Page 31 of Between Fear and Favor

The bond shivered, and I couldn’t help tracing it in my mind. Em’s smile only grew as she felt my touch upon our connection. Divine hell, even covered in gods only knew what and exhausted beyond measure, she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.

“I’ve missed you,” she said, entwining her fingers with mine.

We’d been with each other every moment since I rifted her out of the Dragon Hollow, stopping at the healer’s tent in the morning to help them catch up before I forced her to return to the palace. Seeing her trapped in shadows, the dark divinity wrapping so thoroughly around her, had scared me endlessly. I had been helpless, and I decided she needed to rest more. Pushed to the brink, she’d passed out, and no one had known where she was. I couldn’t let it come to that again.

Though we hadn’t found respite after receiving the news about Raj, we’d talked over decisions about removing people from the Wend and sending Nor out of the city. But none of that time together had been restorative in any sense of the word.

“I’ve missed you too, Em.”

She stifled a yawn, eyes widening in surprise.

“Even your body agrees with me,” I chided.

“It often does,” she said. There was a quick tug on the bond, and I was certain the golden thread was wrapped around my cock. She felt it too, considering the shift in her posture and the sly smile she attempted to hide.

“The bond too.”

“The bond isn’t concerned with sleep,” she said. Heaving out a sigh, her bewildered expression nearly made me laugh. “Hanwen certainly had nothing to do with the bond. How could the God of Wrath have time to seek pleasure amidst all his wars?”

“I assume the same way we have time.”

Pushing out her chair, she slowly stood, as if each muscle ached in protest. Her tan dress had turned gray at the hem and where she wiped her hands. I wondered when she’d last changed. I stood beside her, holding back mirth as she raised an imperious brow toward me.

“And what do you mean by that?”

“If Hanwen knew sharing his body would make him and his bonded partner more fearsome, do you think he would ever stop? He’d likely fuck them atop their steed, if it gave him the edge to persevere.” Placing my hand on her neck, I used my thumb to tip her chin toward me. Em’s eyes were bright with amusement, though heavy with fatigue. Her lips were parted, and a hint of affection wrapped in something I recognized as lust rolled down the bond. I couldn’t contain my grin as I spoke ridiculous words. “For the greater good, in order to restore our bond and strengthen our divinity, we should do as the gods would.”

“I don’t quite care for the gods, right now. Do you?” Her lips twisted as she fought a smile.

Though my actions weren’t without pressure from the bond, I decided to allow myself the enjoyment of my wife. If the enemy stormed the walls in these stolen moments, so be it. “No. But sometimes, they have a point. For Vesta, we must take our pleasure, my Queen.”

When she barked a laugh, I seized the opportunity. Slanting my mouth over hers, I teased her lips to part with my wandering tongue. Em’s body melted into mine, and I wrapped my arms around her. Placing my hand at the small of her back, I pulled her flush against me as I kissed her.

The bond was all frenzied satisfaction as I placed my leg between hers, rubbing my thigh against her sensitive center. Em moaned, nails scraping down my back, and I hauled her ever closer. She nipped at my lips, gently biting, before turning us around. She leaned back against the table, and looked up at me through a lust-clouded haze.

For a moment, I paused; the purple bruises beneath her eyes from lack of sleep were a reminder of how much she needed to rest. But as the bond fluttered, I knew I couldn’t stop even if I wanted to. For a brief moment, I felt something like reluctance pass over the bond, but it dissipated when she wrapped her arms around my neck. Pulling me toward her, she pressed a kiss just below my ear. Perhaps she couldn’t stop either.

I tugged at my breeches, ready to press myself into her and take her right there in our war room, when I remembered. I broke away from her to speak, even as my hands roamed her body. Reaching beneath her dress, my palms skated over her soft thighs as I groaned in frustration. “The tonic,” I said.

It had been the last thing on our minds, and there was nothing left to make the concoction by the time the bond had hinted at satisfying this aspect of our connection. We’d pushed aside our desires then, and perhaps that was why the bond was insatiable now.

“I don’t care,” she breathed, but a faint tremor down the bond told me she must have worried a little, even if not enough to voice it. And besides—I cared. I wouldn’t endanger her further, if I could avoid it.

Instead of answering, I slid my hands beneath her legs and placed her on the table. The large map showing the western half of Vesta crinkled beneath her, and I was grateful the meticulously placed pawns were all on the other side. Rubbing my hands over her skin, I couldn’t help myself as I grabbed her thighs, spreading them wide. The lush flesh dimpled beneath my fingertips, and my cock twitched as I stepped between them. I pressed a kiss to her neck, needing the taste of her, the feel of her, the scent of her.

“But it does feel wrong,” she admitted. “Being with you right now. Not when so much?—”

“Just enough to help the bond,” I replied. Finding each spot buried amongst the ink on her skin, I laved the Damia constellation of freckles above her collarbone. Six stars of recognition peppered her flesh, and I worshiped each one. I followed the flower vining up her neck with the tip of my tongue. The ink had served as our salvation when I’d needed it most, and I’d forever love that it brought me back to her. I nipped her ear and tugged her closer to the edge of the table.

“Just enough to make this sweet cunt clench around my fingers while you moan my name,” I murmured against her skin. Soft panting breaths escaped her parted lips as she reached for me.

“Not without you,” she said, grabbing the waistband of my breeches and tugging me into the warm embrace of her thighs.

I slipped my hand up her leg, my callused fingertips dragging over her smooth skin, as she tugged at my breeches. There was barely any space between us as we moved, each of us intent on each other’s desire.

When I found her warm center, already impossibly ready for me, she tilted her head back on a moan. I teased her, slipping my fingers over her slick folds, spreading her desire over her skin.

“My needy little wife is already so wet,” I whispered, pressing just the tip of my finger inside her. Her movements stalled and her hips jerked as she unbuttoned my trousers. I inhaled her, pressing my nose to that delicate spot beneath her ear that I loved so much. Pushing my finger fully inside her, the sound of her desire was obscene. “I wish I was on the tonic so I could coat my cock with this.”

---