Dark Dealings (11 page)

She gave the cold thief smile to Heyerdar and didn’t miss the heated spark in his gaze. He liked her hungry and empty soul. Were all elementals as fucked up as him?

She slapped her palm on the table, and the scorch of his living power raced back up her arm. Just for her, not for sharing, not for pushing into Fallon and twisting the future. Just her.
Fuck.
Her knees almost buckled, and her greedy soul opened, desperate, eager to consume the power lacing the wood.

The roots burned away to insubstantial columns of ash. A heartbeat later, they crumbled. Objects clattered to the stone floor and Dorien hit the weakened desk with a dull thud and a shriek. He groaned and the desk creaked, followed by a distinct wobble to one of the legs.

Ava pulled herself back, the fire in her veins simply delicious. She caught her fingers in her hair, her mouth slack and panting. She shivered as Heyerdar put his hot hands on her hips. His lips brushed her neck, teasing the skin just below her ear.

“Enjoy yourself, little thief?”

He’d made her life harder with the mages too. But the rush in her body for that long moment, the lick of every inch of his incredible power over her skin, meant she didn’t care. “You’re a bastard.”

“I’ve never known my ancestry. You could be right.”

His smile was sharp. With the heat of his magic, she could almost sense the essence of him inside her. Her belly tightened. The memory of his mouth on her breasts, between her thighs, ate away at her. The hunger increased. He wanted to fuck her out of curiosity as well as their deal.

“Aren’t you curious too?” His breath pricked her skin. “Here are your books.”

Dorien’s two assistants trundled forward with a wooden cart. Books were placed on its two narrow shelves. Eight in all. All of them leather bound with plain lettering pushed into the covers. The hint of age, dust and vellum filled the air. What she was,
all
that she was, lay in those books. Heyerdar’s fingers dug into her hips, pulling her mind back to him and how his body surrounded hers. Reminding her of her other hunger.

“And it’s time I had you.”

Briefly, Ava closed her eyes. “I know.”

Heyerdar sucked in a breath and released it as a low growl. Her breasts tightened and the solid pulse of want between her thighs said she couldn’t fight the need her body had to fuck him. It was still business. Her flesh might want him but her heart...her heart was fixed on another.

“I’ll more than prepare you for your beloved Reist.”

He waved back Gabra and Sanat, another quick surge of his magic wrapping around the cart. One moment, it was there, the next...there was a drift of a cool, grass-scented breeze, and the cart and the books were gone.

Heyerdar eased his hands away her body. “We have work to get to.” He took her hand and she could only follow, the mutters and complaints of the mages stabbing at her until the doors slammed shut.

He didn’t speak, just set a steady pace down to his chambers. Her heart was in her throat, nerves making her skin hot and her body tremble. A few days before, she’d been so confident, so sure of herself and of him. Now...now, she didn’t know what the fuck she was doing.

She was using him for Reist. She was. She repeated that over and over as her boots beat out a rhythm between his solid steps. Fucking him was a one-time deal. A way to get Fallon back into his overcrowded bed.

“No crowds today. Just you.” He shoved open the outer door to his chambers. Lamp stands picked out the familiar images from the tapestries covering the rough walls. The heavy scent of stone mixed with the deep hum of old magic filtering through the ground.

Ava reached out to consume it, wanting the magic to steady her, to feed her so that the coldness of her nature could offer some form of stability. “How do you do that? Know what I’m thinking?”

“Secrets.” The word was a dark promise, and a flicker of fresh need chased through her. He yanked open the inner door and paused to look down at her. His finger traced a slow line down her jaw, his gaze distant, turned inward. “So many unanswered questions.” And then his attention was back. Sharp. Heated. Her breath caught. “But knowing how it feels to have you wrapped around my dick won’t be one of them.”

Chapter Ten

His bed was huge. It seemed to swallow up her vision, and she found herself moving, scuttling back until her spine hit a thick tapestry and the smooth stone of the wall.

Heyerdar stood before the fireplace, the spark of a fire flaring before it roared into life. Golden light splashed over him, bathed him in liquid flames. The beauty of it caught her and her nerves deepened.

“Perhaps I should go through those books?” She pointed back to the room—on the other side of a thick wall and locked doors—where the cart stood, the books untouched, unopened. She needed an excuse to escape. “This can wait.”

He held out a little cup, heat churning around his palm to warm its contents. Magic stirred within it. “Whitebane tea,” he murmured. He waited for her to lift her hand and placed the cup there, his fingers enfolding hers. “No ripened belly for you.” His mouth twitched. “This time.”

Ava gulped down the bitter tea, ignoring the sting of the whitebane at the back of her throat. The sliver of magic fed her hunger. Had she ever thought about children? The memory of seeing Heyerdar with little Kaia burst back over her thoughts. He’d made it look natural...but then he was a force from the earth. He brought life.

“You didn’t imagine little Reists peppering your long future? And it would be long with him. Fuck him, and you add decades to your life with his magic.”

She hadn’t considered it. Was that strange? She had imagined life continuing on as it did, their meetings, a shared breakfast, meals, friends with the added extra of him touching her, of pushing her back and taking her mouth.

“You didn’t.”

“Mages don’t have families till late.”

“Still...” He placed the little cup on the high mantle. Firelight danced across his face and caught in his eyes, making them impossibly golden. “Not one dark-haired little boy with your eyes?”

Anger twisted her belly. “What I want has nothing to do with you. We have a deal. Nothing more.”

He inclined his head. He unfastened his belt and propped his sword in a heavy, high-backed armchair. His tunic joined it. His undershirt gleamed white in the shadowed room. “You won’t reach out to Fallon until my dick is inside you.”

Ava blinked. His sudden practical coarseness surprised her. “Why?”

“That should be her memory, shouldn’t it?” He waved his hand at her. “Strip.”

She unbuckled her sword belt, threw it to the chair, and her fingers trembled as she yanked at her tunic. She willed herself to pull it over her head. It was happening...and not in the way she expected. He’d taunted her for days and now it was as businesslike—she winced at that thought—as someone in Madam Lunete’s brothel. It was what she wanted. Heyerdar wasn’t the one to seduce her.

She stilled, her tunic obscuring her face. She’d never imagined him gentle, but something in her had thought that this moment would be hot, consuming, not...impersonal.

“You remind me often that we’re a deal.” He pulled her tunic free and it joined his own on the armchair. A dark smile touched his mouth. “Now you want me to forget it?”

“No.” She tugged off her boots and rolled down her trousers. The warm air, touched by his magic and the heat from the fire, brushed against her skin. Her gaze darted away as Heyerdar exposed his chest. She’d seen him naked every day for years, yet in the small, stonewalled room, with the fire warming his skin and thickening his delicious scent...she was embarrassed. Nervous. Scared.

Heyerdar looked up from removing his boots. He frowned. “You’ll enjoy your time with me.”

“Like everyone else?” She pressed her lips together. Where had that come from? She wasn’t jealous of the scores of woman who had had him before this moment. She wasn’t. “What Fallon accepts from you is your business.”

“True.” Golden light gilded his skin, the lick of flame somehow natural, necessary. He was beautiful. She couldn’t deny that. He held out his hand. “Come here, little thief.”

Ava moved without thought, letting his fingers envelop hers. She didn’t look down, her gaze fixed instead on the solid muscle of his chest. Of course, she’d seen an erect dick before. It just hadn’t been pointing at
her.

“This has to go.” He slipped through the ties that held her breast band. “And these.” His thumbs dipped into her shorts and eased them down over her hips. It brought him closer and his hot breath burned her skin. “Has anyone else seen you naked?”

She stepped out of her shorts and closed her eyes. She bit her bottom lip. “No.”

“Good.”

She stared at him. “Good? You like women who are...well used.”

His mouth lifted with the dark, predatory smile that made her heart drum. She almost took a step back, the ache, the hunger, within her mixing with her fear. His thumb touched her cheek, hot but unexpectedly gentle. “They don’t trust me with women like you.”

Ava swallowed. What had she fallen into? “Trust you?”

“Virgins,” he murmured, crowding her, urging her back to the high mattress. “A virgin to an elemental is temptation itself.” He lifted an eyebrow as she plopped onto the bed with a squeak. She scrambled back across the cold covers but Heyerdar didn’t move. “Maybe that’s your draw? I haven’t had a virgin in...forever.”

“Why?” She tried to pull the coldness of her soul over herself, to find her courage in it. But panic ate at her. Yet, she didn’t put an end to it. That thought alone surprised her. For Reist. The thought pushed at her. She was having sex with Heyerdar to bring her one step closer to having Reist as her own. “What’s so special about someone who hasn’t fucked?”

“You watched the apprentices and envied them, didn’t you?” His tongue wet his lips. “Watched them suck and fuck. Imagined you were the one in the tangle of bodies.”

Ava wrapped her arms around her legs, making herself small and hiding herself from him. How could he pull the thoughts from her head? No one knew a thief. Not like this.

Heyerdar knelt in front of her, his face in shadow. A halo of gold shrouded his skin from the light of the fire. His hands cupped her knees and slowly, oh-so-slowly, he eased her legs down. “With every touch I know you more.”

Her heart squeezed. Could she allow that?

His laughter wrapped around her. “It’s too late.” His hands slid up her thighs, pressing them to the cool blanket. His body blocked the light and let shadow settle over her. “I want to savor whatever this is.” He eased back and drew her with him, until she was lying on her back staring up at him. His eyes were molten. “You won’t come until I’m inside you.”

She wanted to laugh. His slightest touch scorched through her body. She was embarrassingly responsive to him.

His lips brushed hers, brief, aching, and the burn of his magic teased her tongue. She wanted to consume him, take him in a rush. Then it would be over with. Done. And she wouldn’t be able to feel the want in her flesh. Wouldn’t enjoy the way he groaned as she took his power into her body—

He nuzzled her neck and Ava let out a long sigh. “You want this. And I enjoy having you...eat me.” His laughter ran a shiver over her skin. “Though I doubt I’ll ever let that hungry mouth of yours anywhere near my dick.” His teeth grazed her shoulder, and she arched up against him, her body touching his. Sparks of his power skimmed across her belly.

“We should be out—”

“Hunting thieves?” He kissed a line to her breast and she couldn’t help herself, she pulled magic from him. A delicious, golden slide that only whetted her appetite for more. He groaned in response, his hands fisting the sheets. “I have men.” His voice was little more than a dark growl. “They won’t rest in hunting out the thieves.”

“But if they come—” Her voice broke over the word. Heyerdar had taken her nipple into the hot wetness of his mouth. Licked and sucked it, and the sensation rioted straight down to between her thighs.

“We have time, little thief.”

Ava closed her eyes. She wouldn’t regret that he had never once used her name. Heat swelled under her skin, and the hunger within her rose.

“You’re holding back.”

The blaze of him flared behind her closed lids. So much power. And he was offering it all to her. He was absolute temptation.

“Take it.”

The words rumbled against her stomach, and her breath caught. His mouth slipped lower, promising what he had only given a hint of the night before. To eat her.

“Consume me, little thief.” His breathing was ragged. It burned against her sex, his lips so close to tasting her. “Eat me whole.”

His first slow, slow lick bucked her up against him and broke open her empty soul. With a low cry, she pulled him into herself, basking in the fierce glory of his magic, letting it fill her. Completely.

Heyerdar swore against her sex and his hands gripped her thighs, biting into the muscle. “Yes. Take it. Fuck.” His body tensed, before his tongue moved again to give her the same long, slow lap. He teased her flesh, flicking at the sweet nub. His hot breath and his moans as she ripped his magic in great, twisting sheets of power drove need into her belly.

Ava threaded her fingers through his hair. A cool silk and such a contrast to the blaze of his power. She wanted to take all of him into herself. She’d never hunger. Never.

His thumbs teased the creases of her thighs, and the tension in her belly coiled tight, her body hardly her own as desire mixed with the flow of magic through her veins. She could taste the edge, the power, of her release. So close. Her heart hammered. Blood wet her mouth as she bit though her lip. It only made her heated skin glow, and she wanted nothing more than him inside her. Now. Fucking her hard. Fast. Making her—

Heyerdar surged over her, his fingers wrapped around his dick, and he teased her sex with its blunt head. She couldn’t breathe. She stared up at his shadowed face, her hands fisting the covers, tearing them with her borrowed strength. Not touching him. Because if she touched him, ran her fingers along the fierce muscles in his arms, stroked them, kissed and licked his skin, she would never stop. And he wasn’t hers. He belonged to Fallon. Or to the anonymous women in the brothel. Anyone but her.

Magic lapped over her so that she could swap places with Fallon. Reist. She was with him for Reist.

“Ready?” The question was a strained rumble.

Ava couldn’t speak. Her mouth opened. She wanted this act, this moment, unlike any other in her life. It made no sense.

“It will.” Heyerdar stroked forward and buried himself deep within her.

Ava cried out, magic lashing through the air, unbound, whipping into the future. She willed it to hunt for Fallon, and take with it the fierce feeling of pain, of joy, of fullness, of belonging body and soul to this man.

Ava clutched at him, her mind almost lost as he drew back, and the incredible friction of his flesh against hers deepened the riot of sensation. Heyerdar dipped his mouth and she tasted herself. It rippled fresh hunger, and he groaned as she returned his kiss and took the unending magic he offered.

His energy brimmed over her and she broke her mouth from his. Not even pushing waves of it towards its goal, towards Fallon, could empty it from her soul. “Heyerdar...”

His teeth grazed her neck. “You’re so fucking tight.” His meaty hand gripped her thigh and pulled it up. He sank deeper and Ava almost whimpered. “And all mine.”

“For now.” Her words escaped on her gasp.

“You think I won’t have you again?”

He rocked into her and Ava wanted nothing more than to agree. Already a fresh rush of need gripped her. The flare of release when he had first taken her was a memory. She was greedy. She wanted more. Why...
how
had Fallon walked away from him?

Ava arched into Heyerdar’s next thrust, urging faster and harder. The pleasure of it wound her body tight. Fuck, how good of a lover
was
Reist?

Heyerdar growled. “You want good?”

He did something with his hips, a twist, a turn. Ava didn’t know what it was, but fuck, her whole body started to shake. She couldn’t hold him, only let him drive into her, accept the pleasure and the surge of magic that smashed over her.

He stared down, his gaze molten, his expression fierce, primal. She should be scared. Terrified. He was an elemental. Old magic. But then she was a soul-stealing, death-bringing thief. And just as terrifying. Ava grinned at him and wrapped her shaking legs around his hips.

She caught her bottom lip with her teeth, tasting the last slick of her blood. “I want good.”

He sucked in a breath and said something—what, she couldn’t catch—before he took her body. Riding her hard. With each deep stroke he drove his magic into her, wrapping it around her, filling her. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. What he was overwhelmed her,
owned
her, and with it her orgasm surged.

Golden waves of light, pleasure and magic formed one continuous roll of joy. Ava cried out. Lost. And Heyerdar followed her, arching over her, his skin awash with the fierce fire of his magic. Her heart stopped. He was beautiful. A trembling hand touched his jaw, feeling his strength and the hard curve of his grin. With a growl, he kissed her palm, and little shocks of pleasure chased under her skin.

Ava had never imagined that her release would leave her completely and utterly...full. Sated. Her body sank into the mattress, every muscle almost liquid. She looked away, her gaze sliding down his chest to where their bodies joined. He was still hard and hot inside her. If she turned her hips... No. Heyerdar had given her more than enough. “Fallon has this memory.”

“Maybe.” He wrapped his arms around her, shifted and pulled her against his chest. His chin rested in the tangle of her hair and he let out a long breath. “You were different.”

Ava closed her eyes and her hands curled into fists. She didn’t know what to do. Could she hold him? Press herself to the hot, slick hardness of his body and enjoy someone holding her? No one had really held her. Her forehead touched his collarbone and she breathed him in, the delicious scent of sex and magic that almost stirred the thief in her.

Heyerdar kissed her hair, and the gentle gesture twisted her heart. “You belong to me now.”

Ava laughed, but strain edged it. “We had sex. It was a transaction.”