Page 72 of The Shrouded Queen
“Gods, you’re so beautiful,” he breathed, and kissed me. I tasted myself on his tongue, but I didn’t mind. My insides felt unsteady, fluttery, my mind was utterly blank. Jasim broke from my lips to kiss his way to my ear, where he panted in a raspy voice, “I need to be inside you.”
My voice was gone, but I nodded instantly. I’d agree to anything that kept this moment suspended in time. Anything to keep him touching me, kissing me.
I reached for his trousers, but he was already there, fumbling with the ties. With some maneuvering, he managed to slide them down without removing me from his lap and his length sprang free between us. My hand drifted to it of its own accord, my fingers wrapped around the hot flesh. I squeezed the way he liked it, stroked the way he’d taught me years ago.
Jasim hissed, and his eyes wrenched shut as liquid beaded the tip.
I smiled.
“Evil woman,” he groaned. My grin spread.
We both held our breath at that initial stretch and then let it outon a sigh as I sank down onto him. Jasim had fucked me many times over the years, but it felt different tonight. Maybe my mind was just adrift on pleasure. But when he gazed up at me, eyes twin pools of black, reverent and worshipful, I did not revile it; I reveled in it. I didn’t look away as I lifted and then slid back down, admiring the way his face slackened, the flush that stole over his dark cheeks, the dangerous clench in my stomach that warned another tailspin would take almost no effort at all.
Jasim gripped my hips, my backside, as I moved. I tangled a hand in his hair while I dug my nails into the skin of his shoulder blades with the other, burying my face in his neck as I moved faster, harder. My eyes slid shut as sensations passed through me, fluttering and light and—
“I love you,” Jasim breathed.
I froze.
A beat later, he tensed, too, realizing what he’d said.
Slowly, I pulled back. His chest heaved, but his eyes flicked over my face fearfully. His fingers tightened on my hips. Jasim shook his head. “I didn’t mean it,” he rushed breathlessly. “It just slipped out. Forget—”
“Tell me again.”
Jasim blinked. Later, I might call myself stupid or selfish or any number of horrible things. And they might all be true. But in that moment, my insides lit up in a way I had never felt before. Those three words—such simple ones, and yet I had not heard them in a very long time, couldn’t remember ever hearing them. I wanted to hear them again. I wanted them to be true.
My hips resumed their rhythm. “Tell me again,” I whispered.
Jasim’s lashes fluttered. His arms banded around me, holding me so close I almost couldn’t breathe. “I love you.”
My lips brushed his. “Again.”
“I love you, Amunet.”
“Again.”
We moved faster, and he breathed his love into my neck, my shoulder, my breast, my lips. Emotion swelled in my chest, blooming into something I did not recognize but made no attempt to stop. It made me feel weightless, thrilled me, brought a smile to my face. And when I went over the edge again, it was so much more intense. I clung to him, arms tight around his neck, face buried in his hair, as it pummeled me.
Jasim trembled through the last of his pleasure. His hands were gentle as they stroked up my spine. He could sense that something had happened, and he was trying to soothe me, holding me as if I were delicate, precious, lips peppering soft kisses up my neck.
I couldn’t lose him.
The thought blossomed in the pit of my stomach as we sat there, breathing hard. More than that, I didn’twantto lose him. My only friend. The only person to love me in years, besides Shaya. And where was Shaya? My mind was fracturing, and he was nowhere to be found.
But Jasim wasright here. He loved me. He’d watched me, he’d learned me, he knewme, and he was still here. He loved all of me.
“Jasim,” I said, voice hoarse, “there’s something I have to tell you.”
He shook his head as he pulled back, eyes gleaming. Gods, thelook. So much stronger than before, kicking up wings in my stomach. “You don’t have to say it back,” he said.
“No, that’s not— When we reach the temple… I—”
Thunder rolled outside. Loud. Insistent.
And getting louder.
We stared at each other, lips swollen, bodies glistening with sweat, and listened.
