Page 174 of Sworn to the Shadow Throne

“Keep the rest of your armor on,” she whispered as she untied the laces of my trousers, her fingers brushing at where I was already straining my trousers with every movement. Each touch was deliberate enough to unravel my focus. But it was lowering herself onto my lap that truly did me in.

Luckiest. Man. Alive.

My defenses crumbled under the assault. Whatever she wanted, she could have.

“You don’t want me to leave,” I said against her mouth. What was another thirty minutes? An hour?… Two?

“That and,” she laughed, “I’ve thought about doing this while you wore armor since the very first time I saw you.”

“I was nearly dead when you met me, Lunette,” I accused, a smile playing on my lips.

She shrugged, rocking her hips side to side, grinding on me so perfectly I nearly came undone. “The heart wants what the heart wants.”

Before our next shared heartbeat, she welcomed me back home, sheathed within her. Something in my chest that had no name loosened completely. “Not sore?” I asked.

“Yes, but hush,” she said, moving against me.

Yes, ma’am.

I reached between us, but the angle meant I couldn’t give her the attention she deserved. So I lifted her up and turned her around, drawing her down onto me as my hand found her heat, learning her again by touch alone.

“Cheat,” she said, walls fluttering around me. She was so close.

“Not cheating yet,” I whispered into her hair.

Shadows moved on my command to trace the line of her hips, down to her core, warm and sparking the connection between our magic with every inch of contact. It had always been an extension of my will—even when it brought out the worst of me—but in this, we shared an infatuation with her. Devoted and hungry.

They moved to fill every inch of space I couldn’t reach—pressing, caressing. I had never used my magic like this during intimacy before, so I didn’t expect the sensual feedback it sent me.

It felt like I was touching her twice for every movement I made or willed. For one impossible moment, the bond between us disappeared. The distance between us vanished entirely. Her joy became mine. My admiration became hers. It pushed me over the edge just as she screamed out her pleasure.

Ropes of shadow held onto her so she wouldn’t collapse. But, by the gods, it felt like the entirety of my soul left my body as I filled her.

Sweating in the padded gambeson and chainmail, I pulled her onto my chest and leaned back in the chair, still connected to her. My hands moved up to caress her breasts as I kissed a line of devotion across her shoulders. “My mate.”

“You have to do that again…soon.” Her red curls bounced as she nodded against my chest. “Though the armor is very attractive, it isn’t as comfortable to cuddle with.”

I laughed and kissed her soft skin one more time. “Now it really is time for me to get dressed,” I said, already resenting it.

She reluctantly got up, and we both refreshed ourselves, her throwing on a gown. “I want to help you get your armor on,” she insisted.

As she was tying the last pauldron in place, a booming knock thundered against the door.

Camrick’s voice carried through the wood, tight with urgency. “We have a problem!”

My stomach dropped. Lunette and I moved at the same time. We were both at the door before the second knock landed.

Cam stood in the corridor wearing full armor, his jaw set. His eyes went from me to Lunette and back, wholly unsurprised. But where I expected a cheeky grin to grow, the look of alarm on his face remained.

“The assassin has been murdered,” he said without preamble. “The bannermen in attendance are in a bloody uproar.”

I dropped my head for one heartbeat. The fucking Assembly had already silenced him. They’d committed murder under my roof.

The quiet inside my chest grew into a growl. “Do we have a witness?”

“No.” Camrick crossed his arms. “That guard shift only had mundane men. Convenient timing.”

I clenched my jaw so hard it sent a shock of pain all the way down my neck. “Residual magic?”