Page 146 of Of Bargains & Betrayal

I couldn’t help but smile.

“I seem to remember being in a bit of trouble with you earlier.” My voice was breathless as I brushed a few damp strands of white hair from his face, careful to avoid touching his eyepatch.

His brow only furrowed more. Silly men and their lust-blown minds.

“So if you want to fuck me like I’m some meek little flower, be my guest. But—” I tightened my core around him, and Jasper sucked in a breath. “I’d much prefer it if you fucked me like I’m still in trouble.”

His eye widened, and his cock gave an eager twitch inside me. “You are utterly wicked, do you know that?”

As I chewed my lip and nodded, Jasper swore.

I should have been ready for the sudden loss of blissful fullness when he sat back, but those moments of emptiness were agony. He hauled me onto my stomach, pulling my hips back, and I felt the unmistakable spark of magic brush my wrists as I slid them forward on the sheets. Smokey wisps formed around them, restricting my motion and pulling a groan from deep in my chest.

That torturous press of Jasper’s cock came again as he rocked through the slick of my arousal, and I canted my hips, desperate to feel him inside me again.

Smack. Pain bloomed across my ass in the most soul-soothing way, and I let out a soft whimper. Goddess, take me. I’d asked to be fucked like I was in trouble, and Jasper had listened. If only to test that theory, I rocked my hips again, seeking my pleasure against him, and Jasper’s hand came down against my skin with another stinging smack. I moaned, and he smacked me again.

“Do you like a little pain, Nor?” came a damning rumble as Jasper smoothed his hand over my sensitive flesh. He worked the hard line of his arousal through my slick folds in a few slow sweeps, and all I could muster were needy noises. “Answer me.”

“I love it.” It came out as barely a whisper, but he heard me.

Jasper sank his cock back into me without an ounce of preamble, hitting a depth that made my toes curl and my vision waver. He pulled out almost all the way and slammed back to the hilt again, and I whimpered out his true name.

“Say it again,” he demanded.

I was so happy to oblige. “Kieran, please.”

No reprieve came after that, but I certainly did.

Every powerful snap of Jasper’s hips wound that tenuous coil of pleasure in my spine tighter and tighter. The pressurized warmth built in my core with every slick press of his cock. His hand, firmly planted between my shoulders, forcing me to yield wholly to his whim, only made that ache worse. And his noises—goddess, his noises—all bitten off and seductively masculine groans and gasps, could’ve been my undoing on their own.

And when those damning noises came a little too close together and his ruthless pace faltered, Jasper’s hand dipped between my legs. He found the swollen bundle of my clit aching for touch and rolled it between his fingers.

“Kieran,” I groaned as I rocked into him, and he swore. “Please, just a little more.”

“Fuck. I’m not going to last, Nor,” came his agonized rasp as he stroked me again and again, filling me with slow pumps of his hips. “Be good and come for me, please.”

As if I could ever deny him. I went soaring over the edge with a soul-deep whimper, and I pulled Jasper right over with me. He sank his body flush to mine, gripping my hips and gasping through a slew of curses as his release pulsed into my trembling body. I was faintly aware of the reverent brush of his mouth against my shoulder, my back, my neck, as I rode out the blissful aftershocks working their way through me. And when we collapsed into his sheets together, my shadowy restraints fading away, I could barely keep my eyes open.

“Goddess, take me. That was incredible,” he murmured.

It had to be a state of near delirium that had me chuckling. “You’re incredible. Did you know that, Kier?”

I couldn’t remember what he said after.

33

SO MUCH FOR MY SANCTUARY

ENORA

Islept better than I had in weeks—months, maybe. The sort of joyous, not moving an inch for hours on end, dead to the world sleep that was a damn rare treat.

And even when I did finally come to, I wasn’t mad in the least.

How could I be when it let me admire the serenely sleeping man I’d dreamed of waking up beside for years? Sated. A little sore—from more than just the beating I’d taken in my trial. Still very much giddy from the bodily bliss he brought me all night.

I never could’ve complained.