Page 115 of A Dance of Shadows

Aurelia stops at a small stone building that looks like it could be a maintenance shed for the palace gardeners, just within the first line of trees. She motions for me to follow her.

The hut’s walls are hung with various tools. When Aurelia adjusts a couple of indents in the floor, a panel slides open,revealing a narrow staircase below. I follow her down into it, along an unlit passage that must take us beneath the gardens to the palace, and up a couple more flights of stairs.

Aurelia stops partway up the second and motions to the ceiling. In the dim glow of the small lantern she left here, I can make out the outline of another trap door, one I assume opens in her bedroom floor.

“You push here,” she whispers, indicating a notch next to the square outline.

I set my hand on her waist from where I’m standing a couple of steps below. A deeper urge is coming over me, spurred on by the loose fall of her hair across her shoulders.

Why shouldn’t I indulge that impulse too? Why shouldn’t I remind both of us who we really belong to?

It isn’t a hotheaded whim. I know who we are and what we stand for.

We’re going to change the course of history, upend the entire damned empire. We have so much power, and for once we don’t have to hide it.

I lift my chin toward the trap door. “Go ahead and push, then.”

Aurelia mock-scowls at me. “This is the part where you need to go back before you get caught.”

I let a sly grin cross my face. “How am I going to get caught? Didn’t you say Marc is passed out for the whole night? Is someone else going to come in?”

She hesitates. “Well, no. But if he did wake up?—”

“Has your sedative ever worked that poorly before?”

I feel the slight relaxing of her stance and know I’m gaining ground. “No.”

“Then I say we go up there and prove how much he doesn’t own you. Prove that nothing can stand between you and your desires.” I press a kiss to her ribs just below her breast. “I wantto set you on fire with all the bliss you deserve to be feeling that he’s never going to give you, while he’s lying there without a clue.We’rethe ones who are going to rule this empire. Let’s start taking it.”

For a second, I think she might refuse me after all. Then a matching spark lights in Aurelia’s eyes.

Without a word, she opens the trap door and tugs me after her.

We creep into the darkened room. In the thinnest of light that seeps past the curtains from the lanterns outside, I make out Marc’s sprawled form halfway under the rumpled bedcovers. Just the glimpse of his sleep-slack face sends a spike of fury through my veins.

How dare he think he deserves this woman?

The bedframe is sleigh-style, its footboard curving over at just the right height. With a wicked grin, I back Aurelia up against it.

Her breath hitches, and then she catches my mouth with hers. I dive in, cupping her face as I meld our lips together, twining our tongues together.

Marc doesn’t stir an inch. I could probably have her moaning her pleasure to the world, and the guards posted outside would assume he’s woken up for another round.

But I don’t really want them attributing my talents to the imperial prick. And while I want to thrill her, claim her, take her to places of pleasure he’d never bother to attempt, the longer I stretch out this interlude, the more it’ll feel less like a provocative diversion and more like treading too close to danger.

She should be able to enjoy every moment of it without fear, even if that means we indulge for fewer moments.

I chart every sensitive nook of her mouth and drink in her whimpers. At the same time, my hands trail down over her body from shoulders to belly. I caress the bulge that holds the child Iconsider mine as much as Bastien’s and then slide my palms up to cup her perfect breasts.

Aurelia sways with my attentions, and I can’t resist her unspoken call. I swivel my palms over the peaks of her breasts. As her nipples pebble through the fabric, I flick my thumbs over them, reveling in her response and her stifled whimpers. Then I delve one hand down to yank up her skirt.

It only takes a few tugs to free her from her drawers. I stroke her between her legs and have to swallow a groan at the feel of her wet heat, already so slick and ready for me.

Aurelia muffles a gasp against my shoulder and clutches my shirt. In one smooth movement, I heft her onto the curved top of the footboard.

Then I can’t resist drawing out her pleasure a little longer, as swiftly as I meant to bring her to the release I promised. I duck down and plant my mouth right on her pussy.

A faint cry seeps through Aurelia’s clamped lips. She quivers and tangles her fingers in my hair. I drink in her tangy sweetness and graze my teeth over her clit at just the right angle to summon another whimper.

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