Epilogue
“Your parents are lovely.”
I glance sideways as we make our way across the private landing platform, guards spreading out around us, to where the shuttle waits with its ramp lowered beneath the evening lights.
Beside me, Ciaran looks entirely too sure of himself. The cocky bastard. Cocky, sweet bastard. His dark hair falls into his eyes, the black button-down hanging half open beneath his coat, where the wildcat tattoo shifts across bronze skin every time he moves.
Though right now, he might be a cocky, sweet, lying bastard. “Really? You didn’t feel the house was too small?”
He grins at that. “I survived.”
“Yeah, well... you nearly melted. Ma insisted on keeping the stove going all day.”
“Which may have been a minor inconvenience.” He catches my chin between his fingers, tilts my face up, and steals a quick kiss that has my legs trembling. “But hey...
your father liked me, no?”
I roll my eyes. “He made you carry furniture.”
“And yet… he invited me back.”
“Because you promised to pay for their—and everyone else’s—travel expenses.”
A laugh slips out at the memory of our last night on Düren before I can stop it.
“You know,” I say, following him up the ramp while the guards begin boarding behind us, “Dad used to tell us that life on the other planets was better than life on Düren.”
“Yeah, he told me. But honestly, that’s not true. Yes, Sero and Helion are rich planets, but we have a few that are just as on the edge as Düren. Take Tempest, where your sister went to meet her husband.”
“She never told me how they met. Not even when Ma asked her.”
“That’s because it’s secret, mouse. Trust me, everything worked out just fine for her, but it’s not a place I’ll ever take you.”
“Pa didn’t agree with you.”
“Of course not. Believing that his precious daughter may have been involved in upper- class Reach politics is scary. I wouldn’t agree if I were him.” He slips his hand into mine as we step inside the shuttle, waiting while the ramp begins to rise behind us.
“Ma was the only one who actually took your side,” I say. “But I think that was mainly because you brought her those silver nightbell flowers. She wouldn’t stop talking about them after you left.”
Ciaran’s grin widens, a flash of smug satisfaction crossing his features. “I know how to make an impression, mouse.”
The shuttle door seals behind us with a heavy hiss before either of us can say anything else. The cabin lights soften as the pilot’s voice filters through the speakers overhead. A few minutes later, we’re strapped into our seats, lifting smoothly away from Düren.
Below us, the city shrinks, and above us, the stars wait.
The moment the seatbelt indicator disappears, Ciaran is already unfastening his restraints. “Come here.”
I don’t even pretend to argue anymore. He catches my hand, pulling me toward the observation window stretching along the side of the cabin.
My breath catches when I see the stars explode across the glass.
For a moment, neither of us speaks, watching Düren shrink into darkness while the lights of Sero burn in the distance ahead.
Beyond them, worlds scatter across the Reach, trade routes and station lights threading between planets like distant constellations.
The Noctis is secured against the far wall beneath soft cabin lights.
Ciaran’s hand never leaves mine. We’re both still dressed from dinner, his dark button- down open at the throat and rolled to his forearms. My jacket hangs open now, the warmth of the shuttle a welcome contrast to the evening air we left behind.
He shifts closer until our shoulders brush, his gaze drifting across the stars beyond the glass. “You know, when I was young, I used to think the stars were holes in the sky.”
I turn to him in surprise. “Holes? Why?”
He shrugs. “I thought that’s where the people we’d lost were looking through.”
“So we’d never really be alone?” Sometimes I forget how soft he can be when nobody else is looking.
“I guess. So we’d always have someone looking back.” His arm finds my waist, keeping me close while his gaze stays fixed on the stars. “I used to think every light out there belonged to someone. Every world was somebody’s home. Turns out I wasn’t so far off.”
Below us, Düren has almost disappeared.
Fear taught me where all the exits were, I think, watching the last of it go. He’s the first person who ever made me want to stay.
My fingers find his. “And which one is yours?”
His hand closes around mine. “You.”
He leans in, his heavy frame crowding my back against the observation glass. His lips find the curve of my neck, pressing a slow kiss there before his teeth graze my skin.
“And which one is yours?” he murmurs against my flesh, sending a shiver through my spine.
“For years…” I whisper, “I thought it was Sola. Then it became music. A life I didn’t think I’d ever have. Now…”
He reaches around to grip my jaw, easing my face back toward the stars.
“Keep talking,” he murmurs. “Tell me about the lights while I take you.”
My breath catches. “Now it’s you. Somehow... somewhere along the way... every road I imagined ended with you.”
“Good boy,” he purrs, and I can barely find my breath, let alone the words, as he reaches around my hip to undo my fastening. Working down my zipper with practiced efficiency, he tugs my dress pants down just far enough, liberating my stiff length into the cool air of the cabin.
“Wait. People… they can see us.”
“I don’t care,” he growls, opening his palm next to me. “Spit, mouse.”
I obey, overwhelmed by his hoarse voice and the excitement of what’s about to happen.
On a space shuttle of all places.
“Continue talking.” His teeth graze my jawline, and I moan when his slicked hand wraps around my cock. “Tell me what you see when you think about tomorrow.”
“A… a house, too big because you’ll keep bringing people home,” I gasp, my hips rolling into his palm as the friction sends a sharp jolt of heat straight to my gut.
I lean my forehead against the cool observation glass, watching our blurred reflections tangle against the backdrop of the stars. “You stealing my side of the bed.”
“What else?” Ciaran prompts as he swipes his thumb over my weeping head, collecting more precum that he uses to continue stroking my cock.
“Everything.” I whimper, my legs shaking under his pinning weight. “Oh, fuck… please don’t stop. So good.”
“Yeah? Everything?”
I gasp when he strokes faster and wraps his free hand around my throat. My vision blurs against the glass and I freely give my every breath to Ciaran’s control, to his decision when I get to inhale fresh air again.
It feels so good that my toes curl and my eyes roll back.
To be owned, to be kept safe, to be worshiped by a man like Ciaran, who’s now nipping on my ear before leaving a trail of kisses down my throat, just below where his hand pins me against the glass.
I shiver at the sting, and he chuckles when my cock pulses in his hand.
“You like this, dirty boy? Someone might catch us, you know. One click of my fingers and our guards will come running in. What would they see?”
I wheeze, unable to form words, but my hips buck back against his erection that pokes against my ass, and I have to squeeze my eyes shut to stop myself from cumming right there.
“I’m going to take my hand off your throat right now, mouse. And you’re going to take in a few deep breaths of air, yeah?”
I nod, eyes tearing from desire and lack of air.
“And then I’m going to fuck you, here on this ship, with the stars as our witnesses.”
Slowly, he removes his hand and flips me so that my back hits the cool glass. I cough and sputter when I inhale too much air, feeling light and floaty and so horny I think I’ll die if he doesn’t help me out.
Ciaran keeps me grounded with both hands on my shoulders, his pupil-blown eyes taking me in, as if he wants to be sure I’m okay. Then he rolls down his own pants, exposing his hips and that gorgeous, big cock. He’s fully hard, tip gleaming rosy with precum, curved up to his belly.
Without breaking eye contact, Ciaran reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a packet of lube. Using his teeth to crack the plastic open, he spits the torn wrapper carelessly onto the cabin floor before pouring some of it on his dick.
“You’re okay, mouse? How’s the heart?” he asks, checking his multi-slate at the same time. “Yeah, you’re okay.”
“Ciaran—” “Turn around, princess. Eyes back on those stars.”
I barely have time to obey before he plunges a slick finger into my hole. “Ouch. That hurts, you bastard.”
“Too much?” He purrs into my ear. “I can go slowly, if you want to. Warm you up properly—” “No. No.” I reach back and keep his hand to my ass. “I can take it, Zoryan. I want to… I need it to hurt a little.”
“Oh, do you now, baby? You can thank me later.”
Lining up the head of his cock, he slides into me in one merciless thrust that has me practically screaming against the glass.
Good Light, he feels good. He hurts, he fills me, he’s too much…
but I need it. And when he bottoms out and starts thrusting in slow rolls, the initial pain vanishes and is replaced by real, desperate pleasure.
“Feel good, mouse?”
I nod against the glass as he grips my hips and uses them as handles for his rocking.
“So good.”
His hips keep rolling in those intoxicating circles, driving his weight forward until the heat of his stomach slaps flat against my backside with every push.
Bending over me, he buries his face in the curve of my neck, breathing hard against my ear as he laps at my skin, his tongue dragging upward before his teeth sink into my shoulder to claim a bruising hickey.
I sob against the glass, my hands smudging the cold surface as his cock stretches me completely, filling the ache with every slick thrust.
He groans low in his chest, pulling me backward by my hips to meet his pace, matching my desperate whines with a fierce, possessive rhythm that turns the pain into pure warmth.
Oh, I’m so done for. My body, my mind, my heart.
“You’re my entire world, mouse,” Ciaran growls against my throat. “Every fucking light out there might belong to someone else, but your soul belongs to me. You are mine.”
Sliding his hand down to hook his fingers around my hard cock and grip me tight, he matches the rhythm of his thrusts with his strokes.
“Cum with me, Zoryan,” I cry out, my head falling back against his shoulder, the pleasure turning into a sharp, blinding ache that consumes everything. I choke on a sob as his thumb sweeps over the leaking tip, the feeling of being breached, of being claimed enough to tip me over the edge.
Two, three more strokes is all it needs for my climax to rip through me, and my cum splatters all over the glass.
“Oh, fuck, baby, look at you,” he groans, milking me through my orgasm until my legs are shaking so badly I feel like I might just pass out. “Fuck, fuck…”
Behind me, Ciaran cums with a rough bark. I feel his entire body trembling behind me, until all that’s left is our fast breaths and even faster heartbeats. Our hands find each other, his larger one wrapping around mine, skin hot.
I don’t know how long we stand there. I don’t care.
“What did you see?” he finally asks.
“You, and only you. I’m yours, Ciaran.”
Turning around, I wrap my arms around him and lean against his broad chest, fingers cupping his jawline. My lips press soft, lingering kisses to the tip of his nose, to his closed eyelids, and finally against his trembling, parted lips.
“I love you, Ciaran,” I murmur.
His dark lashes flutter open, those intense eyes clearing as they lock onto mine. A rare smile touches his lips, entirely free of his usual smug arrogance. He leans down, burying his face in the side of my neck as his arms squeeze me tighter against him.
“I love you too, Rowan,” he drawls against my skin. “My precious, precious Rowan.”
For years, I searched for home. Somewhere along the way, I found him.
The shuttle shudders as it settles onto the landing platform outside the mansion, engines winding down until the cabin falls quiet.
“When we get back… do you want to go for a swim?”
He flashes me that infuriatingly smug grin I’ve somehow fallen in love with. “Always, mouse.”
The ramp begins to lower.
I glance sideways at him and smile. “Race you there.”