I escorted her to the ballroom as the next song began—a waltz, just like our first dance. The less formal dancing would start later, after Braea’s appearance at the eclipse. At the far end of the room, Lucius joined Sepher and Zita on the dais. He gave a stiff smile, but I caught his lip curling as Sepher’s smooth tail flicked from side to side.
But I had much more important business to attend to. Lashes lowered, Kat held my gaze as I took her hand and waist and pulled her as close as possible. The fabric was slippery, like skin oiled for a massage, and I added that to my list of things for us to try, especially with how sensitive she was.
As we set off across the floor, I bent and murmured in her ear, “You look incredible. I want to do all kinds of delicious things to you.”
Her breath caught, making her breasts heave against the dress. How the thing stayed on, I had no idea, but since Ariadne had made it, I suspected it involved magic. Interesting. Perhaps there was a word to make it fall off.
“Like what?” Kat asked, voice husky as her thigh slid along mine.
“Like splitting in two and fucking you with both parts of me at once.”
Just as I’d expected, her step faltered like it had in Lunden. And just as I had then, I caught and lifted her seamlessly.
But instead of scandalised as she would’ve been last year, she looked eager. Her wide eyes skimmed between mine as though she was calculating how that would work, how it would look—how it might feel.
As I lowered her, I grinned wickedly and crushed her against me, enjoying her softness. “I was going to ask if you thought you were ready for that, but the look on your face already answered.” I dipped to her ear, fingertips tracing up her spine, making her arch against me. “Would my ember like that?”
Her throat bobbed. “You just turned the next few hours into torture.”
I chuckled as I led her across the dance floor again. “I prefer to think of it as foreplay. Now, every time you catch my eye, you’ll be thinking about having two cocks buried in you.”
As her pupils blew wide, her grip on my shoulder tightened. “Where?”
“Hmm, my ember is greedy for details, isn’t she? You need to answer one of my questions first. Are you wearing anything under that pretty dress, Katherine? A scrap of lace, perhaps?”
“Not a thing.”
I groaned as I spun her away. When I pulled her back against me, my arms around her waist, her backside upon my twitching cock. “So good, love. You’ve more than earned your answer.” I swiped my lips over her neck and murmured onto her skin, “In your pussy and your naughty little mouth, first, I think. Then perhaps we’ll try front and back at once, like my shadows do to you. But we might need to work up to that. I wouldn’t want to break you.”
She made a soft wanting sound that shot straight to my dick like I was already buried inside her. “Can’t we go now?”
Goosebumps flooded her skin, and I watched the pulse leaping in her throat as we manoeuvred across the floor. “Later,” I breathed in her ear, making her shiver. “I promise.”
I had to lead her more strongly than usual for the rest of the dance, as she had a glazed look in her eye like she couldn’t focus on anything other than our plans. That suited me. She would be more than ready by the time we got to our rooms, and I would take my time making her come undone deep into the night.
Truth be told, by the time I escorted her from the dance floor, I was a little dazed myself, calculating whether we could leave and return in time for the eclipse. But no—for this I didn’t want to be rushed. If she was going to take both of me, I needed her completely relaxed.
It was only when she sucked in a little gasp, staring ahead, that I remembered anyone else existed.
My daze evaporated as I followed her line of sight. Her uncle. I needed to ask her to release me from that promise not to kill him. The sooner, the better.
But she didn’t miss a step, and with nothing more than a slight frown she turned with me.
“Are you all right, divine one?” I squeezed her hand.
She threw me a stiff smile and nodded. “I am, but I’m going to the ladies’ room to catch my breath.”
I nodded and kissed her brow, then watched her saunter away. Understandably, she wanted to regroup, but this was not the same woman who’d fled him back in Albion.
84
Kat
Orrery in one hand, I splashed water on my throat, cold enough to make me gasp. The shock rooted me in the marble bathroom and Uncle Rufus’s disapproving stare faded.
From above, daylight filtered and refracted through a series of crystals set into the roof. I counted the colours like Kaliban would’ve told me to. Azure and indigo. Violet and scarlet. Orange, gold, and true, verdant green.
My pulse slowed as calm rolled over me.
I wasn’t as afraid of Uncle Rufus as I’d once been, but when I ran the cold tap over my wrists it was a relief to see only my nails were purple. As my heart had lurched at the sight of him, I’d feared my magic breaking free, despite all my progress.
Calmed, I replaced the orrery in my bodice. This dress had no pockets, but a generous cleavage could double up as storage.
I gave myself a tight smile in the mirror. The rainbow light coming through the crystals glimmered over my gown and painted my skin. I turned this way and that, taking in my reflection and the way the fabric made it look like gold paint had spilled over my body.
Perhaps Bastian’s staring was understandable.
My smile eased into something more confident. A smile the Wicked Lady had been too desperate to give. A smile Lady Katherine of Riverton Palace had been too crushed beneath rules to allow herself.
It, like this body clad in gold, was all mine.
Perhaps that was what Bastian had always seen.
I wouldn’t want to break you.
In that moment, I’d wanted to be broken. By him, on him, with him. I’d have slipped my gown off then and there if he’d offered to pull me apart with both sides of him.
Later could not come soon enough.
Fuck Uncle Rufus.
As I left the bathroom, I let my mind linger on the thought of being sandwiched between two Bastians, like some sort of fucking delicious cake. Or should that be “delicious fucking cake?”
I was biting back a laugh as I rounded a corner and stopped short. At the end of the corridor walked a fae with fox-red hair bound in a braid.
The fae from Lunden.
They disappeared around the corner, and I hurried after. “Excuse me,” I called out. “Hey!”
I had to hike up my dress to run, but it was worth it, as I finally caught up. “Hello?”
They turned, lips pursed, brow furrowed. Brown eyes bored into me.
“You… You were in Lunden, weren’t you?”
Arms folding, they nodded once and went to turn away.
“Wait, no. I’m not done.” I tried to grab their sleeve but caught the hem of their coat instead.
They stopped stock still.
But that wasn’t why my breath caught. Beneath their coat sat a sword with a bronze fox head pommel and a matching dagger.