Page 70 of Heavenly Bodies

‘How do you think I feel when you strut around shirtless, sweat running down those perfectglamourmuscles?’ she panted.

Enzo laughed before taking her nipple between his teeth. She cried out, feeling the small hurt replaced by a lap of his tongue.

‘You like it a bit rough, princess?’

‘Gods, yes,’ she breathed. She had to get the damned dress fully off, had to have him right then in the carriage.

As though reading her mind, his hands ran up and down the strings of her corset. ‘What did I tell you?’ he asked, voice low and delicious. ‘I’m so much better at undoing corsets than tying them up.’

With one hand, he began to work the stays, as the hand up her dress trailed to her hip.

His mouth drew back up to her lips, his tongue flicking hers. There was something desperate in his eyes as rough fingers brushed her underwear.

‘Yes,’ she breathed, pushing against him. ‘Yes.’

‘Elara,’ he moaned, as the other hand worked her restraints. ‘Tell me this is all for me.’ His finger hooked on to the band of her underwear, and he pulled at it, the friction of it against her core so unbearably delicious that her breath hitched. ‘Tell me you’re mine.’

Her eyes fluttered shut, and she opened her mouth to reply—

A jolt on the carriage and the yell of a drunkard made them both jump out of the reverie. Elara’s gaze shot to the door in panic, Torra’s charm clearing from her for a moment. She looked down to her and Enzo’s position, to his swollen lips, her exposed breasts, his heaving chest, and pushed herself off him.

‘I’m sorry,’ she stammered, yanking her corset back up. She righted it, then pulled her ballgown over it, scrambling for the gown’s buttons.

‘El,’ he said, pushing himself up off the floor. When he tried to help her she pulled away and fumbled with the latch of the carriage, swinging it open. Cool air greeted her, and she took a few paces away, until she had managed to put her dress back together properly and pull her mask back in place, though her corset now felt loose beneath.

When she turned, Enzo’s own mask was back on as well, his expression unreadable. The heady magick she had been sipping was gone, Enzo’s eyes bright again. She ignored her fluttering pulse, the want that still thrummed between her legs.

‘I need to find Sofia,’ she said, smoothing her skirts.

‘El, what happened in there—’

‘Was Torra’s charm,’ she replied. ‘I know, you don’t need to explain.’

He nodded tightly. ‘Exactly,’ he said, and something in Elara broke at the word, something she didn’t know had been whole to begin with.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Elara traversed one of the dimly lit corridors, Enzo behind her. She pushed away thoughts of their kiss, of her desire for him, the way it had nearly consumed her.

Sofia was all she could think of now.

Her eyes caught on two figures pressed into a shadowy alcove, a man and a woman writhing passionately. Her eyes widened as she glimpsed white, feathered wings protruding from the male, twitching with life. She caught a glimpse of smudged glitter on the man’s cheek and the scent of sandalwood before Enzo fell into step with her.

‘So predictable,’ he muttered, pulling her past the otherwise preoccupied Star.

‘I thought Lias’s wings were a myth,’ she whispered as they rounded the corner.

‘No, and neither is his penchant for fucking anything with a pulse.’

Elara chuckled. ‘And I thoughtTorrawas supposed to be the Star of lust.’

Enzo’s returning smile didn’t quite seem genuine. ‘Like mother like son.’

Elara led Enzo on a sharp right, a shortcut that would take them to the throne room without having to walk through the ballroom once more.

There was only a guest or two milling through the grand corridors, everyone else still within the ballroom, but still they stuck to the shadows, prowling carefully until she reached the throne room doors.

Upon them the carved draguns’ maws stretched open, spewing shadows across a starlit sky, all carved in black and silver relief. The doors would soon be gone, replaced by new doors with renderings of Lukas’s gloambats.

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