Page 19 of Oath-Maker

“Lucius,” I said, but then I moaned again as he ground against me. “I need you. Please.”

He lifted his eyes to mine and I found a serious darkness there, a dangerous but thrilling intention, that I’d never before seen in him. “Mine.”

He hauled me off the wall and walked us over to the closed balcony doors. There he set me down and turned me to face the glass.

“Put your hands on the glass,” he ordered.

My core clenched at the order—and the realization of just how much of Alastia I could see from up here.And how much our people might be able to see me.Was anyone watching? Or did Lucius have a sort of privacy magic at work?

With a sudden thrill, I realized I didn’t mind either way.

I did as he ordered and laid my palms flat against the glass. He then leaned me against it, one side of my face and both of my breasts facing the city.

Lucius spread my legs and lifted my hips, angling himself at my entrance. Only then did he grab a fistful of my hair in one hand and lift my head back.

“This is yours,” he said. “All of it. This city. Its people. You are theirqueen.”

I was breathless. Lucius had been forward before. Had enjoyed watching me touch myself in a mirror. Butthiswas new, and the edge of desperation in his voice had me slightly unnerved.

Because he knows, too. He knows this may be our last time together.

Lucius’s voice dropped low but remained serious. “Alastia is yours, Ayla. They can’t have this.Hecan’t have this. Or you. Because you are mine. My mate. My love. My queen.”

Lucius emphasized his point by thrusting into me in time with his words, sliding in to the hilt. A ragged moan tore from my lips as my inner walls stretched to accommodate him.

He cursed under his breath. “Fuck, you feel good.” And then he moved. Drew out and slammed home again, with one hand firmly on my hips, drawing me back against him with every thrust, and the other still fisting my hair.

My lips parted and I moaned. My pebbled nipples slid along the glass, my fingers curling against it as it fogged with my breath. I closed my eyes and let the pleasure of Lucius’s stroke ripple through me, but he tightened his hold on my hair.

“Don’t,” he ground out as he bucked into me. “Look at what’s yours.”

I opened my eyes as ordered and took in the sight of the city at night. We were up high and I couldn’t shut out the idea of being watched by at least one person down below. But itexcitedme as much as the edge in Lucius’s voice did. The roughness of his fingers digging into my hips, which only grew as he let go of my hair and grabbed me with both hands. Once he had me steadied, he pistoned into me, slamming me up against the glass doors with abandon. Desperation.

My toes curled as pleasure spiraled through me. My orgasm was shooting toward me without warning or lead-up.

“Lucius.” I moaned as I rode the start of the wave.

He grunted loudly and reached around my front to work me there. It was all I needed to come pulsing around his cock. My eyes rolled back into my head, my toes and fists curled. I might’ve fallen over if not for Lucius’s hold—I even thought I was doing so until I realized he had pulled out and was carrying me to the bed.

My back met with plush blankets and pillows, my body cold in Lucius’s absence. At least until he drew me to the edge of the bed, got down on his knees, and worshipped me with his mouth. His tongue drew across my core before he drove three fingers into me. It wasn’t his cock, which I sorely wanted back, but thoughts of comparison died as his mouth went to work in time with his fingers.

And then came the tendrils of magic, the same he’d teased me with over dinner once upon a time. They slid up along my abdomen to my breasts, swirling around them and teasing, invisible to sight. Another orgasm barreled through me, had my thighs closing around Lucius’s head as I screamed his name.

Lucius didn’t stop there. His tongue didn’t pause, his fingers didn’t skip a single stroke, and all too soon, another orgasm came. I threw my head back and wondered how I’d ever once thought my own fingers could imitatethis.

“Lucius,” I practically begged. “Please.” This wasamazing, but I wanted him back in me. I wanted him closer, our bodies connected.

Lucius grunted acknowledgement and left my core to climb up my body. He lined himself up and then held my cheek in one hand. Without a single word passed between us, Lucius met my gaze and thrust into me. We both released a breath of aroused satisfaction as he entered me.

It was the only gentle moment.

Lucius set a pace that left me wildly trying to keep up. His short, deep thrusts were as desperate as his tone had been before. All the while, our magic danced between us, swelling in time with our pleasure and growing as our mate bond strengthened. As our power strengthened. Our potentiality.

By the time we both came, gasping each other’s names between choruses of, “Fuck, yes,” I was sure the sheer volume of our power would fill all of Alastia.

Maybe that’d been Lucius’s point.

We had never felt more powerful. And our time had never before been running so short.

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