Page 79 of Bound to Three Fae Beasts

I pulled back, startled at her determined tone.

Azriel cupped the back of my neck and pushed herself closer. Her breasts pressed up against my chest and she rolled her hips again. The friction made my cock throb.

“Everything here is a threat. I don’t think I’m going to survive to the end of the year, anyway, so what difference does it make? I want this, Jasper. I want to be close to you, and I want to feel this. Please,” she begged. “I’d rather be executed for having sex with you than die in those fucking trials.”

It was so hard to resist her, but I made myself do it anyway. “You don’t have to die. Seb has feelings for you.”

Her hold on me loosened slightly. “I know. We … uh….” Her cheeks turned pink and she averted her gaze. “He doesn’t want to do anything that might risk a pregnancy.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. A wave of envy rushed hot and angry in my chest. I pulled her tighter, possessive even though I should have been encouraging her to be with him. “If you know his feelings, why are you here with me? You’d be safer with him.”

“Because I want more than he’s willing to give, and I’m not going to ask him to change his mind. He told me no. You haven’t. Not yet,” she added and her fingers tightened on me again. “If you don’t want to risk it, I’ll leave.”

I laughed hoarsely as I kissed her jaw. “I’m too selfish. You shouldn’t want to be with a selfish man like me, putting you at greater risk. Gods, Azriel. I can’t tell you what I feel.”

“You already did.” She tilted her head back, giving me access to her neck. I kissed across her sensitive skin, enjoying the way she shivered in response. “You told me that if ‘they’ find out that you feel the mate-bond toward me, they’ll kill me. I know what that means.”

I kissed across her throat and down the front of her tunic. Her breasts were soft beneath the rough fabric, and I impatiently pushed my hands under the front of it, lifting it out of the way. Azriel gladly helped me remove it. Her undershirt had a scooped neckline, revealing the pillowy tops of her breasts. I kissed them, my cheek nudging against a bent brooch she had pinned to the spot over her heart.

But that was as far as I let myself go. I pulled back and Azriel let out a soft, impatient noise.

“Then you know the depths of Seb’s feelings for you. You know that all you’d have to do is get a contraceptive and he’d be yours,” I said, reluctant. But she needed to know she had other options. Better options.

“He already told me there’s no future for us, regardless. Even if I was the most powerful fae in our generation, I wouldn’t be good enough to be his wife,” she said with a shake of her head.

I smiled bitterly. “Being an heir’s official mistress is a respectable enough position. I can’t protect you from anything. I can’t even protect myself, and once I’ve graduated, I’ll be castrated.”

Her eyes widened. For a moment, I thought that was going to be enough to convince her.

“You still haven’t said you want me to leave. You haven’t told me you don’t want to have me,” she said.

“That’s not the point—”

“It is. If we both have limited time, let’s just take advantage of the time we have. If they’re going to castrate you anyway, why not go all the way while you can? If I’m going to die, why not take the pleasure and comfort that I so desperately want?”

She gave me a smile, one so full of pain and longing that it broke down the rest of my resistance. Was there something fundamentally selfish in me that I gave in? Was it a weakness, wanting to ease her loss? Was I weak, or was this rebellion?

I kissed her again. Azriel nibbled on my lower lip, and I let my hands roam over her body. She rocked her hips again, reminding me that I was still hard. Need burned through me, making me feel powerful and helpless all at the same time. I should pull back, but I was beyond that now.

“Jasper,” Azriel whispered. “Jasper.”

I laid her back on the floor, then snatched a pillow from the couch to put under her head. Her lips were rosy from our kisses, and her hair spilled out around her. She lifted her legs higher up my waist, locking her feet together behind my ass.

She was so beautiful. The raw emotions in her expression, the open need in her eyes. The way she looked at me without a trace of fear. She knew I was dangerous. She knew the risks. She knew everything, and she thought I was worth it anyway.

I didn’t care if she was only risking it because of her grief. I didn’t care if once she had what she wanted, she walked away and never looked back. Because I needed this, too. I needed something to hold on to, someone who looked at me like this, even if it was just for tonight.

Her breathing came in quick gasps as she tugged on the bottom of my tunic, lifting it over my head. I responded by sliding my hands beneath her undershirt, moving it slowly up her body. When I’d removed it, I gazed down at her body, admiring what I saw. She was toned. Still bruised in a few places from our time in the trials today, the dark ruptures a sharp contrast to her otherwise pale tones.

She smiled at me, her dimples flashing. I kissed one, then the other, as I pressed my palms into her warm breasts. Her nipples hardened against my palms, and she let out a shaky moan. When her hands drifted down my back, tracing the length of my spine, I shivered. Her touch felt so good. So free.

“Your skin is so soft,” she whispered. Her fingers skimmed over my neck and up to my face. She touched the scars there, her gaze more curious than anything else. “You’re very handsome, too. Do you know that?”

“Of course.” I laughed as she shot me a dirty look. “But thank you for telling me anyway.”

I dropped my mouth to hers, kissing her more deeply. She twitched beneath me, and I let my hand slide down her warm body to the top of her trousers. I could already imagine how good it would feel to push inside of her.

“What the fuck?” breathed a voice near the door.