When it had released him, Cassius rolled so that she was atop him, still planted on his cock.

And as he watched the velvet darkness with its blinking stars fade from around them, and the light of day again come through, he gathered her hair in a hand and used it at the back of her head to press her face into his neck.

“Cass,” she whispered.

“I meant what I said.”

“As did I.”

“My world comes in three parts, you, Aelia and Dora.”

She pushed her face deeper into his neck.

“I cannot speak the words,” he admitted on a whisper.

“You do not need to, my prince. I know.”

His relief was so great, it felt beyond physical, right to spiritual.

Indeed, he wondered if there were gods.

Or if there was this.

“Do you know?” she asked tentatively.

Gently, he used her hair to pull her head back and find her gaze.

“I think I knew the moment you laid eyes on me,” he murmured. “And it terrified me.”

She stroked his beard and smiled with her eyes.

He would not object to lying in that bed with her forever.

Especially not in that moment.

Sadly, that was not an option, not that day.

“We have things to do, my princess,” he remined her.

Her “Yes,” seemed forced from her throat, very unwillingly.

“It will happen and then it will be done,” he soothed.

“It is I who should be reassuring you,” she replied.

“You do that often, I quite like having a turn.”

He received a smile at that, and he let himself enjoy it before his hands on her became a grip so he could take them from the bed.

But in return, she gripped him.

Cassius stilled and gave her his attention.

“There might be…a few changes…” she started haltingly. “In the throne room.”

He could not believe it was about to happen, as he could never believe it was about to happen, and he wondered if there would be a time in his life when this was so commonplace, his disbelief would be extinguished.

But he felt laughter bubbling inside him.

“What did you do?”

“Well…” When he gave her hips a squeeze with his fingers, she stopped dawdling. “I might be subtly changing some of Airen’s banners from black to midnight blue,” she admitted.

This was not barracks torn down to enhance greenhouses, so he had no quarrel with this.

“That is not a big change.”

“And silver,” she added.

That was when the chuckles started.

“There might also be some purples,” she went on.

“How very Nadirii of you,” he muttered.

“It’s a darker purple,” she informed him.

“Right,” he said, his voice shaking.

“Though there might be some that is much like the heather and thistle flower that grows so in Airen,” she mumbled.

It was that which made him shake with laughter.

When he was finished, she was smiling at him.

He gave her a squeeze for he knew her ploy.