Page 24 of Oracle's Reign
He kissed her, his teeth sinking into her lower lip just enough to sting before he pulled back. “Then you haven’t learned your own value yet. I’ll have to try harder to teach you.”
It was wonderful in a way Yslie couldn’t articulate to have a man so intent on putting her first, but it wasn’t what she wanted. Certainly not with Peroen. She rolled over, straddling him. He had taken off his vest and shirt without her noticing, and now she braced her hands on the firm planes of his chest. She leaned over him, her hair falling around them in a curtain of darkness. “I’m not the only one who needs to learn. You are important, too. Why don’t we teach each other?”
She rocked against him, his trousers doing nothing to soften the steel of his cock. He groaned, and she repeated the motion. She lowered herself, until her breasts barely grazed his chest, and whispered in his ear. “Together, Peroen. I’ve been drinking the contraceptive brew.” Her cheeks didn’t blaze at the admission. Not with him. “I want everything.”
His hands clamped on her hips. “Together,” he agreed. “Always together.”
“You know,” she said, rubbing against him, making them both moan, “if we are partners—equal—you should be naked, too.”
“Yes.” But he didn’t release her hips, and she didn’t try to pull away. The sensations were too good.
But she knew it could be even better. “I need you inside me, Peroen.”
“Yes,” he repeated, and this time he moved. Flipping Yslie onto her back, he took her mouth in a fierce kiss, then pulled away. His trousers were on the ground a moment later, and she welcomed him back into the cradle between her thighs.
He didn’t waste any time, slowly pushing into her. “So perfect, Yslie. So tight and wet.”
She wrapped her legs around him, locking her ankles and pulling him the final bit inside. “Not just me,” she corrected with a moan. “We’re perfect together.”
“Yes.” The word dragged out of him at the same torturous pace as his movements. He pulled almost all the way out, then repeated the slow glide back in. “You were made for me, and I for you.”
“Yes,” she agreed, lifting her hips.
They met halfway, and then they lost themselves in ecstasy, moving faster. Deliberation gave way to instinct.
Peroen’s dark eyes stayed locked with Yslie’s, and she couldn’t stop herself from spiraling tighter and tighter. But she refused to shatter alone. “Now, Peroen. Now!”
They came together. Two bodies, one pleasure. One heart.
It took longer to surface from the glow of release this time. Yslie tucked herself closer to Peroen and allowed herself the peace of enjoying the moment. She didn’t care that the cushions had been shoved aside, that she rested on the hard floor. She knew she’d revisit this memory with her power over and over for the rest of her life.
Peroen smoothed a hand down her back, stopping on the swell of her bottom. Then he shifted, rolling so that she rested on him instead of the wood. “Sorry about the floor. I had intended to make it to the bedroom.”
“Even if we had ended up in a storeroom rather than your suite, I’d regret nothing.”
“Yslie?”
She froze at the uncertainty in his voice. “Yes?”
“I love you. I don’t think I said that yet.”
She relaxed against him. “I love you, too.”
“You’ll marry me, then?”
She lifted her head, reality creeping into her dream-come-true. “We probably need to deal with the Assembly before we make such a commitment.”
“No. This isn’t about politics. I want to spend the rest of my days—and nights—with you. Will you marry me, Yslie?”
A “yes” was on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn’t ignore politics so easily. She knew all too well what it meant to be powerless. She knew the pain of hoping, then having those hopes torn away. She knew better than to celebrate when others could still interfere.
“Yslie?”
“I want to,” she whispered before sitting up. She looked around, spotted her tunic just within reach, and grabbed it. “I want to say yes and ignore everything else. But what if the Assembly votes to make the choice for you?”
“Then the Assembly can find a different puppet to place on the throne after my father.” Peroen reached for her, but she pulled on the tunic and stood.
Then she paced. “Can you live with yourself if you give up your inheritance?”
