“Look at me,” I said, and she gave me those stormy eyes. “Tell me.”

At my jaw, she feathered her lips with the declaration I never went a day without hearing, even when I’d pissed her off. “I love you.”

My chest swelled with my cock.

I caught her mouth with mine as I began to thrust. My fingers dug into her thighs, and she moaned her approval against my lips. Deeper, I delved and aimed, her body both softening and tensing.

With a grunted cry, Aster made to break away. I refused to let her. My eye remained open, watching as hers flared and then drooped with the onslaught of building pleasure that began to rupture through her.

The sound of her heart dancing faster with each panted breath satisfied me like nothing else could.

I could’ve stayed inside her for hours, as I’d done as often as I could, but I let myself follow. She swallowed my curse, her hand snaking up my back beneath my tunic to clutch my body tight to hers.

“I’m afraid we’ll need to be late. I haven’t seen your tits since last night,” I complained.

Aster laughed, a little breathless. After a quick kiss, she left me to clean herself up in the bathing room. “A good thing, seeing as Hel didn’t lock the door.”

Little prick, I thought with a smirk. I wrapped my arms around Aster from behind at the wash basin and stuffed my nose into her neck, groaning. She reached back to trail her fingers down my cheek. “Later,” she murmured. “We’ll be late.”

She was right, so I tidied the mess we’d made, and we finished making ourselves as decent as possible before warping to Berk and Mariana’s townhouse.

At the door, Aster stopped me with a tinkling laugh and tucked my tunic back into my pants.

I might have left it that way—might often leave many parts of myself disheveled—just to have her fuss over me. If she’d figured that out, then she didn’t seem to mind. Rising onto her toes, she kissed my jaw while knocking on the door.

Fang and Olivianna were already there, of course, but Fang’s mother-pleasing nature never stopped his father from throwing scathing barbs.

“If you’d have told him properly instead of making those mumbling sounds that fall out of your mouth like a fish who’s decided to learn how to talk, then maybe he’d actually listen to you.”

I tucked Aster into her chair. Olivianna moved closer with the decanter of wine to fill her glass.

Fang sighed, kicking my chair out as I went to take a seat beside my mate.

I caught it and kicked him in the shin. He cursed, wincing as he said, “It’s been a decade, oh lovely father of mine, let it fucking go.”