Page 43 of The Jester

“Take these off,” I breathe.

Her eyes widen and she shakes her head. “I can’t.”

“Tell me why you wear them.” I squeeze her hand tightly.

She closes her eyes, the giddy haze of her orgasm fading quickly. “Because I hurt someone I loved.”

Dipping my head, so she’s forced to look at me, I hold her close. “Tell me what happened.”

For a moment, she allows me to continue holding her, but then she pulls away and paces to the other side of the room, pulling her robe tightly around her waist. When she is positioned by the window, leaning with her back on the sill so she is facing me, she says, “I had the most incredible sex I’d ever had.”

I raise my eyebrows, expecting her to look nostalgic. Instead, she simply looks devastated.

“It was the night Kayan asked me to marry him. We fucked under the stars. It wasn’t the first time we’d done it, but it felt different. I was so lost in him that I lost control.” She shudders visibly, and I cross the room to stand close to her.

“You lost control?” I tilt my head, trying to understand what she’s saying.

“I felt for his emotions. To heighten my own. I wanted...” She laughs and shakes her head. “I wanted to feel what he was feeling as he fucked me. At first, it was incredible. Then I channelled some of it back to him, and it was incredible for him, too. We were in this bubble of euphoria, feeding each other’s pleasure.” Her eyes are wide, and her cheeks are flushed. “But then...”

Ignoring the pang of jealous in my gut, I prompt her to carry on. “Then?”

“Then it all went wrong. He started screaming. Pulled away from me. He was writhing on the ground, his wings flapping like a moth caught in a flame.” She wipes a tear from her cheek and turns away from me to look out of the window. “I watched his entire body break in front of me. I took his magic. It drained right out of him, and left him a shell of what he was.”

I swallow forcefully, and place my hands gently on her hips, leaning into her shoulder with my chin.

“I destroyed him. It took years for him to find himself again. He has his mind back now but...” She inhales sharply and hugs her own waist, gripping hold of my fingers as she does so. “His magic is gone. I took it.”

When she turns around, she looks over my shoulder at my wings. “His wings are like yours now,” she says. “No magic.”

Mine flutter involuntarily, and I allow the bells on the tips to chime. “And you wear the gloves because you’re afraid it will happen again?”

She hesitates, then says, “Not really. I know why it happened, even though I might not know how. If I brush against someone with my bare skin, it enhances their emotions. Amplifies them. Makes them brighter. It doesn’t steal them.” She examines the gloves as if she’s seeing them for the first time. “I wear them because it makes others feel safer, and to remind me of what I did.”

She is crying again. Thicker tears this time, and she sniffs as they roll down her cheeks.

I cup her face in my hands and stare into her eyes. “I have no magic for you to take.” I grip her fingers with my own. “You cannot ruin me because I am already ruined.”

Her mouth opens, and she shakes her head. She looks at her gloves. “I can’t.”

“Alana,” I bark, causing her eyes to snap to mine and her lips to part in surprise. “Let me serve you. Let me show you all the ways I want to serve you. And let me start by showing you my heart.”

She strokes the side of my mask, then kisses me in a way I have never been kissed before.

“I want to let you in,” I whisper into her mouth. “Take what you need from me.”

There is a pause and then, holding my gaze, Alana uses her teeth to pull off her gloves and drops them to the ground between us. “You really trust me not to hurt you?” she asks, her breath heavy in her chest.

My lips part and my hand returns to my cock. “You could never hurt me.”

“Then, come here.” Her eyes widen, feathers of heat dance on my skin.

She smiles, closes her eyes, and inhales deeply. When she opens them again, she dips her hand back between her legs and gathers some of her juices.

She raises her slickened fingers to her lips, opens her mouth, and sucks them inside. A moan of pleasure escapes her lips as she swirls her tongue over her fingertips, never taking her eyes from mine.

“Holy stars.” I move urgently to kiss her, but she stops me.

“Would you like to come now?” she asks, trailing her wet finger down my bare chest, leaving a devastating trail of arousal in its wake.

---