Page 69 of The Bound Zodiac

The duplicate smiled that same crooked, devastating smile, and lowered his mouth to mine while Eris pulled my leggings down my legs. Two sets of hands on my body, two mouths, two versions of the same man.

The original Eris kissed down my stomach, his beard scraping against my skin, and I gasped into the duplicate’s mouth. Their hands moved in perfect synchronization, one set at my hips, the other at my breasts, and the sensation was overwhelming.

The duplicate pulled back from my mouth, his eyes locked on mine. “Open,” he said, and his voice was Eris’s voice, rough and Scottish and so fucking commanding that I obeyed without thinking.

He shifted then, moving until his cock, hard and thick and exactly the same as the original’s, pressed against my lips. I opened wider, and he pushed inside, and the taste of him flooded my mouth.

The original Eris was watching, his eyes dark, his hand wrapped around his own cock, stroking slowly. “Fuck, look at you,” he breathed. “Taking me so well.”

I moaned around the duplicate’s cock, and the sound vibrated through both of them. The duplicate gripped my hair, fucking my mouth with slow, deep thrusts that had tears prickling at the corners of my eyes.

And then the original was there, pressing against my entrance, pushing inside me in one long, devastating stroke. I screamed around the thick cock in my mouth. The original Eris set a brutal pace, his hips driving into mine. The duplicate matched him stroke for stroke, fucking my mouth in time, and the synchronization was perfect.

“God, you’re so wet and warm,” the original groaned, his hands gripping my hips hard. “You feel like heaven.”

The duplicate pulled out of my mouth just long enough to let me gasp for air, a string of saliva connecting my lips to his cock. “Tell me you want this,” he said, echoing the original’s words from before. “Tell me this is real.”

“It’s real,” I panted, and then he was pushing back in, and I took him to the root, my throat relaxing around him, and he groaned, his head falling back.

The original changed the angle, tilting my hips up, and the next thrust hit something inside me that made my vision whiten. I clenched around him, and he cursed, his rhythm faltering for just a second before he found it again, harder now.

“Harder,” I gasped, the word barely coherent around the duplicate’s cock.

The original Eris snarled, and his hips snapped forward, driving into me so deep I felt him in my fucking ribs. The duplicate matched him, thrusting into my mouth with the same punishing rhythm, and the synchronization between them was so perfect it felt like one consciousness split across two bodies. Because that’s exactly what it was.

I couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. My body was a live wire, every nerve ending screaming, the bond between us wide open and blazing so bright it felt like the forest was on fire. Through it, I felt everything—Eris’s restraint finally, gloriously snapping, the duplicate’s mirrored hunger, the raw, aching need that had been building in both of them for months.

The original’s hand slid between us, his thumb finding my clit, and he pressed down hard, circling, and made my back bow off the moss. The duplicate’s hand tightened in my hair, angling my head, and I moaned around him, the vibration making both of them groan in unison.

I was already close. So close the edges of my vision were going white. The duplicate pulled out of my mouth just long enough to let me scream as the original drove into me one more time, his thumb relentless on my clit.

“Eris—” I sobbed, and that was all it took.

The orgasm ripped through me like a supernova. My whole body locked, every muscle seizing, and I screamed so loud I was sure the entire academy heard me. The original Eris buried himself to the hilt and came with a roar that shook the leaves above us.

The duplicate was right there with him, his cock pulsing against my tongue, and I swallowed around him, tasting salt and heat as he spilled down my throat.

The air beside me shimmered, and the duplicate dissolved, the light collapsing inward, snapping back into the original Eris like a rubber band pulled taut and released.

Eris’s whole body shuddered, his hips jerking one final time, and he groaned. His forehead dropped to mine as he bent over my body, his breath coming in ragged, heaving gasps, his arms trembling where they braced on either side of my head.

The forest was silent except for our breathing and the distant crackle of the leaves in the wind. I could feel his heartbeat against my chest, matching mine.

He lifted his head. His eyes were still glowing copper-bright, and the look in them was something I felt in my fucking soul. “Congratulations, lass, now you’re never gettin’ rid of me.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

JUPITER

Maybe it should have felt more glamorous, but getting ready for a high society gala with Lydia, Kassie, and Valeria was exhausting.

Lydia was sprawled on my bed, legs dangling off the edge, a glass of whatever-the-hell she’d smuggled in from the kitchen in one hand. Her baby blue dress shimmered, tiny crystals beading the bodice, and her hair was up in this messy, fairytale bun. She’d already let Valeria tackle her makeup, so now her eyes looked bigger, and her mouth was painted the softest pink.

Valeria, for her part, was pure ice queen tonight in a cream-colored gown, fitted at the waist, the skirt flaring out princess style.

Kassie sat at my desk chair, her golden silk dress clinging in all the right places, streaks of blue in her hair and this open, genuine grin that made me want to hug her and maybe apologize for dragging her into this insane world. I wondered if she genuinely had no idea what she was in for. Had Tye warned her about Assembly politics?

I was still in my robe, pacing like an idiot, and trying to convince myself I wouldn’t throw up as soon as I put the damn dress on. Noodle watched the proceedings from his perch on my dresser, head up, tongue flicking, eyes judging every single one of us.