I think that he’s going to walk us backward to the bed, but he doesn’t. Instead, he bends slightly, wrapping his hands around the backs of my thighs and picks me up in one quick move.
My back is pressed against the stone wall, and I’m grateful that these gowns have sexy leg slits. His hips fit perfectly as it falls open.
I moan into his mouth as he grinds his hips against my center. I can feel his hard length beneath the fabric of his man-skirt. Reaching between us, I free him at the same time he rips my little panties off with one tug of his hand.
Then he’s inside of me. There is no warming me up, there is zero preparation and I gasp, dropping my head backward as he buries himself deep inside of me. Tiberius growls, leaning forward, and nips my bottom lip.
He doesn’t move immediately. Lifting my head, I look at him, trying to control my panting breath. He is smiling, his eyes looking directly and deeply into my own.
“Tiberius,” I breathe.
He grins. “This is something I will never wish to damage, Drucilla. You trust me, you have faith in me, and you have forgiven me for my wrongdoings.”
“Have I?” I ask, my voice coming out all breathy.
He chuckles, his hands gripping my ass in a hard squeeze. He pulls out of me almost all of the way, then he slides back inside, grinding his hips against my clit. Wrapping my arms around his shoulder, I hold him tightly as he repeats the motion.
“You have,” he rasps, burying his face in my neck.
He continues to take me, pulling almost all of the way out, slamming back inside, and grinding against my clit. Over and over. I am so lost to him, on edge, craving and waiting for more, to be taken over the edge.
Then.
He.
Stops.
His lips move up to my ear. He nips my lobe before I feel his warm breath against my ear. “You have forgiven me, admit it.”
The bastard.
Tiberius the orgasm-denying bastard.
“You have forgiven me,” he growls, but he doesn’t move, his hips are perfectly still and he’s inside of me.
My entire body trembles with need, but he doesn’t seem to care. He wants my response. He wants me to admit that I’ve forgiven him for what happened with Decima.
I do.
As much as I don’t want to, as much as I want to say once a cheater, always a cheater, I know that the circumstances just aren’t that simple.
I have forgiven him. Long before tonight. Long before now. But saying it out loud, admitting it, that is a different story.
“Oh, alright,” I sigh. “I’ve forgiven you.”
He chuckles, then thankfully continues on his mission at hand and in just a few thrusts we’re both on the edge and ready to topple over into blissful release.
TIBERIUS
Once we’ve found our way to the bed, I wrap the covering around us and hold her against me. She’s been quiet since we finished. She has retreated back inside of herself, worried that I was not being truthful. Worried that for whatever reason, I will not be happy with her.
“Drucilla,” I murmur as I glide my fingertips up and down her side.
She hums but does not lift her head from my chest. I feel her fingers circle my nipple, her focus there instead of on me. It is a way to distract her, to keep her mind busy for the moment.
Clearing my throat, I squeeze her hip, then slide my hand up her back and tangle my fingers in her hair before I tug her head backward. Her violet eyes meet mine and they don’t look wide or excited, they look—sad.
“You are more than enough for me, melculum,” I rasp.
“Children are important to you,” she breathes. “They are essential to your empire.”
I hum, nodding my head, though I do not look away from her. “They are essential, but I think you may not understand exactly how my empire works,” I offer with a grin. “I can pass my empire down to a child, yes. I can also pass it down to whoever I wish.”
“It’s not what you want, Tiberius. I’m not stupid,” she whispers, the purple tears of her heartache falling down her cheeks.
Lifting my hand from her hip, I wipe her tears away only for more to appear. “You are indeed not stupid, Drucilla. However, you underestimate my need to take care of you, my desire for your trust, to make you happy.”
“But you will be miserable.”
“It could not happen, not with you at my side.”
Love.
I truly did not know it existed for me, yet here it is, in this woman—with this woman. I do love her. I would do anything for her—to keep her. Giving up my chance for an heir is easy when it means she will not be broken, she will not hurt, and we will have our happiness together.
“We will talk of it no further, Drucilla. You are my mulier, we are committed to one another, there will be no others. Maybe we will have our own children, but if by chance we do not. All will be well and we will still be happy.”
“How can you be so sure? You will resent me one day, Tiberius. You will hate me,” she whimpers.
“You know this? You say it as if it is fact when indeed it is not. I do know that I have never felt love before you. I do know that the gods created you for me. I do know that there is no woman my body desires other than you. That is all that I know. I do not know the future, I am no seer.”
I release her hair and wrap my hands around her hips, pulling her across my body and forcing her to straddle me. I grunt at the sensation of her warmth against my mentula. I immediately twitch beneath her
