Page 93 of The Robin on the Oak Throne

She hauled herself up onto her elbows and looked at the space where they were connected. His fingers deep inside of her. His thumb on her swollen nub. The whole thing indecent, with his scattered books on the floor and papers under her ass. A liquor bottle inches away, threatening to topple and shatter into a million pieces. And here she was, nearly dripping onto the antique rug of his precious library. Likeshewas the most important thing in it.

“Perfection, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” she breathed.

His smile was dangerous when he said, “Now come for me.”

He knelt and returned his lips to her clit, sucking it into his mouth before swirling his tongue around the sensitive bud. His fingers worked in and out of her, curling upward to hit the perfect spot. She couldn’t have held back a second longer. She released with a roar, her body exploding into a million tiny stars as the cosmos crashed down around her. And as she slowly returned to her body, she saw the entire night sky, as promised.

When her screams subsided, she fell backward, her head striking the wood, and stared up into the depths of the endless library.

“This is how I want to think about you,” Graves said as he slid his fingers out of her and wiped them clean with ahandkerchief. “Perfectly fucked.”

The creak of the door in the now-silent library alerted them with a second to spare that they were no longer alone. Graves blocked the view from the intruder, and Kierse scrambled for her panties—where the fuck had they gone?—she snatched them up just as Gen strode into the library.

“Genesis,” Graves said.

“I was just seeing if Kierse was ready to go.” She was halfway across the room before she seemed to realize what she had stumbled into. Kierse didn’t know exactly how much Gen could see of her trying to pull her pants back on, but Gen could read the energy of the room. “Sorry, I…” Gen said, coming to a stop.

Kierse couldn’t see Graves’s face. She could only imagine what they looked like in that moment, his mouth still covered in the evidence of their indiscretion. That wide, dangerous smile on his lips. Kierse behind him in nothing but her underwear.

“Can we help you?” Graves asked.

“I just…heard voices,” Gen said with a note of panic as she retreated a step.

“I’ll be right out,” Kierse said on a scratchy, used voice.

“Okay. Yep. Yeah. I’ll see you later.”

Gen turned and fled the room, and Kierse released a breath. She tugged her leggings back on and glared up at him as he turned toward her.

“You have noise distortion,” she reminded him. “You could have made it so no one else heard.”

“Oh, I know.” He leaned in with a smirk on his lips. Close enough she thought he might kiss her again. “I didn’t want to.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Even Gen seemed perplexed by the problem of how to salvage what had happened with Ethan. It likely would have gone better had she been in attendance, but it only made Kierse doubly sure that taking Gen there was a bad idea. Lorcan wanted all three of them, desperately, the way Graves wanted to collect the magic objects. Neither of them thought it was a good idea to be collected.

Though they had a feeling they would have to return to Lorcan eventually to further their training. There was only so much they could do alone, and unfortunately, Graves had no experience with a triskel.

When Gen had asked about what she’d walked in on in the library, Kierse had just given her best bluff. She didn’t know how it had happened, only that it had, she’d enjoyed it, and she wanted to do it again. Not only because of the sex, but also because Graves was opening up in ways she had thought impossible last winter. In fact, she hadn’t really thought it was possible even when she had bargained with him. But he had said he would prove she could trust him, and at least this was a step in the right direction.

Kierse returned to the scene of the crime, toeing the library door open while she held an oversize mug of tea. She wanted something to fortify her before she began memory work. It still terrified her to think of Graves digging aroundin her mind. If he even could. Why had she agreed to this again?

Edgar was in the library, fluffing pillows on a dark blue chaise. “Miss McKenna,” he said at her entrance. “I set up your arrangements for today. If you require anything else, do let me know. I can send Isolde up with some refreshments as well, if you like.”

“Thank you,” she said sincerely. “Tea should be fine for now. Unless Graves wants something.”

“I do not,” Graves said, striding into the room behind her.

“Excellent, sir.” Edgar bowed and departed.

Kierse set her tea on the coffee table, carefully avoiding looking at the table they’d had indecent relations on. “This is for me?”

“I thought it’d be more comfortable than the couch.”

“We could have used a bed.”

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