Chapter 22: The Eclipse Beckons
Evander's mouth found the hollow of her throat and dragged lower, hot and unhurried, while the festival drums hammered a pulse that matched the one between her thighs. His hand slid beneath the slit of her dress, palm skimming her bare hip, and the bond flared white-hot through her chest. Violet gasped, her fingers knotting in his hair.
Across the grounds, Cassian's answering growl rolled through the night like distant thunder, possessive even at a distance.
Evander smiled against her skin. "He's watching. Listening." His lips brushed the swell of her breast, barely covered by the black silk. "He can smell you, Violet. So can I."
The stone wall pressed cool against her back, a sharp contrast to the furnace of his body. She arched into him, hips pushing forward, seeking more of that calloused hand that had yet to move higher.
"Then take me, my king."
The words came out wrecked, breathless, nothing like the composed Royal Magical Advisor she usually was. She didn't care. The dress had bought her courage, and his mouth was buying her everything else.
Evander's hand slid higher, fingers skimming the inside of her thigh. The slit in the dress gave him everything, black silk falling open like an invitation. He hummed his approval when he found the damp heat waiting for him.
"Fuck, you're soaked already." His voice was gravel, rough with hunger. "All night I've been watching you in this dress, thinking about what was underneath. What I'd do when I finally got you alone."
His forefinger traced through her slick folds, barely dipping, teasing. Violet's head fell back against the stone, a moan escaping her lips.
"Don't tease," she breathed. "Not tonight. Please."
"Please?" He circled her clit with agonizing slowness, his ocean-blue eyes locked on her face, drinking in every flicker of pleasure. "That's a good word. Say it again."
"Please, Evander."
He rewarded her with two fingers, sliding deep inside her. Violet cried out, her body clenching around him. The bond flared again, and somewhere in the distance, Cassian's growl came louder, closer.
"Can you feel him?" Evander's fingers worked her slowly, deliberately, while his thumb pressed against her clit. "The bond lets him feel this. Every inch of me inside you. Every pulse of your cunt around my fingers."
"Oh gods." Violet's hips rolled against his hand, chasing more. "He can feel it?"
"Every sensation," Evander confirmed, his voice dark and satisfied. "He's out there aching for you, and he's happy. Happy that I'm the one ruining you first, because he knows what's coming for him later."
His fingers curled, finding that spot deep inside her that made her knees buckle. He caught her, arm wrapping around her waist, holding her up against the wall as his hand worked her without mercy.
"I promised myself," he murmured against her ear, his breath hot and ragged, "that I'd have you alone like this. Taste you before I share you beneath the eclipse."
"Then taste me."
The words were demanding, brazen, and wild. Not the Violet who hid behind robes and propriety. This was the Violet the dress had uncovered, the one who'd been trapped for fifty years and was done hiding.
Evander dropped to his knees in the shadows without hesitation.
He pushed the slit of her dress wider, baring her completely to the cool night air. The sight of her, wet and aching and open before him, brought a rumble from his chest that vibrated through her thighs.
"Gorgeous," he said, and that single word was a benediction. "The most beautiful thing I've ever seen, and I've lived three and a half centuries."
He leaned in, and the first stroke of his tongue split her open like a gift.
Violet's hips jerked. One hand grabbed the back of his head, holding him there, while the other braced flat against the stone wall, fingers scrabbling for purchase. His tongue was broad, flat, and soaked, dragging through her from entrance to clit with slow, tasting strokes.
"Fuck," she breathed. "Fuck, Evander."
He hummed against her, sending vibrations through her clit that made her thigh shake. His hands gripped her hips, fingers digging into the soft flesh as he pulled her closer to his face, eating her like she was the last meal he'd ever have.
The bond flared, and she felt it, a phantom echo of pleasure that wasn't hers. Cassian's. He was feeling this through their connection, from however many yards away. The thought made her hotter, wetter, and Evander growled his approval at the change.
"That's it," he rasped against her, the words vibrating through her flesh. "He's tasting you through my mouth. Feeling you come apart on my tongue. Fuck, Violet, your mate is going to lose his mind."
His mouth returned to her clit, and he did something with his tongue that erased all thought. A figure eight pattern, then a hard suck, then a flick that made stars burst behind her eyes. Two fingers slid back inside her, crooked at just the right angle.
Violet's moans bounced off the stone alcove, swallowed by the festival noise beyond. The drums had become background now, drowned by the roar of blood in her ears.
"I'm close," she gasped. "Evander, I'm going to come."
"Good," he said against her. "Come in my mouth, love. Let Cassian feel exactly what I'm doing to you. Let him ache for his turn."
His fingers curled again, pressing against that spot, and his mouth latched onto her clit with relentless suction. She shattered.
Her climax ripped through her like a storm, sudden and consuming. Her body bowed against the wall, hips grinding against his face as wave after wave crashed through her. She cried out, his name a broken litany on her lips, her fingers fisted in his hair hard enough to hurt.
Evander drank every drop. He worked her through it with unhurried patience, his tongue softening to gentle laps as she trembled and shook, until she was sobbing soft, breathless sounds and her knees had gone to water entirely.
He rose, catching her weight against his chest. His lips were slick with her, his beard wet with her, and his blue eyes were almost black with hunger.
"The eclipse is nearly here." His voice was gravel, rough as stone. "I can feel it approaching, and I can feel Cassian circling closer. He's been patient, my love. Very patient."
Violet's chest heaved. She could feel it, a presence pulling at her, the bond tugging her south toward the grounds, where Cassian waited in the shadows, feeling everything.
"Then let's not keep him waiting," she whispered.
Evander kissed her, and she tasted herself on his lips, salt and musk. His hand found hers and threaded their fingers together, anchoring her while her body still hummed with aftershocks.
"One more thing," he said, pulling back just enough to look at her. His thumb traced her cheekbone, a gentle counterpoint to the filth he'd just worked into her. "When we step back into that light, everyone will see what you are. What you belong to. Are you ready for that?"
She looked past his shoulder, toward the festival glow, toward the dark shape she could just make out at the edge of the trees. Cassian. Watching. Waiting.
"I've been hiding for fifty years." Violet squeezed his hand. "I'm done hiding."
Evander's smile was slow, possessive, and devastating. "Good."
They stepped out of the alcove together, and the festival noise rushed back in. The drums, the laughter, the crackle of bonfires. And there was Cassian, striding toward them through the crowd like a predator who'd been patient too long.
His golden eyes were fixed on Violet, on the flush on her chest, on the wetness he could certainly smell, and the growl that rumbled from his chest was all promise.
"Evander," he said, his voice low and rough. "Did you enjoy your appetizer?"
"Immeasurably." Evander's hand stayed at the small of Violet's back. "But I find I'm ravenous for the main course."
Cassian's gaze dropped to Violet, and something dark and hungry moved in his eyes. "She's ours," he said. "All night. The eclipse is almost full over, and I intend to make her scream so loud the entire festival knows exactly who she belongs to."
Violet's pulse raced, fresh heat blooming between her thighs despite the orgasm that had barely finished. "Then stop talking, Cassian."
He laughed, low and dangerous. And grabbed her hand, drawing her into the shadowed trees beyond the firelight.