Page 58 of The Bound Zodiac

He grinned. “You want to question my stamina, Black? Because I can put that one to bed right now, if you want.”

My cheeks must have been crimson, but I didn’t look away. “You’re awfully full of yourself, you know.”

He drifted a little closer, the current swirling around us, the heat of his magic turning the water hot like a jacuzzi. Then he sobered, jaw tightening. “There is one thing, though.”

“Yeah?”

His eyes flicked up to mine, a furrow between his brows. “If we do this…if we open the portal, I kind of wish there was a way to keep my dad off the new worlds entirely. I can already feel the Assembly plotting. They’re going to bring all their bullshit with them, wherever they go. I’d rather leave them here, let them rot on Earth.”

“You think they’re even going to just let us go when the time comes? That easy?”

He shook his head, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “Nothing’s ever easy with them. But if it was up to me, I’d portal my father and Charles Callahan straight into a black hole and let the home worlds rebuild themselves without all the old parasites.”

I smirked at the mental image. “If you want, I could ‘accidentally’ open a portal that drops both of them onto a comet headed for deep space. Oops, my bad. Portal navigation is so tricky, you know?”

He laughed, and the deep sound made my heart do a traitorous little skip. “I’d pay good money to see that.”

“I accept tips,” I said.

Without warning, he ducked under the surface and disappeared into the shadows behind the waterfall. For a second I thought he’d decided this conversation was over, but then a golden glow flickered behind the sheet of crashing water, and I realized he’d found a hollow—a cave or maybe just a niche carved out by centuries of spray, hidden from the rest of the world.

He reappeared, hair slicked back, eyes burning bright and golden. “You coming, or are you scared the kelpie’s gonna get you?”

I swam after him, the warm current making it easy, and found myself ducking through the waterfall into a small cove. The sound was deafening for a second, but inside, it was calm and private, the stone arching overhead, the water glowing gold where his magic lit it from beneath.

I surfaced, shaking the droplets from my eyes, and before I could make a joke about secret lairs, his hands were on me. It wasn’t slow, and it sure as hell wasn’t gentle. He crashed into me, lips hungry and desperate, hands cupping my face and tangling in my hair. The heat of him burned straight through the water, and his mouth tasted like sunlight and fire.

He gasped when I kissed him back, genuine shock shivering through his body. I pressed closer, and he groaned. His hands slid to my back, pulling me flush to his chest, and the strength in his arms made my head spin.

He broke the kiss just enough to breathe my name. I ran my hands through his hair and wrapped my legs around his waist, anchoring myself to him. He shuddered in my arms, and I felt the pulse of his magic, the golden warmth now turning hot enough to steam the air.

He buried his face against my neck, kissing and biting down the line of my jaw, my throat, my collarbone, until I was shivering for a completely different reason.

“I’m sorry,” he said, voice raw between kisses. “God, I’m so fucking sorry, Jupiter. I never should have hurt you. Please, please, just tell me you can forgive me, tell me you don’t hate me. I can’t stand it. I can’t stand knowing that the one time I was inside you, you hated me. I can’t fucking stand it.”

I pulled back enough to see his face and his sunlight eyes wild. I cupped his cheek, made him look at me.

“Hey,” I said softly. “It’s alright, Aiden. I mean it. We have time to figure this out.”

He made a broken sound and pressed his forehead to mine, his grip on my hips tightening. When I rocked against him, I felt how hard he was, the line of his cock straining through the wet fabric between us.

He kissed me again, rougher this time, as if he was trying to erase every bad memory with the force of his mouth. I ground myself against him, feeling the heat bloom low in my belly, sending sparks into my fingertips.

“Show me,” I whispered. “You said you regret that I hated you the one time you were inside of me… Why don’t you fix that right now.”

He slammed me back against the stone wall, pinning me there with his body. The water crashed around us, cutting us off from the world, making everything else fade away. He kissed me until my lips tingled, and my head spun, hands roaming down my back, under my ass, and he lifted me easily, bracing me against the slick rock. The pressure of him between my thighs was perfect, and I moaned into his mouth without shame.

He shoved the wet fabric of my underwear aside and found me already soaked, not just from the water, but from months of wanting this, months of denying this.

He groaned, and sounded almost pained. I bit his shoulder, hard, and he hissed in pleasure.

“Don’t fucking stop, Aiden,” I snapped. “You want to fix this, then let’s fix this.”

He freed his cock with one hand, the fabric of his trunks shoved down just enough. He was thick and hot as he lined himself up, and for a moment, just hovered there, forehead pressed to mine, eyes searching.

He pushed in, slow at first, stretching me around him, filling me deliciously. The sensation was wild, a shockwave of exquisite pleasure that eased the sting of every bad memory, every ounce of shame or regret. He bottomed out, and for a second, we just hung there in the water, breathing each other in.

Then he started moving. It was nothing like the hate and anger and violence of our first and only time. I wasn’t trying to hurt him. I wasn’t trying to get revenge.