Page 11 of Oath-Maker

I closed the distance between us, not believing what my eyes were seeing. I had to touch his chest, had to see evidence of the light sickness receding for myself. “Let me see.”

He pulled open his button-down shirt and, sure enough, the light sickness had dimmed, and the radiant cracks on his skin were disappearing before our very eyes.

Just for a day. They’d be gone for a day.

I brushed my fingers over the cracks. The call of the warm, radiant magic from the Light was nearly gone. “I can’t believe it.”

“I can,” Lucius said as he wrapped an arm around my middle. “I feel like Basara didn’t poison me at all. I feel whole, almost.”

He pulled me so close to him, I had to hike up my gown and straddle him on the bed so as not to lose my balance. I giggled as I fell against him, giddy with the prospect of having Lucius fully back even for a little while. The change was so great and so sudden, but gone was the resigned Lucius from minutes before.

Lucius cupped my face in his hands and used his thumbs to wipe away tears that had fallen from my eyes. I smiled through them and leaned in, kissing him softly. A reprieve just for now. But what a reprieve it was. Lucius’s skin was still warming from the sickly cold, and his hands weren’t yet steady, but hewasbetter.Muchbetter.

Lucius leaned back, taking me in with a smile so bright, it was like nothing bad had happened at all. It’d been like that the morning after we’d first had sex. All warm smiles and happiness and a sureness in our bond as mates.

As King and Queen of Alastia.

Lucius kept brushing my cheek with his thumb. “I should thank the Guardian for a chance to have one more day with my queen.”

I shook my head. A chuckle escaped my lips, but I couldn’t stop the happy tears from falling. “Don’t. It will go to his head, and that’s the last thing we need right now with the fight ahead.”

Lucius kissed me again, this time claiming my mouth a with more firm intent. “I don’t want to talk about the fight ahead or how long that flower’s curing effects will last.” He left a trail of kisses down my jaw to my neck.

I moaned and wrapped my arms around him. “I don’t want to, either, but we have to, Lucius.”

“No,” he whispered against my skin. “After.”

I closed my eyes and relished the feel of his kiss on my sensitive skin. The mate bond between us flared with renewed energy. The magic of it washed over my skin and left goosebumps in its wake.

“I don’t mean to be a downer,” I said between gasps of pleasure as Lucius ran his hands up my sides and chest. “But are you sure this is a good idea when just minutes ago, you could barely sit upright?”

Lucius claimed my mouth again, silencing the rest of my concerns. I was breathless by the time he leaned away. “We don’t know how much time we have or what will happen tomorrow. All I know is you became my queen today and I intend to have you.”

His words sent excited arousal shooting through me right to my core. Warmth pooled between my thighs. We’d have to take it slow, but there was no turning back now, I supposed.

“Then take me,” I whispered.

Lucius growled as he pulled down the straps of my dress. I slipped off of him long enough to step out of the gown and for Lucius to unbutton and pull down his pants before straddling him again. My breasts brushed against his chest as he captured my mouth with his once more. I rocked my hips against him, feeling the length of his hardness pressing against me. I moaned as he rocked against my bundle of nerves. Before long, I rose enough to place him at my entrance and slid slowly onto him.

We both hissed with pleasure as he filled me completely. When I opened my eyes, I found Lucius’s dark gaze holding me with such intent, I could’ve sworn he could read my mind or see my soul. With this mate bond between us, maybe it was both.

“Ayla…” he groaned out as I started to move. “Ayla, I—”

I pressed a finger to his lips. “Just this. Right now, just this.” It’d been his idea, after all.

Lucius kissed me again and we set a steady rhythm, which I led. I still wasn’t convinced we should have been having sex while he was recovering—just like last night had been a gamble. I’d let Lucius have his way with me as often as he wanted, though, once he was back to being fully healthy again.

Our magic slid between us, adding a delicious, impossible-to-describe sort of glorious friction that set my body on fire. Before long, pleasure was coursing through me in throbbing waves. Lucius bucked faster beneath me. I held on to him as our pleasure built and tumbled over the edge, both of us coming at the same time. My name was on his lips like a prayer, and that was when I found myself praying, too.

That this would last. That Lucius would make it.

That this wasn’t just a temporary, day-long reprieve.

That we’d be able to defeat the Fallen and live our lives just like this for many,manyyears.

But as we both came down from our pleasured highs, as our breaths returned and Lucius rolled us onto our sides so he could wrap me in his arms, I realized I might’ve been too greedy and prayed for too much. It invited disaster.

CHAPTER6

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