Page 69 of A Reign of Embers

Aurelia tenses next to me, and my heart lurches. I open my mouth to take back my command—but then Marc lifts his hand, and she relaxes again, as if she was only concerned abouthisreaction.

He grazes his fingers along her nearly bare shoulder and down her side, making her silk chemise ripple. My fellow princes go still around her, waiting to judge his approach and her response.

I can’t help egging him on now that we’re all in. “You can do better than that.”

Marc wets his lips and draws his hand back up to cup her other breast, ever so carefully. Aurelia’s eyelids dip. She leans into our combined caress.

Sucking in a breath as if he can’t believe this is real, Marc flicks his thumb over her nipple. I decide it’s time to get back to pleasing our woman myself.

I tug the strap of her chemise down and lap the tip of her breast into my mouth.

Aurelia whimpers, clutching at my collar now. I drink in the sound and the sweet scent of her delicate skin, swiveling my tongue around the pebbled nipple and adding the friction of my teeth.

When I lift my head, she tugs at my shirt. I strip it offwithout a thought to my thin frame. Marc’s judgment of that doesn’t matter when he’s already judged me worthy in so many other ways, and no one else in this room gives a shit about my physical heft.

Aurelia kisses me hard. As Raul tucks his hand right between her legs, she moans against my mouth.

While she rocks into his touch, Lorenzo dapples kisses down the back of her neck and strokes her ass. Marc keeps tending to that one breast. After she’s released me, he dares to lean in for another kiss.

Watching him, my sense of a threat diminishes even more. He’s one of us, helping us take her to the heights we all agree she deserves.

Aurelia takes charge next, grasping the waist of my trousers and yanking me with her as she backs up. “Let’s bring this encounter to the actual bed, hmm?”

I chuckle at her impatience and follow her. When we reach the bed, she glances around at all four of us trailing after her and appears to ponder the logistics.

With a determined expression, she nudges me down on the mattress on my back. “You’ve been a very good husband.”

I had no idea those words would turn me on so much. My cock jerks to even sharper attention, springing free as she loosens my trousers.

She bends over to envelop my shaft in the heat of her mouth, and all I can do is sag into the bed with a strangled noise of approval.

Few pleasures could compare to the bliss of having this woman’s lips stroking up and down my cock, her slick tongue tracing torturous patterns in their wake.

I’m vaguely aware of the other men around me—Raul tugging down Aurelia’s drawers, Lorenzo massaging her breasts with her chemise completely discarded. My fingers tangle in her hair. I can’t help bucking into her mouth, buteven through the pleasure hazing my mind, I know I want more than this.

I tug her head so she looks up at me. So much desire shines in those bright blue eyes that I want to fall right into them.

“Ride me, Star.”

Aurelia’s smile is nearly as delectable as her mouth around my cock was. She shimmies farther forward and finds just the right angle to lower herself onto me.

Tipping my head back into the covers, I groan as she encompasses me. My hands drop to her hips, urging her to roll them over me, thrusting up to propel myself even deeper.

Her body doesn’t look exactly the same as it did when we first enjoyed an interlude like this. Her torso curves with more ample slopes. Marks so pale they’re almost silver ripple across her thighs and belly, the lingering reminders of the stretching of her skin to accommodate our growing daughter.

As I rock to meet her, I trace my fingers over those lines, delighting in the knowledge of what they represent. They prove her determination and strength just as much as the purple scars that dapple her forearms from her earliest potion-making experiments.

As far as I’m concerned, the new patterns on her skin are nothing short of magic. This life we’ve built together, the passion we create together—it’s all magic, every part of it.

Raul sets his hands on Aurelia’s waist just above my own and kisses her shoulder blade. His voice comes out even deeper than usual. “Do you think you can handle me here now, Shepherdess?”

He teases his fingers down the center of her ass.

Aurelia gasps and nods. “Yes. That sounds amazing. Just go slow.”

“Whatever my empress needs.” He plants another kiss onthe crook of her jaw and starts working her over with his hand and molded shadow to warm her up.

Aurelia bends down to kiss me and then sways back upright to meet Lorenzo’s lips. As she melts into him, she trails her fingers down his chest to his slacks.

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