“You told him that you’d rather marry one of the horses in the stables than him. Your mother was furious, so angry that you’d embarrassed her before her court. But you didn’t care. You just held your head high, claiming that if you were going to marry anyone, it would be for the good of Agripa. Not just because your mother was trying to appease her simpering council.”
Thalia’s arms strained, but Keegan’s weight kept her firmly pressed against the mattress.
“I remember your mother dismissed you from her court entirely then. And you just looked at her and smiled, sketching a bow before you swept out of the room.”
Cassius’s fingers set tiny fires in their wake, the pad of his thumb sweeping up the inner part of her thigh. Pain reared its head, and Thalia couldn’t stop it as it hit her.
“I remember you got to your room, and I followed you inside. You slammed the door hard enough it rattled on the hinges. Then you turned to me.” Cassius’s words brought her back. He paused, his fingers pausing with him. “And your eyes blazed with such annoyance, with such anger, it sent my own blood sparking. Do you remember what you said to me?”
Thalia couldn’t speak, not with the pain still wrapping tightly around her throat. Cassius continued, “You told me to get out. That you couldn’t bear to hear a lecture from me regarding your behavior at court—about how you should have behaved better.”
Thalia’s mind flashed only briefly. The image was hazy. She remembered screaming at him to leave. Because she’d come to care for him far more than she’d realized. And the thought of him being disappointed in her was worse than the banishment from her mother’s court.
But he hadn’t left.
He’d stayed.
Crossing the floor until his lips had collided with hers.
“I think about that look on your face,” Cassius murmured, his fingers parting the folds of her dressing gown, pushing the fabric aside despite it already being twisted around her from her thrashing. “That blaze in your eyes—that defiance when you told your mother how poorly she was running her realm.”
Thalia shuddered, her breath hitching.
“And that look on your face is all I picture when I wrap my hand around my cock.”
Thalia’s body arched as his fingers finally found her. Pain speared through her, but it was quickly chased away by Cassius sliding his finger inside her.
Thalia groaned, her nerve endings sparking, as if trying to tie themselves back together after they’d been frayed raw.
“And I think about every coupling we’ve ever had,” Cassius continued, his thumb swirling over the bundle at the apex of her thighs. “I think about when we fucked in the stables.” He added anotherfinger in. Thalia panted, her body twisting. “I think about when we fucked on your mother’s throne.” His fingers pumped inside her. “I think about when you used to take me inside your mouth so hard you’d choke.”
Pain flared along her limbs, but she pushed it aside, fighting to find that growing ache now burning deep inside her. Her hips arched, her breath sawing out through her teeth.
“You are all that consumes me. Every thought. Every moment. Waking up beside you every day is torture.”
Thalia groaned as he added a third finger.
“And then you wear those little nightgowns. The red one is particularly wicked.”
His finger curled, just as his thumb pressed hard on her bundle of nerves.
Thalia cried out, her back arching as pleasure pulsed through her. She let the wave lap against the pain. Let it wash some of the agony away.
The wave passed, but the pain persisted.
Thalia shook, gooseflesh pebbling her skin. She peeled open her eyes, finding Cassius still hovering over her.
His brows narrowed at her body, which still twitched with sharp, aching stabs.
“I can do this all night,” he whispered, his fingers starting to pump once more. “I can do this until my hand falls off.”
Thalia moaned, clenching around him. Her hips bucked and Cassius cursed.
Her arms strained to grasp her breast, but Keegan wouldn’t let go. She sobbed, trying to get any sort of friction that wasn’t the fabric of the dressing gown. Writhing, she finally felt the gown slip over her shoulder. Cold air ghosted over her peaked nipple.
Her heavy lids latched on to Cassius, who watched her, pupils near devouring the ring of his irises. Without removing his fingers, he leaned over, his nose trailing up the center of her stomach before his mouth closed over her breast.
Thalia hissed as his teeth scraped her skin, tugging her nipple between them. His free hand came up to grasp her other breast, squeezing hard enough that Thalia cried out.
