His body was hot against mine. He pulled me closer. His lips were soft, tender, burning. It was the first kiss I had had in four years. I never wanted it to end, but then it did. He pulled away and looked at me again, searching for something. His hands still rested on my waist.

  “What about Karina?” I suddenly said, feeling a pang of guilt.

  “What about Karina,” he grumbled. “You’re my wife.”

  “Right but you know what I mean,” I said softly.

  “We ended things,” he told me, his voice heavy.

  “Oh. I see.”

  So that’s what it was. He was just kissing me to forget about Karina. It hurt a little to know that was the case. Still, I was desperate for Virtus’s touch. I leaned in and kissed him again.

  He grabbed me tightly as our mouths melded together. His arms pulled me firmly to his body at my shoulders and waist, his hands slowly stroked along the fabric of my dress. He let go of my mouth and kissed along the side of my cheek.

  “Come to my room,” he whispered in my ear.

  I nodded.

  He led me by the hand back to his room. It was pretty close to Cato’s. I had moved to the traditional queen’s room, but he had kept his old one. Even though it was a little smaller than the king’s room the view was still unmatched.

  Walking back into the old room after all those years unlocked a multitude of emotions. Happiness, sadness, shame, regret. The st time I had been in that room was the time Virtus was stabbed.

  As soon as I was inside, Virtus kissed me again. All my thoughts of the past were forgotten. All I could feel was Virtus’s hot touch. He started to unce my dress from behind. He kissed me passionately as his hands clumsily worked at the ces on my back. He would have been able to get them off much faster if he had just stopped kissing me for a second and looked at them properly, but we couldn’t let go of each other.

  Finally the dress was loose. He could push it down from the shoulders leaving me just in my chemise.

  “My breasts don’t look the same since I had Cato,” I said, suddenly self conscious.

  “You still look beautiful, Talia,” he muttered as he pulled the chemise off.

  My heart warmed just to hear him call me beautiful. I helped him take off his clothes as well, barely pausing between kisses. Having been away from him so long I was aching to touch him. I felt as though I had been in a desert for years and he was a ke of water. I couldn't tear myself away if I wanted to.

  When I took off his shirt I could see the massive scar where Alvar had stabbed through him. It was big and gnarled on both sides. I kept my hands and eyes away from it as much as I could. If I reminded him of that night perhaps he wouldn’t want to touch me any more.

  He pulled me on to the bed, lying on top of me. I loved to feel the familiar weight of his body on mine. He was already rock hard. He kissed me passionately as his erection rubbed against my thigh. Then his mouth moved down my neck, down between my breasts and on my belly. There were some stretch marks there, but Virtus didn’t seem to care at all as he moved his mouth down between my legs.

  His tongue flicked over my clit, first slowly, then faster. It had been so long since I had been pleasured by anything other than my hands it felt very intense from the first moment. I had to grab his hair and tell him to pause for a second. After he did he started to lick me again and I reached an orgasm in a very short time. I grabbed his hair as I came. My back arched and pleasure spread from my vulva all through my body like a hot wave.

  After I came he moved his head back up my body, over my belly, breasts, neck and back towards my mouth. When we kissed again he tasted like me.

  His hand grabbed my hip. He paused and looked me in the eyes.

  “Can I?” he asked.

  I nodded.

  “Of course,” I whispered back.

  He entered me. It felt incredible. My whole body tensed up. After all these years I had almost forgotten how good it felt like to have him inside me.

  “Is this all right?” he whispered.

  “It’s so good, Virtus,” I moaned.

  He chuckled and started moving.

  His dick was hot and hard. He thrust into me slowly at first as I got used to the feeling of him inside me. It felt so good, I could almost ignore the thought that he was just doing it to forget about Karina. Almost.

  He sped up, kissing me on the lips as he did so. My arms moved along his back as I got into the rhythm of his movements, using my hips to complement his thrusts. He moved faster and faster, building up the pleasure inside my body again. Finally we came at the same time, moaning in unison as his come filled me.

  He y still on top of me for a moment. Then he rolled to the side.

  There was an awkward silence.

  “Do you want to stay here tonight?”

  His voice sounded unusually unsteady in the darkness. The light of the firepce in his room was not strong enough for me to see what expression he wore on his face.

  Of course I wanted to stay. I wanted him to hold me like he used to. I wanted to wake up to him smiling at me in the morning. But I was unsure if I could ever have that again.

  “Do you want me to?” I mumbled back.

  “You decide.”

  Now his voice sounded hard and cold. I guessed that he did not want me to. If he did he wouldn't have asked, and simply held me until we fell asleep.

  “It’s fine,” I said. “I can go back to my room.”