During the months after leaving Wistensia, Aster hadn’t known what to do with herself. For a time, that had been necessary. It had been best for her to do nothing more than acclimate and grieve. Although she’d never seemed unhappy, her heart and soul had needed the rest.

I’d offered her the apartment. I’d even had some more clothing made and delivered to it, as well as soaps and food. But Aster had laughed and said that she’d spent more than a year just trying to survive, most of that time spent on her own, so the last thing she wanted was too much solitude.

I’d been so relieved, I’d immediately warped the things I’d purchased for her to the cottage.

It would be a handful of months later that she’d ask for the apartment after all, but not purely for herself. To offer paint and reading classes to the disadvantaged and displaced youth a few days a week. She spent the other days visiting the orphanage with Mariana to do the same there.

Aster tugged my tunic free of my pants, her teeth dragging my lip into her mouth.

“Dinner,” I foolishly reminded her, but I would be the one Mariana chose to scold if we were late. Never Aster, and certainly not Helvectus.

“You wish to wait?” she said to my mouth, a smile within her voice. She knew damned well I didn’t.

In answer, I picked her up and laid her over her desk, her skirts gathered and pushed out of the way. Parchment and inkpots were knocked aside, Aster’s laughter ending when there was a crash. I grinned, promising, “I’ll clean it up,” and then I erased her displeasure by pulling her undergarments aside.

My fingers encountered soft, wet flesh. A musical exhale threatened to undo me when I parted her with my thumb. Pushing up with her elbows on the desk, Aster brushed her mouth over the corner of mine. “I’ve missed you.”

It was always the same.

Even if we were only separated for a couple of hours, I was gifted the same heart-bruising words. “I know,” I teased, dipping the tip of my finger into her welcoming body. Long lashes fluttered, her hands roaming up my arms to cup my face.

I shoved my pants down over my ass, and her thighs opened wider in invitation. We both groaned and watched, her head upon my shoulder, as I eased my cock inside her sweet cunt.

I gripped her thighs as searing heat swept through me in a rippling shiver. Never would I get enough of this female of mine. Never had there been a day—stars, a fucking moment—when I didn’t crave her.

Groaning low, I pushed all the way in. She received me with a greedy, clenching tightness and a beautiful gasp of breath.