Page 77 of A Pact of Blood

“I love you too,” he murmurs against my lips. “You’re so much more than just a medic princess—you’re… you’re a signal star, lighting our way through despair. I don’t know if there’s anything I wouldn’t do if it meant seeing you free.”

Bittersweet tears prick at my eyes. I kiss him again with all I have in me, but the emotions whirling inside me niggle at my conscience.

He isn’t the only one I need to say those words to.

I draw back from him just enough to look at Raul and Lorenzo, who are watching with uncertain stances. No matter how tangled our circumstances are, a smile I can’t hold back stretches across my face, offsetting the tears now streaking down my cheeks.

“I love you,” I say to Raul, and then, to Lorenzo, “And I love you. I don’t know how I’d have held it together over the past few weeks without all of you. When Marclinus is gone, maybe there’ll be a way… But until then, I still want you all to be a part of this act. This will beourchild, not his.”

A cocky grin curves Raul’s lips. “Fuck yes, it will be.”

He steps in and claims a kiss of his own, even though I’m still in Bastien’s embrace. His foster brother doesn’t protest other than a light-hearted huff.

When Raul pulls back, Lorenzo is there, grazing hisfingers over the side of my face and into my hair. His kiss is gentle and lingering, but no less giddying.

“You know how much I love you,”he says without lifting his mouth from mine.“There’s no one I’d rather see on that throne. I’d set you on it right now if I could.”

A ripple of wind that must be Bastien’s gift stirs the skirt of my dress. “Let’s give our empress everything she needs, then. We can treat her even better when we have an actual bed.”

The prince of Cotea traces the curve of my ass, and I whimper, turning to seek out his mouth again. Raul plants his lips on the side of my neck, while Lorenzo cups my breast through the thin fabric of the gown.

Bastien’s next commands come out a little breathless. “This isn’t just about ruling the empire or setting things right. This is about the four of us, and we should make our woman feel as good as possible. Get this dress off her and show her how an empress deserves to be treated.”

Raul wastes no time obeying, yanking at the fabric and tugging it up over my head.

Lorenzo dapples kisses over the scars on my forearm, continuing that trail all the way up to my collarbone while he teases his fingers along the edge of my chemise.“You deserve every pleasure and all the devotion in the world, Rell. No matter what Marclinus says or does, never forget that.”

He lifts that last layer of silk that covers my chest and takes the peak of my breast into his mouth. The tingling jolt at the pressure of his lips draws a gasp from my lungs.

Bastien drinks that sound in and plunders my mouth in turn, his tongue drawing mine into a thrilling dance. When Raul strokes his scarred knuckles across my other nipple, I can’t hold back a whimper. My hips sway between my lovers.

The prince of Lavira dips his hand into the shadows between our bodies, and suddenly a sensation slides all acrossmy legs and torso as if a dozen hands are caressing me at once. He’s used his gift to solidify a swath of darkness so he can trail it across my skin.

Bastien doesn’t intend to be outdone. An air current stirs to life, quivering across every inch of my body that isn’t already touched. Its delicate touch sets off enough sparks through my nerves to leave me moaning.

A satisfied smile crosses Bastien’s lips. He lowers his head to flick his tongue over one nipple my other men have briefly left unattended and nudges me backward. “Onto the bed. I want to see what you’d look like if you really were mine.”

Another tingle passes over my skin. I let Raul tug my drawers off me and climb onto the satiny bedspread. In the middle of it, I sprawl out on my back. “Iamyours.”

Bastien lets out a noise like a stifled growl and stalks after me, wrenching off his shirt as he comes. The sight of the brand I burned into his pale skin below his dedication sigil to Jurnus wrenches at me, but he erases that grief without hesitation. Kneeling between my knees, he drops his head between my legs.

At the first swipe of his tongue over my sex, my hips buck upward. He holds them in place, plundering me as if I’m the most delicious meal he’s ever had. The wave of pleasure coursing up from my core has me shuddering in an instant.

As I clutch at his hair, my marriage band around my wrist glints in the lanternlight. But it’s nothing but a frivolous bangle to Marclinus. Why should it mean anything more to me?

Bastien sucks on my clit, and my body writhes to meet him. My other lovers sink down on either side of me.

Lorenzo catches my mouth with a deeper kiss. Raul fondles my breast before lapping his tongue over it.

A keening sound I can’t restrain seeps out of me,embarrassingly pleading. I tug on Bastien’s hair, and he looks up at me. The sly smile that crosses his slick lips almost makes me come on its own.

“What do you need, my signal star?” he asks in a low voice that makes my sex clench with desire.

I grasp his shoulder. “You. Now. Please.”

“You never need to beg me.”

The contrast with my husband’s arrogant words sets off a fresh prickle of tears in my eyes. I jerk at Bastien’s trousers to help him out of them, and he braces himself over me. With one tender kiss and another, he removes the traces of grief from the corners of my eyes.

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