Page 97 of The Duke and the Disciple

“Rahn.” She panted, and his knees buckled at the sound of his name on her tongue, clouded with the torturous delirium he’d caused. Her fingers dug into his ass, coaxing him to go faster, harder, but faster and harder were the only commands his body would abide.

“Do you see me fucking you on the table while they all watch?” Rahn asserted, despite the cold sweat rolling down his cheeks. No matter how hard he pushed, it wasn’t enough. It wouldn’t be enough until he’d consumed her entirely. “Me filling you as they all stare, horrified?”

“As they watch me come for you.” She sucked in her lower lip.

“Until there’s nothing left of you.” His eyes rolled back. “Until they all know who you belong to. Who you answer to.” He slammed her against the tree. “Though it might be hard for you to tell them anything with my cock stuffed down your throat.”

“And if I disobey?” Her mouth parted with every thrust.

“You know what will happen.” He angled her hips to drive himself deeper. “But you like being disobedient. You like to be punished.”

“Almost as much as you like to punish me,” she cried. “Make it hurt.”

When he was close, he increased the firmness of his hand between her legs. She lifted, contracting, her mouth peeled open in a silent cry. She was all tremors, head to toe, clenching around his cock, her whimpers buried in his neck as she rode out her well-earned release, freeing him from his own torment as his body joined hers.

Rahn froze when a terrible revelation came over him. He verified it with a glance at the sky and another all around him, finding the muted colors of their own world.

Aesylt slid down the tree with a shaky exhale and gently twisted out of his grasp. Her flushed face peered back at him over her shoulder as she smoothed her dress, but the look on his had her asking, “What?”

“How...” His pulse rocketed as he quickly shimmied his trousers back into place. He and Aesylt were so close to the entrance to the garden—close enough anyone walking by could have seen. He was afraid to turn toward the arch of oaks. “How are we in our world, Aesylt? How long have we been back?”

“What do you mean?” Her mouth remained open, her eyes widening as she came to the same understanding. “I... I don’tknowhow. You heard me say the words to get us there, but I never commanded our return, I didn’t—” Her hands flew to her mouth. Her attention was on the entrance.

Rahn spun around in time to see the edge of a cloak disappear. His heart plummeted toward the cold ground. He didn’t know how or when he and Aesylt had slipped back into their own world, but it didn’t matter. They’d grown careless, ignoring their own rules. “Who, Aesylt? Who was it?”

When Aesylt finally responded, her voice trembled. “Pieter.”

True to his word,Lord Dereham added more security. Aesylt worried it would draw more suspicion to the half-forgotten tower, but there were more at the gates as well, as well as spread throughout the keep and village.

Aesylt and Rahn hadn’t spoken about the incident with Pieter, but that didn’t mean it had left her mind. His haunted look suggested it hadn’t left his either.

They worked on their notes that night together in silence, him at his desk, she at hers. Her thoughts drifted to several nights earlier, when they’d done their notes in the celestial realm, her in his lap, him buried deep inside of her.If you move, I’ll punish you,he’d warned, and so of course she’d moved as much as possible. The way he’d tackled her to the floor, pinning her hands above her head, commands burning his tongue...

But he hadn’t so much as kissed her since the Wintergarden. The dark thoughts in her head threatened to take over, but he was worried, same as her. That was all.

I’ve never felt more exposed. More alive. More afraid,she wrote. She tapped her quill, considering the answer to her unformed question.Would I do it again? Yes, in a heartbeat. But I fear—Aesylt stopped short of writing anything about Pieter. They were supposed to be Elara and Niklaus.I fear being caught, and the resulting fallout. Though what I feel most of all is that it wasn’t enough. What if nothing is?

That was all she had the heart for, so she unlocked her drawer, slid the vellum inside, and locked it again. She stood with a long stretch and murmured a good night to Rahn, who was lost to his own journaling.

After she’d changed into her nightgown, she climbed into bed. Pieter discovering their secret was an enormous problem that couldn’t wait, but all she’d been able to think about was Marek’s thick hands at her neck, throttling her life away. If hewasin the forest north of Wulfsgate, it was because he knew she was there. No matter why he’d come, if he succeeded, only death awaited her.

Between the Marek and Pieter situations, her sanity was being torn down the center.

A shadow appeared behind her curtain, and Rahn stepped around it. He sat on the side of her bed and nudged her over.

“What are you doing?” she asked as he climbed in beside her.

“I know you’re thinking about the man in the forest,” Rahn said. “So am I.” He brushed stray hair out of her eyes. “Sleep, Squish. Or try to. I’ll be right here.”

Chapter20

Careful, Your Desire Is Showing

Pieter had waited for her in the tower garden.

She’d slipped out ahead of Rahn for her fitting with the Dereham seamstress. Nyssa had been building her own gown for months, and all that was left was to stitch even more lace into the design. Aesylt had no idea what Nyssa had picked out for her, and she was about as eager to discover that as she was to attend the soiree at all.

Socializing was the last thing she felt like doing.

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