Page 86 of Rise of a Fallen Man

She slid a hand down my stomach and past the belt of my pants, but I shifted away from her touch before she could reach my cock. If she touched me there, I feared I’d lose control. I’d fuck her until she screamed my name and I roared hers, until all of Egami heard us and the entire palace ran here.

Instead, I played her body with my fingers, delighting in her little whimpers and soft gasps of pleasure. This was the best music, the most glorious symphony I’d ever heard.

“Have you seen a man pass by here?” Lerrel’s voice suddenly invaded our space.

The games master was looking for me out there, but I had unfinished business. I had to see this intense, beautiful symphony play out all the way to its magnificent completion.

Ari’s eyelids fluttered close. She fisted my shirt on my chest, her whimpers growing into moans as she came undone.

Lerrel’s footsteps came closer, and I placed a hand over Ari’s mouth, working her with my other hand.

“Hush, sweetheart. Shh,” I exhaled into her hair as she came on my hand over and over, holding on to my shirt like to a lifeline in a stormy sea.

Slowly, she unclasped her hands, releasing my shirt. I leaned back, dropping my hand away from her mouth, and she opened her eyes.

Lerrel kept searching for me, explaining to someone out there, “...a big, bearded man in a nice shirt with horn buttons. You wouldn’t miss him if you saw him.”

“You need to go,” Ari mouthed.

A veil of regret fell over her gaze. I hated to think she regretted what had just happened between us, but I understood if she did. She was a married woman now. From my experience, not every woman viewed marriage as a binding commitment or a reason for monogamy, but if Ari did, she’d be feeling guilty about us now.

Her marriage meant nothing to me. It was a political arrangement that forced two strangers to share a lifetime, potentially depriving them both of a chance to find a true connection with anyone else. But if her marriage meant something to Ari, then it mattered to me too.

“I don’t want you to regret anything we’ve had, Princess,” I whispered. “No matter how many pure, noble men you’ll end up having in your life.”

“Should I call the palace guards, master?” a female voice sounded just outside of our hallway.

I couldn’t care less about being discovered. But Ari had a lot to lose to be seen with me like this.

“I need to go before they find me and you in here.” I tore myself from her and lifted the banner to go out there.

“Salas.”

With her dress undone, exposing her right breast, the hard bud of the nipple teased me relentlessly above her neckline. With her lips swollen from my kisses and her skin rubbed to a glow by my beard, she was the vision I’d keep with me forever.

“Salas,” she breathed out. “You’re still the only one. There has been no one else.”

Her words, quiet like a whisper of a breeze, slammed into me like a hammer.

“Why?” was all I could say.

“Raeb!” Lerrel shrieked, turning into the hallway. “By Goddess, there you are.”

I let the banner drop between Ari and me, concealing her from Lorrel and the rest of the world.

Ari’s secrets were safe with me. All of them.

Ari

“WHY?”

The word echoed in my head over and over as I listened to Salas’s heavy footsteps move away and die in the distance.

Why?

Sliding with my back down the wall, I sat on the marble floor of the hallway behind the banner and hugged my knees to my chest.

I’d never asked myself this question.

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