CHAPTER TWENTY

KYRION

W endell hurried forward and stretched out his hand, as though he was going to go after Vesper. I blocked his path.

" Don't ," I warned in a cold voice. "Don't you dare ."

Wendell's hand wilted to his side.

"Perhaps we should retire to our suites," Beatrice said. "We had a long trip from Corios."

"I don't care where you go or what you do," I said, my voice even colder than before. "Just stay away from Vesper."

Beatrice harrumphed. "You are in no position to tell me what to do, Kyrion. You've made my granddaughter a fugitive, and yourself one too. And your mother would roll over in her grave if she heard the impertinent tone you're taking with a Regal lady."

Icy fury roared through my body at her tossing Desdemona's devotion to manners in my face. "My mother would heartily applaud my tone—and then she would march over there and slap you across the face for abandoning your own granddaughter."

Beatrice's spine stiffened.

"You should be glad my mother's not here, my lady , because she was certainly no fan of yours. Desdemona always said you cared more about avoiding scandal than anything else, including your supposed claims about family always coming first. My mother saw you for what you truly are—a bloody coward ."

An angry blush stained Beatrice's cheeks a dark, mottled red, and her hands fisted in her skirt.

"Come," Wendell said in an anxious voice, glancing back and forth between me and his mother. "You're right. We should retire to our suites."

Beatrice lifted her chin and followed her son out of the library.

"That went well," Zane drawled.

I spun around on my heel and strode out of the room. Like Vesper, I'd had more than enough of the Zimmers.

Asterin was waiting in the corridor, a sympathetic look on her face. "Vesper said she wanted a few minutes alone."

I reached out with the bond. Emotions vibrated along the velvety ribbon of Vesper—hurt, anger, confusion, longing. As much as I wanted to find Vesper, put my arms around her, and tell her everything was going to be okay, I respected her desire for privacy, even as a sense of helplessness cascaded over me. Her unwanted family was one hard problem I couldn't solve with my stormsword.

"Let's fix your nose," Asterin said. "Then you can check on Vesper."

The confrontation inside the library had been so tense that I'd forgotten about my broken nose, but as soon as Asterin mentioned it, a fresh wave of pain throbbed through my face.

Footsteps sounded, heading in this direction, and a cool, familiar presence oozed around me like space sludge.

Zane swaggered to a stop beside me. "Your nose is a spectacular shade of blue, black, and green. Not to mention the blood crusted on your face. You really should get that looked at, Kyr."

Asterin sighed. "Why don't you do us all a favor and leave, Zane?"

He grinned. "And miss all the fun of watching Kyrion scowl while you wrench his nose back where it's supposed to be? Never ." He bowed to her, then held his hand out to the side. "Lead the way, my lady."

Asterin huffed, but she set off down the corridor. I followed her, and Zane fell into step beside me. He studied every door, window, and archway, along with the guards. Zane was making sure he knew where all the entrances and exits were, just like I had done this morning.

Asterin stepped into an infirmary made of pale green tile. Several medtables were spaced throughout the room, while clear polyplastic cabinets along the wall contained vials of antibiotics, skinbond injectors, and other supplies.

Asterin gestured for me to sit on a medtable. I did as she asked, although the table was cranked up so high my long legs dangled off the side, making me feel as though I was a child.

Zane leaned a shoulder against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest, studying everything in the infirmary, although his gaze kept straying back to Asterin. Curious. Perhaps he was worried about Asterin grabbing a laser scalpel and cutting his tongue out of his mocking mouth. The thought had certainly crossed my mind, but I doubted even that drastic action would silence Zane. The clever bastard would no doubt find some new way to torture me.

Asterin grabbed a skinbond injector and stabbed it into my upper left arm. She tossed the used injector into a recycler, then stepped closer to me and flexed her fingers.

"I need to put your nose back into place before the skinbond kicks in. Otherwise, it might heal crooked." Asterin gave me another sympathetic look. "This is going to hurt."

"Just do it—"

Asterin wrenched my nose to the side. I hissed. A few seconds later, the skinbond started pumping through my veins, dulling the bright, sparking pain to a dim, pulsing throb.

Asterin wet a cloth and handed it to me, and I wiped the blood off my face and tossed the soiled linen into the recycler.

"Well, that was entirely too easy," Zane said. "I was hoping Kyrion would scream a bit."

"The only one who's going to be screaming is you," I growled. "Right after I shove my sword into your chest."

Zane clucked his tongue. "Please. We both know you're never going to do that. You can't do that now, given that I am your beloved's big brother. Vesper might not like me much, but I doubt she wants me dead."

My fingers twitched with the urge to throttle him, but he was right. Vesper was hurt and angry, but she didn't want any of the Zimmers dead, not even Zane.

"I might not be able to kill you, but you can't kill me either. Vesper would kill you herself for that."

Zane's lips turned down into an exaggerated pout. "Yes, well, your truebond with Vesper is an unfortunate fact we're all going to have to live with. Have the two of you figured out your psion powers yet? Or is my sister still randomly astral-projecting herself into people's libraries?"

His voice was light and breezy, but concern wafted off him and tweaked my telempathy.

My eyes narrowed. "You actually care about her."

A mulish expression tightened his face. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

I wouldn't get a straight answer out of him, so I tried a different tactic. "How did you know we were coming to Sygnustern? You couldn't have possibly tracked us here."

"Oh, that was easy. Asterin told me."

Asterin jerked back in surprise. "I did no such thing!"

Zane cocked an eyebrow at her. "Oh, yes, you did. I saw how chatty you were with Tivona Winslow and Leandra Ferrum during the summer solstice ball. Every time I turned around, the three of you were whispering, and it wasn't hard to figure out you were talking about my dear sister and her unfortunate choice of paramour. Especially since you, Tivona, and Leandra had already helped Vesper and Kyrion escape from Crownpoint."

Asterin sputtered, but Zane waved his hand, cutting her off.

"Don't bother denying it. Scores of Regals and servants recorded the midnight ball on their tablets, as did the gossipcasts. I went through all the footage—every last frame ."

Zane stabbed his finger at Asterin. "You, my lady, tripped some soldiers trying to apprehend Vesper and Kyrion outside the throne room. Daichi and Touma Hirano scrambled the security cameras, while Tivona Winslow and Leandra Ferrum took out some Imperium soldiers and Bronze Hand guards. Thus clearing the way for Vesper and Kyrion to board the Dream World and zoom away from the palace."

I'd figured someone would eventually piece it all together, but Zane doing it so quickly didn't surprise me. He might act like an arrogant idiot, but he could be quite clever and dogged when he put his mind to it.

"But little did Vesper and Kyrion know that Adria Byrne had snuck onto their ship." Zane focused on me. "I'm assuming you and Vesper eliminated Adria, since she is nowhere to be found. How did you manage that? I saw Adria after Vesper killed Dargan in the throne room. She was mad with grief at the loss of her truebond with her brother. No way she went down easy."

"No, Adria didn't go down easy," I muttered. "I was getting healed in the hyperbaric chamber on the medtable when she attacked. Vesper has an O2 enhancement, so she purged all the oxygen out of the cargo bay. Adria died. Vesper didn't."

Zane's golden eyebrows shot up. "That must have been hard to watch."

He had no bloody idea. I would never forget how Vesper had struggled to breathe and then crumpled to the floor when she too ran out of air. How she had been more dead than alive when I'd finally freed myself from the medtable. How I'd used a strange combination of luck, along with our truebond, to find Vesper deep in her mindscape and bring her back to me.

"Since the ball, Tivona has been funneling Quill Corp credits into an account owned by a baroness with a ridiculously long name that's clearly an alias for Vesper." Zane snapped his fingers. "Oh, and Daichi and Touma are hiding out on Corios, just in case you and Vesper return home."

I stiffened. "If you hurt any of them—"

Zane snorted, cutting off my threat. "Your friends are fine. Tivona is surrounded by Quill Corp guards, who are being whipped into shape by Leandra, and as far as Daichi and Touma know, they are perfectly safe in their little hidey-hole."

I bit back a curse. Zane knew everything , and he could whisper a few words into Holloway's ear and have our friends arrested anytime he wanted.

"What do you want, Zane? Because there is always a price for your silence."

"True," he agreed. "But in this case, it's more about what my father wants."

When Wendell had looked at Vesper in the library, a combination of guilt, pride, and hope had boiled off him like steam from a red-hot teapot. Most Regal lords were cold, pompous bastards, but Wendell was the exception to the rule. Even my mother had liked him.

"This was your idea, wasn't it? Bringing your grandmother and your father to Sygnustern so the three of you could have this impromptu family reunion. So your father could try to build a relationship with Vesper."

Zane's eyes glinted with a mixture of fury and disgust. "It's hardly a reunion when no one ever mentioned you had a sister in the first place."

"You feel like you're the one who's been wronged because Beatrice never told you about Vesper?" I shook my head. "By the stars, you are even more selfish than I imagined."

A muscle twitched in Zane's jaw, but he quickly smoothed out his expression. "It doesn't matter how selfish I am. Vesper is my sister, and you are bonded with her ." He crossed his fingers together. "You and I are stuck with each other, dear Kyrion, glued together by your bloody truebond, whether we like it or not."

"You call Vesper your sister like it actually means something to you."

Even more fury flared in Zane's eyes, making them gleam like icy Frozon moons. "It means everything to me, which you damn well know. You told me Vesper was my sister before the midnight ball in hopes I would help you both escape. You were counting on it. You think I'm a manipulator? Yes, I am, but you, dear Kyrion, are just as diabolical."

"Not me," I snapped back. "I didn't care what happened to me . I wanted you to help her . Unlike you, Zane, I will always put Vesper's well-being above my own."

Zane huffed. "It's easy to be self-righteous when your family is dead, and you don't have anyone else to care about—or who cares about you in return."

Asterin sucked in a breath. I glowered at Zane, who smirked back at me. He'd scored a direct hit with that verbal barb, and the worst part was that he was right .

Ever since my parents had died, I had been on my own, more or less. Oh, Daichi and Touma had been my friends for years, and now I had new friends in Asterin, Tivona, and Leandra, but Vesper . . .

Vesper was the one I loved.

The knowledge flooded my mind like a sun rising above the horizon, banishing the shadows, and revealing a planet's surface, but my heart had known it for quite some time, like a blue moon that was constant and steady in the sky, even if you couldn't always see it.

Vesper was my blue moon. My sun, my stars, and everything else that was bright and beautiful and lovely in the galaxy.

Perhaps I had fallen for Vesper during the Regal ball when she had outsmarted Holloway by covering the marks on her hand when I had cut my own hand as part of the truebond test. Or perhaps it had happened when we'd shared a quiet meal on the Dream World . Or the first time I'd kissed her. Or when I'd pulled her out of the dark depths of her mindscape and back into the real world. Or perhaps I had loved her through all of that and just hadn't wanted to admit it to myself until right now.

But I loved Vesper, which meant Zane was right—the two of us were stuck with each other. Vesper might claim she didn't want anything to do with the Zimmers, but I'd felt her longing in the library. Despite everything Beatrice had done, a small part of Vesper still wanted to give the Zimmers a chance, and I would never deny her that opportunity, even if I deeply despised her unexpected brother.

"What do you want, Zane?" I asked again, tired of his theatrics.

"What does anyone in the galaxy want? Love, peace, happiness, prosperity," he drawled. "Perhaps a basket of corgi puppies and boodle kittens for good measure."

"You really are insufferable," Asterin muttered.

Zane gasped and clutched a hand to his heart. "You wound me, fair lady. Why, I have not begun to be insufferable yet."

Asterin's fingers twitched as though she wanted to throttle him, a sentiment I shared.

"As I said before, it's more about what my father wants, and that is a chance to get to know his daughter." Zane waggled his finger back and forth between Asterin and me. "The two of you will not interfere with that, so no whispering in Vesper's ear about how horrible we Zimmers are. That might be true for Beatrice and me, but it's not for my father."

Once again, Zane was right. His father had always been courteous, and even kind, to me. And after I'd killed my own father in self-defense, Wendell and Beatrice had been the only Regals who had voted against my being executed.

"You don't know Vesper at all if you think I or anyone else could convince her to have a relationship with your father," I replied. "Vesper makes up her own mind."

Zane tipped his head, conceding my point. "Yes, but for some reason I will never understand, your opinion matters greatly to her. So do us both a favor and keep quiet about how much you hate me, okay?"

I laughed. "I don't need to give Vesper a reason to hate you, Zane. You did that all on your own. Or do you not remember calling her my conquest when we were sparring at Castle Zimmer a few months ago?"

He shifted on his feet. "Yes, well, Vesper retaliated by building a science experiment of a blaster and burning my clothes, so I'd say the two of us are even." He shrugged. "Besides, siblings fight."

Siblings? What was he playing at? Was he actually . . . sincere ? Despite his breezy tone and arrogant smirk, Zane's posture was tight and tense, and he kept rubbing his fingers over the Z sigils carved into his stormsword. Even more telling, cold worry kept wafting off him and twinging my telempathy, like a lonely winter cloud spitting out hard bits of snow.

Zane really did view Vesper as his sister, and he actually wanted this crazy gambit to work. He truly wanted Vesper to be part of the Zimmer family— his family.

"Kyrion isn't the one you should be threatening," Asterin chimed in, fury rippling through her voice. "You came to my planet and invaded my mother's home. You have no interest in the Erzton marriage mart or especially in courting me."

"True, but pretending to repair whatever this is"—he sliced his hand back and forth between himself and Asterin—"was the only way I could land on this mountainous rock."

Even more fury flared in Asterin's eyes. Her fingers twitched again and curled into fists, and psion power rippled off her, although I still couldn't tell what abilities she had.

"I saw an opportunity, and I took it," Zane continued. "Just like you took the opportunity to break into Jorge Rojillo's lab during the summer solstice ball." He tilted his head to the side, studying her a little more closely. "What are you going to do with those designs you stole? What, exactly, does an Erzton lady need with an air purifier?"

A muscle twitched in Asterin's jaw, and it took her a few seconds to swallow her fury. "None of your damn business."

"Ah, but it is my business," Zane countered. "Seeing as how your spying and thieving could reflect poorly on me and House Zimmer, if it were to be discovered. Not to mention what your mother and stepfather would say if they were to realize the real reason you've been pretending to hunt for a husband is to steal tech from Regal Houses. That would cause quite the scandal and probably ruin your chances of ever snaring a husband, among either the Regals or the Erztonians."

"At least then I wouldn't wind up shackled to you," Asterin retorted.

Zane clucked his tongue. "Temper, temper, fair lady."

Asterin's fingers fisted a little tighter.

"That's enough," I growled. "You've made your bloody point. Leave Asterin alone. This is between you and me."

"Ah, but I can't do that. This is what is called mutually assured destruction." Zane's lips puckered in thought. "Or perhaps triply assured destruction, since three of us are involved in this little triangle of nastiness."

He stabbed his finger at Asterin. "You can't kick my family off the estate lest I reveal your spying and thieving to the Colliers." He stabbed his finger at me. "And you can't give in to your murderous urges and kill me because I'm Vesper's brother. You also can't badmouth my family lest I decide to tell Holloway the real reason I've come to Sygnustern."

Zane was right. Asterin and I were stuck with him, and his family, until he deemed otherwise.

I slid off the medtable, stalked forward, and stopped right in front of him, but Zane didn't back down or back away. He'd never done that, not even when we were boys fighting in a Regal schoolyard. He simply had no fear, which was something I'd always admired about him, as aggravating as that was. Curiously enough, he reminded me of Vesper in that way.

"Ah, but there is your problem," I countered in a cold voice. "You can't tell Holloway you came here because your father wants to have a relationship with Vesper. Holloway would order his Bronze Hand guards to seize you, along with your family, and he would destroy your House, along with everyone with even a drop of Zimmer blood."

Agreement flashed in Zane's eyes. We both knew how desperate Holloway was to capture Vesper and me—and how severely he would punish Zane for not immediately revealing our location.

"Like I said, we're all trapped in this little triangle of trouble," Zane said. "So let's make the best of it, eh?"

Neither Asterin nor I responded.

Zane let out a loud, fake yawn and stretched his arms high. He stretched a little wider, then dropped his arms to his sides. "All this family drama has worn me out. I'm going to bed. See you in the morning."

With those ominous words, he snapped off a mock salute, then sauntered out of the infirmary.

"Is it just me, or did that sound more like a threat than a good night?" Asterin asked.

"With Zane, everything is always a threat."

Now I just had to figure out how much of a danger he was truly going to be to Vesper. Oh, Zane wouldn't physically hurt Vesper. Family really did mean something to Zane, and Wendell would never forgive his son for harming his long-lost daughter.

No, I was worried how much of Vesper's heart Zane might destroy.

A sterin's tablet pinged. Verona and Aldrich had returned to the estate, so she went to check on them. I didn't ask what she was going to tell them about Vesper, Zane, Wendell, and Beatrice. It didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

Zane was right. Anything he, Asterin, and I did to try to free ourselves from this tangled knot of secrets would only end in disaster for all of us.

I returned to our suite and found Vesper in the bedroom, curled up on a long, wide window seat that overlooked the topiary garden where I'd had breakfast with Lady Verona. The Frozon moon and stars were shining brightly overhead, gilding the peonies in a cool silver light.

"A credit for your thoughts?" I asked in a soft voice.

Vesper gestured at the opposite end of the window seat. I sat down on the cushion, but I kept my distance, giving her all the space she needed.

"I'm sorry I ran away," she said. "I just couldn't look at them any longer."

"I understand." I hesitated, then finished my thought. "I used to feel the same way about my parents."

Vesper frowned. "What do you mean?"

I shrugged, although that didn't ease the sudden tension in my shoulders. "When I was a child, I didn't understand what was going on with my parents and Holloway. All I knew was whenever my mother and father went to see him, one or sometimes both would stay in bed sick for days afterward."

"You couldn't have possibly understood the magnitude of what Holloway was doing, how he was siphoning off your parents' magic."

I let out a bitter laugh. "But I did understand the magnitude of it. I was ten, maybe eleven, when I realized Holloway was using my parents' truebond against them."

"What did you do?"

I dragged a hand through my hair, hoping Vesper didn't feel my guilt, shame, and embarrassment churning through the bond. I'd come here to comfort her, but now, I was the one who was decidedly uncomfortable.

"I'd heard all the gossipcasts and legends about truebonds being these marvelous, mystical connections no one could break or interfere with. Plus, my parents were Arrows, and they had been on countless missions. It just didn't make sense to me."

"What?" Vesper asked.

"Why they didn't fight back." Even now, all these years later, I couldn't say the words without an angry snarl creeping into my voice. "I asked my parents point-blank why they didn't use their truebond power against Holloway—why they didn't just kill him. My parents said they had tried everything, and nothing had ever worked."

A crooked smile curved my lips. "My parents didn't have Vesper Quill with her seer power and genius engineering brain to help them figure out that the key to blocking Holloway's siphon power was to trust in each other's strength and not let their fear get the better of them."

An answering smile curved Vesper's lips, although it was quickly replaced by a thoughtful look. "I might not have figured it out either, if I hadn't seen Holloway take your magic during the midnight ball. I could feel how much he was hurting you, and then how your pain mixed with your fear and amplified his siphon ability. You were so scared." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I was terrified I was going to lose you that night, and I almost did."

"I was just as terrified that I was going to lose you," I confessed, my voice as low and ragged as hers.

We fell silent, both of us lost in those dark memories.

"My parents felt that same fear, although I didn't understand it back then. As the weeks, months, and years dragged on and on, and Holloway took more and more of their psion power, and Desdemona and Chauncey got sicker and sicker, I grew angrier and angrier."

"What did you do?" Vesper asked.

"I waited until my father left on an Arrow mission, then confronted my mother. I thought if I talked to her alone that she might listen." I drew in a breath and let it out, along with the rest of my shameful confession. "I called my mother weak and cowardly and a dozen other horrible names."

"What did she do?"

My gaze drifted through the window down to the garden, where the peonies were still glimmering in the moon- and starlight. The memory—vision?—of Desdemona that I'd seen earlier flashed through my mind.

"She just . . . let me." I dragged my hand through my hair again. "Desdemona had this dull, resigned look on her face, like she didn't have a choice but to listen to me the same way she didn't have a choice but to let Holloway siphon off her magic."

I had to stop and clear a hard knot of shame out of my throat. "Even when I was yelling at her, I realized what a monster I was being, but I just . . . couldn't . . . stop ."

Vesper gripped my hand, the silver flecks in her eyes swimming in a sea of dark blue sympathy. "You were just a kid, and you were afraid of losing your parents. Desdemona knew that."

"Perhaps, but I was out of line and out of control. Just thinking about it still makes me feel like a monster. Perhaps that was the day my inner monster was truly born, even before I killed my father."

Vesper tightened her grip on my hand, more sympathy swimming in her eyes.

I cleared another knot of shame out of my throat. "I confronted my mother in the morning. That afternoon, Holloway summoned Desdemona to Crownpoint. That was the day he siphoned off too much of her magic. She died a short time later."

"Oh, Kyr," Vesper murmured, the same ache in her voice that was pulsing through my heart.

"I've always wondered if I had just kept my mouth shut that maybe my mother wouldn't have been so stressed that day," I confessed, my voice low and strained. "If Desdemona might have been strong enough to survive Holloway just a little while longer."

Vesper rocked forward and crawled across the window seat. She stopped right in front of me and gripped both my hands in hers. "I am so, so sorry. But it wasn't your fault, Kyr. None of it was your fault. Holloway was too blasted greedy to stop himself from taking too much of your mother's magic. He killed her, not you ."

A fierce light burned in her eyes, and her red-hot anger sizzled through the bond and curled around my inner monster, making it whimper in relief.

"I'm the one who's sorry. I came in here to ask how you were feeling about the Zimmers, not to bare my soul about my failures with my own family."

Vesper cupped my left cheek in her right hand. "We comfort each other, remember?"

My hands crept up and settled on her waist, anchoring her to me. "How do you feel about the Zimmers?"

Vesper stared out through the glass at the garden, but her gaze was distant, as though she was seeing something far, far away. "Part of me understands why Beatrice went to such great lengths to protect Wendell and Zane. When Beatrice was talking in the library, I could see it all unfolding just as she described. Nerezza would have killed Beatrice, Wendell, and Zane to take control of House Zimmer." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Nerezza might have even killed me too."

Vesper shuddered, and I tightened my grip on her waist.

"But no matter how good her reasons, Beatrice still abandoned me. She still sacrificed me to save Wendell and Zane—her real family, the people she truly loved."

A tear slipped away from Vesper's dark lashes and streaked down her cheek like a shooting star. I gently wiped the wet trail away with my fingertip.

"What are you going to do about Wendell? He obviously wants to have a relationship with you. I think Beatrice does too." I paused. "And Zane as well."

Vesper chewed on her lower lip. "Part of me wants to try . . ."

"Try what?"

"To be a part of their family."

"But?"

She sighed, the sound full of weary heartache. "But they're still Regals, and I'm still a scandal just waiting to happen to their House."

I thought of all the times Zane had called Vesper his sister and all the lengths he'd gone to in order to get his family here. Lying to Holloway, traveling across the galaxy, paying the enormous fee to attend the marriage mart, sweet-talking Lady Verona into letting the Zimmers stay at the estate.

Those were not the actions of a man concerned about a potential scandal. But I kept my mouth shut. Zane had told me not to interfere. I didn't care what Zane wanted, but I wasn't going to inflict my own prejudices on Vesper.

This was her family, and it was her choice to accept them—or not. I would abide by her decision, even if it meant I was bound to Zane bloody Zimmer for the rest of my life.

Vesper shook her head, flinging off her painful thoughts. "I don't want to talk about the Zimmers anymore."

"Then what do you want to do?"

"I want to forget about everything but you right now," she whispered. "Make me forget. Please, Kyr?"

She wasn't the only one who wanted to forget the bad memories we'd both dredged up. My hands flexed around her waist, and I drew her closer.

Vesper straddled my lap. She brushed my black hair back from my face, her fingers sliding through the thick strands and her nails dragging across my scalp underneath. The light, simple touch made every part of me vibrate, like an old-fashioned tuning fork pitched to just the right frequency.

I leaned forward and caught her mouth in mine, licking her lips. Vesper opened her mouth, her tongue darting out to stroke mine. She tasted cold and warm, and light and dark, and sweet and rich, like the Frozon hot chocolate at the marriage mart.

The kiss ended, and we both drew back, staring into each other's eyes. I was already hard and aching for her, but I stayed still, letting her set the pace.

Vesper trailed her fingers down my chest. Her nimble fingers quickly undid my belt, then the button and the zipper underneath. Her hand slid into my pants and closed around my dick. Electric arrows of pleasure zinged through me, and my hips bucked up, every inch of me stiffening and straining for more of her touch.

"I love it when you touch me like that," I rasped in a hoarse voice. "I . . ."

I love you . I wanted to say the words, but she'd been through so much tonight. I didn't want to add to her stress, or worse, make her feel like she had to say it back. Just because we were bonded didn't mean she had to love me the way I loved her—if someone as beautiful as Vesper could ever truly love a monster like me.

Vesper kept pumping her hand along my length, and I gave myself over to the quick rhythm of her fingers. While she worked me, I dug my fingers into the fabric of her gown, shoving the long skirt up out the way. My shaking hand landed on her smooth thigh, and I quickly slid my fingers up, cupping and rubbing her core through her silken undergarments.

Vesper's breath stuttered, and her fingers stopped their teasing, blissful motion on my dick. Her eyes widened, the silver flecks swallowing up almost all the blue.

"Kyr," she whispered, squirming against my hand the same way I was squirming against hers. "I want you. Now."

I braced one hand down on the floor, then dragged us both off the window seat. My ass hit the cool stone, and Vesper landed on top of me. Our lips and tongues crashed together in one quick kiss after another. She shoved my pants down, while I bunched her skirt around her waist, and we fumbled with each other's undergarments, pushing them out of the way. We both had birth-control implants, which made things much easier.

Vesper rocked forward, straddling me again, then reached down between us and guided me to her entrance. I surged forward, leveraging myself up and thrusting deep inside her.

More electric arrows of pleasure zinged through me. The same hot, pulsing sensations crackled through the bond, shooting from my body into hers and back again.

Vesper leaned forward, her chest brushing mine. She drew back, then rocked forward again. I groaned and buried my face in her neck, licking and nipping at the rapid pulse in the hollow of her throat.

" More ," she murmured, her breath a hot promise against my skin. "More, Kyr. More. "

Vesper quickened her motion, and I clutched her hips and met her thrust for thrust. My groans mixed with her breathy sighs, and those electric arrows coalesced into jagged streaks of lightning, pleasure zipping from me to her and back again, until finally . . .

They exploded.

Vesper shuddered, an orgasm streaking through her like a comet sizzling across the night sky. I thrust into her again, and an answering orgasm ripped through me and reverberated through the bond to her. Or perhaps our release was one and the same. I couldn't tell anymore, and I didn't care.

All that mattered was Vesper and me riding the amazing streaks of lightning we had created—together.