before his expression sharpens back into focus. “You said Vaerith’s narrative depends on secrecy and controlled witnesses.”
“Yes.”
“Then we break secrecy first.”
I nod slowly. “Public exposure.”
“You go public with the ledgers.”
“And you stand beside me,” I finish.
He digests what that means politically and publicly. Then he nods.
“Yes.”
“If Vaerith escalates—”
“I expose him without giving him a massacre,” Corin says firmly while holding my gaze. “No public frenzy. No bloodbath. No proving his point for him.”
The conviction in his voice settles something deep inside me.
I study him for another moment before asking quietly, “Can you really do that?”
He lifts our joined hands slightly, gold eyes fixed on mine.
“With you breathing at me like an aggressively competent metronome?” A crooked smile touches his mouth. “Yeah. I think I can.”
I laugh softly despite myself.
