Page 116 of A Palace of Smoke & Mirrors
Lucais didn’t seem to mind.In fact, he seemed to prefer that I took my time so he could take his.
Shortly thereafter, though, my orgasm was inevitable. I felt it building to unalterable heights as I began to rock my hips, grinding against Lucais’s face, and I started to relax in the kind of way that touched more than simply my muscles.
Leaning back with my hands on his hips, I rode his face. He moaned so loudly that I felt the reverberations all the way up to my nipples. For a split second, I jerked out of our rhythm, struck by the sudden realisation that I didn’t know where Wrenlock had gone. But I was riding the waves of euphoria so close to a climax that it only threw me off for a moment.
Tipping my head back, I looked towards the floor where all of our clothes were discarded, and my orgasm came splintering over me with a force strong enough to rip my lungs straight out of my body when I found Wrenlock kneeling between Lucais’s legs at the end of the bed, his dark hair bobbing up and down as he sucked on Lucais’s furiously hard cock. As I watched, one of Lucais’s hands slipped from my hip, across the sheets, and fisted in Wrenlock’s curls. He held on with a demanding grip, pushing his erection deeper into Wrenlock’s mouth with the next motion. A set of dark brown eyes flicked up to meet mine with heat and temptation emanating from their burning cores.
Wrenlock’s cheeks lifted only by a fraction as he smiled at me around Lucais’s cock, and I was undone.
The sound I made probably would have had numerous calls placed to local authorities if we had neighbours—and if I wasn’t currently fucking the highest ranking authorities in the entire realm.
The sight of Wrenlock blowing Lucais while I rode his face was enough to destroy me. I came so hard that I couldn’t quitetell when it started and where it stopped, only that it ricocheted through me until unimaginable pleasure turned into borderline pain. I was shaking so hard that I practically threw myself into the pillows on the bed beside Lucais so I wouldn’t collapse on top of him or fall onto the ground.
Curling up around a pillow, I buried my face in the linen and inhaled a few deep breaths, accompanied with the High King’s sweet scent of musk and sunlight.
Four hands found me moments later, stroking my hair back from my face and massaging my backside and thighs. The two men spoke in hushed, gentle tones as they doted on me with whispers of praise and reassurance, but I couldn’t identify and separate their voices through the aftershocks of my orgasm and the world-tilting repercussions.
“Shh, perfect girl. It’s alright. You did so fucking well. So fucking perfect for me.”
“That’s it, baby. Atta girl. Take a few deep breaths for us.”
One of them pulled the blankets over me, and as I settled underneath the warm fabric and all of their soft touches and sweet words, I must have found the desire to sleep inside their safety.
thirty-eight
A Mind-Reading Spell
Iawoke to the smell of freshly made coffee somewhere close to my head. My entire body was abuzz with feeling. I was sore, I was fulfilled, and above all I was exhausted. I felt like half of my soul had been scooped out of my body and given to someone else—Lucais, probably. In exchange for it, he’d given me one of his white shirts to wear overnight. I felt the buttery soft material shift against my skin as I rolled over, surfing the waves of his natural cologne.
When I opened my eyes and sat upright, I searched the room and found him standing by the large arched window closest to me. The daylight was bright enough to confirm that it was morning, although I had no way of knowing the precise time.
The window was almost floor to ceiling in height and about as wide as his shoulders. The chiffon curtains had been pulled back, though it made very little difference when the only view he had was of the endless and impenetrable fog. Even so, he stared out of it as if he could see through the mist to whatever corner of his realm lay beyond; and, for all I knew, maybe he could.
“How are you feeling?” he asked without turning around. The High King’s voice, though tender, startled me. As he circled back to study me, he brought a mug of steaming hot liquid to his mouth and nodded towards something over my shoulder.
I glanced behind myself to find an identical mug waiting for me, levitating in thin air as if it had been placed on top of an invisible table. Propping myself up on the pillows and bringing my knees to my chest, I claimed it, shivering as the warmth spread from my fingertips all the way through to my toes. The enlivening aroma made my mouth water, so I took a sip of the coffee while I pondered how best to answer his question.
“I feel strange,” I said at last. “Because I still feel like me, and I kind of expected that I wouldn’t anymore.”
Lucais padded over to me barefoot. He was shirtless, wearing only a pair of loose grey pants that hung low around his hips, and the bed dipped as he sat down as close to me as possible on the edge of it. I had half a thought to find Wrenlock, certain that I’d felt warmth from both men throughout the night, but he wasn’t in the room with us.
“He’s coming back,” the High King assured me. “As for feeling different…” One side of his mouth pulled up in a roguish smile, but there was a touch of bashfulness in his golden eyes. “You remember how we said we’d be friends today?”
I nodded slowly, taking another sip of coffee.
He cocked his head to the side, biting his lower lip. “How do you feel about tomorrow instead?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean…” Lucais’s soft laugh was unsteady. “I’m afraid that you fell asleep quite early. That was our fault,” he hastened to add. “We wore you out before you and I were able to fulfil the requirements of the mating bond.”
Forgetting that I was holding a mug full of hot coffee, I dropped my hands into my lap, and half of my drink splashedover the side. In an instant, Lucais waved his fingers in the air, and the caramel coloured liquid froze like an ice statue before it could splash all over the blankets across my lap. He followed it with a circular motion of his wrist, reversing the entire accident. I watched in awe as it splashed backintothe mug, and he gingerly reached over to take it from me before setting it back atop the invisible side table.
I blinked up at him, heart racing. He was slowly but surely letting me see more of his magic at work, and it was mesmerising. More than that, even. It was humbling. And terror-inducing.
“What do you mean?” I questioned faintly. “I know that I didn’t imagine last night happening. I’m sure I have at least a hickey to prove it—”
The High King laughed and reached out to stroke a finger down the side of my neck, lingering over the spot where Wrenlock had bitten me hard enough to leave a mark. “Bookworm,” he crooned. “We certainly engaged in an array of very pleasurable activities last night, but there was one particular thing that we didn’t do, and that one thing just so happens to be quite essential if we want the mating bond to take effect.”
