Page 170 of The Reaping Rose

His praise and caress ignite the spark building in my core. I lower farther, taking him deeper, desperate to offer him a fraction of what he’s doing for me.

Finally, I can’t take anymore. This time when his magic curls up through me, I tip my head back in a moan, and he flips me onto my back in the grass. The slit in my dress parts easily for him, my breasts spilling out the top. With one thrust, he seats himself deep, sending pleasure shooting up through my entire body.

“There you are.” Wilder kisses down my neck to my shoulder.

My skin is flecked with sparkles. Stardust coats my arms and climbs my body as he moves over me, and I combust in a fit of screams that travel the sea.

We’re a beacon on the shore as a burst of light ruptures out. This might be what it’s like for a star to combust. Taking in so much that there is nowhere else for it to go. I’m writhing as Wilder widens my thighs, looking down as he thrusts in again.

With my climax still calming, I feel every shift of his hips. His eyes fix on where we connect. His thick length sinking into me, and he throws one of my legs up over his shoulder to get deeper.

His crown hangs lopsided on his head. His pants are around his ankles. But he doesn’t bother pausing to undress us. Like he can’t wait to be on me—in me. He needs me as much as I need him.

Wilder braces an arm beside my head, slipping his hand down between our bodies to caress me where I’m throbbing with need. He strums his fingers, and I’m barely holding on when I’ve already reached my precipice. But the moment I start to pull away, barely able to handle the pleasure, Wilder snags my wrists in aether and pins me to the ground.

“I can’t come again, Wilder. It’s so much. I feel…” My breath catches as he drives in. “I feel everything.”

“Now who is at the mercy of her king?” He grins against my neck, a delicious growl climbing his throat. Of course he heard me think that earlier. “Come on, Starfire. I want you to show the gods how good I make you feel.”

The gods.

He might as well be one as his teeth rake along my neck. Teasing my skin but not offering the relief as he holds me on that ledge.

My wrists tug against the bind of aether, and he grips them tighter, claiming me completely. Until his lips find mine and he releases me. He needs my hands on his body as much as I need to roam his hot skin.

This time, I’m the one flipping us around because I can’t get close enough. My thighs shake at his hips, and my body wants to consume him.

Wilder sits with me in his lap, his arms at my back, and he wraps my hair around his fist, tipping my head and revealing my throat. My vein throbs with the rake of his teeth. And when he breaks skin, my climax hits me so hard and thorough that a whoosh of wind stretches the grass, wiping our magic away with it.

He guides my hips over him, chasing his own release as his tongue laps at the blood dripping out. His mouth stays on my throat as he pulls blood from my neck, my chest, my arms, my fingers.

It sings for him.

“More. More. More.”

I need more.

I’ve never felt anything like it. The bind between us is so tight there’s no ignoring its presence. We both come down, but I’m insatiable. Consumed. He stands me up and strips me down to nothing, dropping to his knees and sinking his teeth into my thigh next. One release rolls into another. Until there is no thought. No existence other than the two of us twirling through the realms, lost in each other.

Tomorrow, all the stars may fall from the sky.

The last sunrise might meet the horizon.

But tonight is me and Wilder. Tonight, there is still a tomorrow to celebrate.

Chapter 57

Elorie

Last night’s gown is replaced by leather and daggers. The hope that sung on Starlight Reach turns to steely determination.

My hair is split down the center in two long braids. I tie the end of the final one, ready as I can be for what lies ahead.

My gaze meets Wilder’s through the mirror when he steps into the room, emotions replacing words in the thread. There’s nothing else to say. What happens now will be determined through action.

Through magic and at the ends of blades.

Wilder has been up since before daybreak, preparing. I heard him leave the bed, but I stayed, staring at the ceiling instead of getting up. I imagined the constellations from Starlight Reach, hoping I hadn’t missed something in them. Messages or warnings.