Page 116 of Captive of the Stolen Empire

While he watched, I stood and tugged the dress free, letting it fall away to the floor in a heap. The tight shift covering my breasts came next. Gooseflesh rose across my skin as the cool air tickled it.

Lucien wasted no time, rising to his feet to meet me and cupping my breasts in his calloused hands. Each slow taunt and tease unburdened my worries, leaving me loose and free. Just he and I.

Though he’d been eager to join me, he took his time now, as did I, feeling and anticipating, burning up from within. At length, he lifted me onto the bed, setting me down as if I were a fragile vase about to break. Before he joined me, he hooked two fingers under the last of my underthings and pulled, baring me to him until the thin material cleared my legs and was tossed away.

I parted for him, willing him to join me.

He scrubbed a hand down his face. “You undo me.”

I grinned in return, wiggling my hips. “Come see what you’ve done to me.”

“I only wish we had somewhere more…” He trailed off, glancing about the room. “We might break the bed.”

His sheepish grin made me giggle. “I hope we do.”

Our first time together had been all fire and thunder. A hot, fast, burning inferno that neither could deny or back away from.

Tonight, we had no lack of desire between us, but it wasn’t about sating our lusts and longing for one another. This coming together was a confirmation, two counterpoints finding their missing half and vowing to find a way forward together.

Slow, sensual, heart-melding. Everything we weren’t but could be—together.

I gave my heart as I gave my body, willing them to the man who satisfied the deep longing within my soul. In the worst possible place, I’d found the one thing I never knew I needed and now could never live without.

Lucien.

Chapter52

Lucien

The past few days were some of the happiest of my life.

Hard labor and the imminent threat of death filled my time from sunrise to twilight, but Ilya filled my nights, all our secrets lain bare and nothing hovering between us. She’d shared the emperor’s journal with the others, only confirming for all present that we’d made the right decision to run, to take a stand against him, even if he had raised some of us.

We aided the rebels in laying traps, setting defensive posts, and crafting potential strategies until my muscles ached and the sun dipped into the tree line. Night was still many hours away, and my short break for lunch was almost over. Already I daydreamed of Ilya’s dark hair spread out across the pillow and the soft moans that would slip from her lips when we came together. My cock grew hard again in an instant.

I turned away from the room to hide the evidence and joined Gabriel near a large window. Light spilled in, catching the grey in his hair. He peered out into the garden where Warren, dressed in an old tunic and pants a size too big, sat on a bench with Elin.

“In the end, we’re all just people with the same hope and desires,” he said. A small grin pulled at the corner of his lips.

Elin’s golden hair shown in the sunlight, but not near so brilliantly as the smile that lit her face when Warren handed her a late-blooming wildflower. Its purple petals spiraled out over the thin, green stem.

Together they looked like a happy, young couple in any city within the empire, oblivious to the cares of the world. The image of them on the bench in the calm day could have been a famous tapestry or painting, overgrown garden and all.

I grinned. He wasn’t the only one who’d fallen for the charms of a captive they were supposed to guard.

“They look good together,” I replied. “In a different situation, they’d be a perfect match.”

“Not this one?” Gabriel asked.

“Maybe.” A dark shadow clouded my thoughts. “If we can get out of this mess. They deserve some happiness.”

Gabriel gripped my shoulder. “I hope you’ll come back to Trale before you run off with Ilya.”

I looked at him from the corner of my eye, brows raised.

“Don’t think we don’t all see it,” he continued. “But it would do your father well to see you before the God of Darkness claims his spirit. I know what it means to me, so to him…” He trailed off, his look far away.

It wasn’t the first time he’d brought this up. I couldn’t shake the feeling that Lord Stefan would loathe what became of his only child. A servant of the emperor. A dealer of death with magic and sword. How many of his people—my people—did I kill? I couldn’t begin to count them. Yes, he’d sent a letter asking for me to be taken alive and brought to Trale, but I doubted it was for a touching family reunion. He had no reason to want someone like me around.

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