Page 53 of A Dance of Shadows

A sob I didn’t know was coming breaks from my throat.

Fuck Linus. Fuck Marc too, for letting his twin carry on his sadistic plans.

Fuck the entire empire for standing by while the rulers of Dariu sow pain and sorrow everywhere they go.

“Hey.” Bastien wraps his arms around me more gently this time and nestles me in his embrace. “You’re okay. We got through it. I’m right here, and I’m never letting you go.”

Gods above, how I wish that was true. He’s going to have to let me go in most of the ways that count the moment we’re back within view of the court.

Another sob rises up. The only way I can smother it is by pressing my lips to his.

Bastien kisses me back hard, the heat of his mouth searing away the worst of the anguish. I soak up that warmth as if I’m starving for it—and perhaps I am.

I don’t know how to lethimgo. One of my hands tangles in his wayward hair, my other arm looping around his neck. Through each scorching kiss, my body presses closer against him.

Bastien seems to recognize the desperation wrenching at me, and he takes charge as only he can. He clasps my face between his hands, melding his mouth to mine and then meeting my gaze with a command in his. “Get rid of your drawers.”

I don’t think, just wriggle out of the drenched fabric. Bastien pulls me down to straddle his lap. His lips brand my jaw andmy neck while his hands roam across my breasts, sparking heat wherever they touch.

With a jerk of his trousers, he releases his cock. “Take me,” he orders, and there’s nothing I’d rather do than comply.

As I sink down onto him, both our chests hitch. The hot stretch of his cock has never felt more vital. I press myself onto him, welcoming him as far as he can go.

Bastien groans and tucks his head next to mine. He squeezes my ass before guiding me up and down over his cock, thrusting his hips up to meet my sex.

The words spill out of him like a vow. “I’ll always be there for you. No matter how much distance there has to be between us. We’re as twined together in our souls as our bodies are right now, and no one, not even an emperor, can break that bond. You’ll remember that. You’ll stay as strong as I know you are.”

“I’ll remember,” I promise, and whimper as he plunges even deeper inside. A shudder runs through my body. I can’t stop myself from clutching him tighter.

Bastien’s teeth graze the side of my neck. He bucks up into me, heedless of the roughening of his breath. “That’s right. You hold on to me, always. This is what matters. This is who we are.”

Not the parts we play in front of the court. Not the fronts we have to keep even with our own families.

Right now, despite soaked clothes and deadly bog around us, I’m more alive than I’ve been in weeks.

Bastien trails his hand down from my chest to my clit, stroking me right above the spot where we’re joined. My moan fragments with the surge of my release.

I quake over him, pleasure searing through every nerve. It flares even hotter when I feel him join me.

I ease to a stop still caught in his embrace. Bastien gathers me close while his labored breath evens out, dappling gentler kisses along the sides of my face.

“I love you,” he murmurs.

I choke up. “I love you too.”

I can’t resist one last, lingering kiss. Then I force myself to clamber off him and retrieve my drawers.

At a panicked thought, I open up the pouch on my belt. A little water spills out, but when I unwrap the josemine blossoms, I find the waxy paper has protected them from the sudden dunking.

Bastien offers me his hand. His clothes are as mud-stained and damp as my own, but I don’t think I could imagine a more gallant figure. “Let’s get you out of this bog.”

I draw my posture up straight with a hardening of my resolve. “And back to Delphine. I have an antidote to brew.”

Chapter Twenty

Aurelia

The hall of entertainments in the Delphinian royal palace isn’t quite as large as the one back in Vivencia, but it contains a much more intriguing assortment of activities.

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