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“We have perhaps a quarter hour,” she guessed.

“Then we had best use it wisely,” he murmured against her lips. “And I don’t think I shall last another second without⁠—”

His words died in their kiss as he pressed his mouth to hers. They didn’t matter anyway. They kissed as if it were the last they would ever have, an almost savage melding of lips and tongues. She splayed her hand over his solidly beating heart and closed her eyes, savoring him and the moment. Soon, they would be wed.

Not soon enough. They had been carefully observing propriety, all their visits with each other chaperoned by Aphrodite and the children. It was rare, stolen moments like this one where they were able to be alone, free to touch and kiss before reality inevitably intruded once more.

His lips left hers and he trailed hot, possessive kisses down her throat. Her head fell back against the wall behind her. When he found his way to the place behind her ear that drove her mad, her knees threatened to buckle.

“It’s been an eternity since I saw you last,” she complained, fingers gliding down the hard, muscled slab of his abdomen.

“It was yesterday,” he reminded her, catching her lobe in his teeth and gently biting.

Molten heat gathered at the apex of her thighs. “I cannot wait until we are together every day and never have to part.”

“Nor can I.”

She slid her hand lower, until she cupped the prominent bulge of his cock through his trousers.

“Phee,” he growled in warning, his voice low and velvety with desire. “You know we cannot.”

“I know,” she agreed, unable to resist stroking his length anyway.

His hips moved with her, seeking more. “But then, you do know why I chose this particular corner of the gardens, don’t you?”

“No.”

He lifted his head to look down at her with storm-tossed eyes. “It’s because no one can see us here.”

Apollo wasn’t wrong. A cursory glance around them suggested they were in a secluded area that was not in clear view of any windows. And if anyone were to venture into the garden, they would hear it at once.

She undid a button on his trousers. “Are you saying that you led me into the garden for an assignation, Your Grace? I am shocked at the thought.”

Belying her words, she opened the fall and her hand was met with his warm, rigid cock.

“Ah, God, Phee,” he groaned. “You don’t know how badly I want you. I think of you every second of each hour. It’s nothing short of agony until we are together again.”

“It is the same for me,” she confessed, caressing his thick length.

His back faced the door through which they had entered the gardens, and he was broad and tall enough that he provided sufficient privacy for her to do whatever she wished.

And what she wished was to please him.

“Do you think we have enough time?” she whispered, slicking the moisture seeping from his cock over the head.

“We shouldn’t,” he reminded her, his voice tight.

“I know.” But her other hand was clutching her skirts, lifting, lifting.

“Phee.” He chuckled darkly, realizing what she had in mind. “My sweet wanton.”

“You made me this way,” she accused without heat as she hooked one leg around his waist, opening herself to the probing tip of his cock.

Her knees almost buckled, the breath rushing out of her in a whoosh.

“I have no regrets,” he said, and then he pushed inside in one swift thrust.

“Nor do I,” she gasped out, filled so full of him, stretched deliciously.