Page 106 of Brighter Than Gold

She nodded, eyes clamped shut. “Yes…yes…” she squealed.

I hadn’t lied, I pushed hard until I found my end, and just as my release crested and I began to spill into her, I felt Reyah shudder on top of me. She cried out as she held tightly onto the headboard for support, and her contracting body leeched more and more out of me with each fluttering pull around my cock. The sensation dragged on as her body milked every last drop from me.

“Oh Gods…” she uttered as she released the headboard. She leaned down onto my chest, and we caught our breath, rising and falling together. Reyah lifted her head and rested her chin on my chest to watch me. I slipped out of her, and both of our faces wrinkled at the warm oozing feeling. We ended up laughing at our mirrored expressions.

“Good morning, wife,” I said as her smile sparked in my heart.

“Good morning, husband,” she giggled. “A very good morning.”

Chapter25

Reyah

That day passed without event. So did the next one. And the one after that. Before I knew it, two weeks had passed since I’d arrived back at the palace. In that time, Yates had returned. It was a whole new uproar as she explained how her unit had been ambushed by Lazio’s men and she’d been held captive. Kaspian had told me she’d needed a surgery and I’d prayed hard for her safe recovery. I’d wanted to speak with her again, but I had been too shy to ask if that would be appropriate. She probably needed time to convalesce in peace.

And I’d tested my luck with Diana, requesting Charlotte’s company. The request had been promptly denied, as the wives of the Kings held no authority in the South Wing. Ridiculous, I thought, that the men could have a stable full of women at their disposal and the wives got none. Just another patriarchal discrepancy that I had no choice but to roll my eyes at. Thankfully though, my visits with Nyx were plenty, and his humour kept me from feelingtootrapped in the beautiful walls.

But Callan; my heart ached for him. To see him, to hold him, to hear the deep timber of his voice. I felt like a barrel of wine slowly being emptied of everything good, and all that was left was this hollow space inside of me. I’d woken up in bed with Kas once or twice, and to my shame, I imagined he was Callan, softly stroking my hips as I felt his breath on the back of my neck. I’d known this would be painful,we’dknown it would be painful, but I thought I could withstand it, that I’d be able to fight it. But the loneliness, the sadness, how do you fight those feelings? Pain felt like something solid that you could fight against, but loneliness was a void that I didn’t know how to defend myself from.

One evening Kas was working from the desk in his room, and I was out on the balcony. Spring was finally taking hold of the Realm, and tiny green buds began to push through the last of the melting snow. I was sipping hibiscus tea and watching the capitol city settle in for the night when I heard voices coming from inside. I wore nothing but a nude chemise, so I waited for whomever was in the King’s room to leave. When they did, Kaspian came out to see me. He paused, uncomfortable at seeing my bare legs resting on the cold iron chair in front of me. He was made uncomfortable any time I was under-dressed for the weather, or if I’d taken a cold bath instead of a hot one. My indifference to the cold was becoming a silent dispute between us. I knew he didn’t like it, thisthingthat made me different, but he’d told me—and the whole Realm—that he would stand by his wife, and I stubbornly felt I should be allowed to drop a little of the mask when in private.

“There’s tea, if you’d like,” I said motioning to the pot on the table and trying to break the tension. It was probably cold by now anyway.

“Thank you, no,” he said with a sigh. He crossed his arms over his chest to keep warm as he walked over to me. “Cressida has gone into labour.”

“What!” I jumped to my feet excitedly, and the King smiled seeing my thrill.

“It’s been several hours already, apparently.”

“Gods, is she well?”

“Yes, the doctor said things are going smoothly.” Kas swallowed and I immediately felt his trepidation as his body stiffened.

“Come, come with me Kas.” I took his hand and brought him inside. Of course the poor man was scared, he’d lost his daughter in a difficult delivery, my heart ached for him. I tugged him up onto the bed and curled myself into him. “There is no reason to be nervous. Cressida will be fine. The baby will be fine.”

He said nothing, just sunk his hands down onto my belly. There was a tiny swell there now, one that wasn’t just from a heavy meal, one that Kaspian’s hand found every night when we shared a bed. He held the little belly like it was something that soothed him.

“I’m expected downstairs,” he said after a while.

“What for?”

“We all gather when a King’s child is being born. It’s mostly to drink expensive whisky, but it’s tradition. Even if none of us are fond of Warrick. Maybe we’ll like his son better,” he chuckled.

“Or daughter?”

“I hope so,” he admitted. “I hope it’s a girl and she takes after her sweet mother and we can stave off this complex issue of heirs for a while longer.”

I shuddered at the thought of Warrick having a baby girl, at the thought of the types of women he keeps in the South Wing, and his predilections. My cheeks flushed hot and angry. “No,” I said. “I don’t want him to have a girl.”

We held each other a while longer, each lost in our own thoughts before he nuzzled himself into my neck with warm kisses, and his stubble tickled my skin.

I reached up to run my fingers through the scratchy blond hairs that grazed his cheeks, and he flinched.

“Sorry,” I whispered, pulling my hands away. There was something heartbreaking in it this time, not that I had disobeyed him, or forgotten once again how I needed to act around him, but that I couldn’t simply reach up and touch my husband.

Kaspian must have sensed it, because he quickly put distance between us, laying a chaste kiss on my cheek and standing from the bed. “I have to go.” He stared back at me with those tidal-wave blue eyes. “You should sleep in your quarters tonight,” he said taking off his tunic and tugging on a fresh one. “It will probably be a very late night and I don’t want to keep you awake with my drunk snoring.” He smiled as he spoke, but we both knew his polite request was in fact a polite order. I bitterly wanted to ask him if he planned on calling up Charlotte or Tanna once he was drunk and lonely.

I shimmied into the dress I was wearing earlier. “Goodnight, husband,” I said with a forced smile, perhaps a little too spitefully. I had already started for the door before he could reply. These tiny uncomfortable moments between us had been growing more and more frequent. There was a strange bitterness that I couldn’t pin the source of. Was I causing it? I had been making such a conscious effort to be the wife Kaspian wanted me to be, to be cordial and polite when we were out together, and to be submissive and pliant when we were alone. And honest to Gods, I was trying my best, but there still always seemed to be a persistent dissatisfaction.

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