“Y-you’re a rogue hunter?”
“No. I’m not. This is a special instance. I am the only one with the level of mind majic necessary to make it past his tricks of the mind. He has the power to obfuscate his presence from others. The power to take over their minds. The power to make them hurt themselves if he so wishes it. No one else can get close to him. I’m the only one powerful enough to do so.”
All the blood drained from her face and she swayed. He took her by the elbows and urged her to sit down. Once she was seated he kneeled down in front of her.
“I told the triumvirate I would only do this if I had your blessing. There is a real possibility I could be injured in a fight with Delongo. And if I am injured…”
“I will weaken.”
“Yes. And if I am killed…”
“I will die.”
“More than likely, yes. It is by no means a guaranteed thing. But you would live a half a life. A life of little strength if you did survive. While this connection is so young there is less of a likelihood you will be harmed overmuch, but the closer we get, the more we use our majic, the more brutal a severance would be.”
She swallowed noisily, something large lodged in her throat. “Wouldn’t the best solution be to keep as far from one another as possible from the outset?” she asked desperately. “So we don’t become anymore connected than we are right now?”
“It doesn’t work that way.”
“How do you know?” she snapped. “This hasn’t happened for a hundred years! Things may have changed! Things might not be the same. We could be wrong!”
“That may be true. But it isn’t likely. And to deny this joining would be like spitting in the face of God. It is here for a reason. We need to relish it…take full advantage of it. It would be wrong and selfish of us to turn our backs on such a gift just out of fear. I am not willing to deprive myself of you.” He reached out and brushed back her hair, making a long lock of it join the rest as it flowed down her back. He then cupped her face in one of his large palms and drew her forward until her mouth touched his gently. His kiss was like majic, powerful and dark and mysterious. She couldn’t help but be drawn into the spell he wove. He made everything sound so compelling. He made her feel as if anything were possible. As if she could do anything as long as she put her trust in him.
It was asking a lot.
“If I say I don’t want you to hunt this rogue…you won’t?”
“I won’t,” he said firmly. “But before you decide, you need to understand the breadth and width of what this man is doing. You see, he has a small army of degenerates that follows him under his banner. They are moving town to town, raiding and pillaging…raping. One of Delongo’s favorite pastimes is the rape of young women and boys. In body and in mind. This army is gaining momentum. If they should get it in their heads to attack the capitol…”
“Attack the triumvirate?! He wouldn’t dare!”
“He is drunk on power and there has been no one to stop him thus far. With all of our resources focused on the Kiltian border, there is nothing left to bar his way.”
“But we’re in a ceasefire,” Yasra said.
“For now. If these negotiations fall apart, as they have often done in the past, we will be back at war. The triumvirate will be in jeopardy. If we pull troops away from the borders to go after Delongo, we risk losing the border to the Kiltians. If we keep the troops at the borders, we risk losing more towns and possibly even the capitol to Delongo’s advancement.”
“That’s terrible,” she whispered. “How can you possibly say no? There’s really no choice.”
“There’s always a choice. If you tell me not to go then I won’t. They will simply have to find another way.”
“From what you’re saying there is no other way.”
“No other easy way. I’m the most logical and easiest choice. There might be harder choices. Harder methods. Other rogue hunters perhaps.”
“And you’d go do this alone? All by yourself?”
“I was planning on bringing a couple of rogue hunters I know with me. We will infiltrate Delongo’s camp quietly, cut off the head of the beast and watch his army disintegrate without direction.”
“No one will take his place?”
“Someone might, but he won’t be an 18th level Aspano. It will allow other rogue hunters to go after them.”
She was quiet a long minute as she churned through this in her mind. How could she say no? It would be selfish of her…cowardly. She did not follow the news as well as she should, so she had not known about this rebel army. But Dendri had known. He had a close relationship with the triumvirate. And understanding that still boggled her mind. The three most powerful majji in their world and they turned to Dendri to solve problems for them.
“I would like to meet these rogue hunters,” she said at last. “If I am going to entrust your life—and thereby my life—to them, I want a good look at them.”
“That can easily be arranged. Give me a moment to send messages to them and we’ll get them here as soon as possible. It would be unwise to delay. Delongo has done enough damage already and the triumvirate is expecting an answer by the end of the day today.”
He rose up to his full height, his hands catching hers on the way and pulling her to her feet. He quietly led her out of the music room and down the hall a short distance. The room he led her to was one she had not seen as yet. It was very masculine in its appeal, with its honey-colored wood furniture and dark cushions and carpeting. The main object in the room, outside of a small conversational grouping of couches in front of the fireplace and built in bookshelves, was a large, ornately carved wooden desk. On it sat stacks of open missives and other papers. There was a letter in the process of being drafted. Right above it was the dual inkpots and the quills he used.
Dendri drew a fresh sheet of vellum from a small stack in the corner of the desk. He dipped his quill and began to write out a hasty note. Yasra watched as a swift, slanted script filled the page, the hand well suited to him. It was neat and elegant, without being florid or overly ornate. He dusted the letter and folded it. He warmed sealing wax while he wrote a second letter and folded it as well. Then he dolloped wax on the seam of the note and used a heavy silver seal to press the wax. It left behind the image of a lion’s head, its mane a ring of fire.
He rang the bell and Tudman was there almost instantly.
“Tudman, see these are delivered immediately into the hands of the addressees. Not their servants…directly into their hands. Make it as soon as possible. I will be awaiting replies and am not of a mind to be patient today.”
“Of course, my lord. I will see it done immediately.”
The manservant took the letters and moved out of the room. Dendri then looked at her, his eyes roaming over her intently. His gaze lingered at her breasts and then her hips. It was a slight hesitation, but she was made highly aware of it. It wasn’t the first time he had looked at her like that.
With hunger in his eyes.
“You are being very brave,” he said after a moment of looking his fill of her. “I admire you for it.”
“I don’t feel brave. I feel cowardly and afraid.”
“To take action in the face of our fears is the very definition of bravery,” he said, moving over to her. She could smell him as he stirred the air between them. He smelled of soapwood and musk, richly male and appealing. She found herself breathing deeply, bringing him into her lungs and into her body.
“It doesn’t feel that way,” she whispered.
He closed the remaining distance between them, his tall, strong body coming to rest against her softer one. She couldn’t help but take note of how well they fit together. In spite of his height and the breadth of his shoulders and chest, they simply seemed to fit together.
“Yasra,” he murmured as his fingers went to her face, drifting back over the shell of her ear as his thumb tipped her chin up. He made her look at him. “Do not sell yourself short. I feel you are
constantly underestimating yourself. You are capable of so much. I only wish you would trust that. Trust in yourself.”
“I just don’t trust the majic in myself. I’ve been fine with my life until now. Sure, there were heartaches and troubles, but I was more comfortable when I thought I was a non than I am now being part of this Gestalt.”
“How can I make you more comfortable?” he asked, his thumb stroking the line of her jaw, his fingertips nestled in her hair. His free hand curved around her waist, drawing her in until she was held securely against him.
“How can I be comfortable,” she whispered, “when every time you get close to me you send my world tumbling off its axis.”
He smiled at that, his lips picking up at one corner and his dark green eyes filling with amusement.
“It is good to know I have such an effect on you,” he said, his mouth dipping down briefly to stroke his lips against hers ever so briefly. “It’s good to know I am not alone in my feelings of wild disarray.”
“You…you feel the same way?” she asked, surprised by the confession.
“Of course I do. Do you think something like this happens to me every day?”
“Not the Gestalt, but…as far as…um…other things…how am I to know what you are used to?”
“Other things?” He smiled again and dipped his head into a firmer brush of lips to hers. “Do you mean this incredible, ravenous desire between us, Yasra?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“No, Yasra, I am not used to this at all,” he assured her right before her swept her mouth up against his and seared his kiss onto her lips. He pressed his advantage immediately once he felt her relax beneath his lips. He kissed her with undeniable hunger, devouring her mouth, tasting her with his tongue. She could barely breathe, that was how overwhelming he was. But she let herself be swept away this time, let him pull her in tighter and delve for her response. It wasn’t long before passivity became impossible for her. She reached up, her fingers threading into his silky hair at the back of his head, holding him to her as she began to aggress in the kiss. He tasted so good on her tongue, like coffee and cream. Her head began to spin as he slid his hand up from her waist, following the curve of her back. She felt him tracing a path of flames with his touch as his hand slid around to the front of her body and his fingertips slid into the underside crease of her breast.
He broke from her mouth and they were both panting hard for breath, their breaths mingling between them.
“I want you. Now. Completely,” he said heatedly. There was such intensity in his words that it sent a hot thrill through her.
“Yes,” she whispered.
Then he was sweeping her up into his arms and striding down the hallways with her. They reached his room within heartbeats, it seemed, and then he was kicking the door closed and lowering her down onto the bed.
Dendri took a moment to stand back and look at her. Look at her in his bed. He had wanted her there for so long it seemed. Had it really only been a few days? It felt like longer. He had envisioned her like this many times already.
Actually, not like this. In his visions she had been naked, her hair tumbling all about her.
He reached down and took her foot in his hand. He slowly untied her boot, unthreading the laces until he could slide it off her foot. As he dropped that boot to the floor and reached for the next, he was aware of how hard she was breathing. The sound of it filled the room.
“Easy, sweetheart,” he soothed her, massaging her calf with one hand as he removed her boot with the other. It joined the other on the floor with a thud.
He knelt one knee on the bed, his hand trailing up her leg on the outside. The smooth material of her breeches slid beneath his fingertips. He then reached her blouse where it was tucked in at her waist and began to pull the gathered material free. As soon as he was able, he slid his hand beneath her top and drifted his touch over the flat softness of her belly. Good god she felt good. Powder soft and warm to the touch. He was hungry for even the slightest contact with her bare skin, and it showed in the increasing feverishness of his touch.
“God…the feel of you…it drives me to distraction,” he said. He was shocked by the guttural sound of his own voice. But why should he be he asked himself? Why should it shock him how much he wanted her?
Because he had never known anything like it before, he answered. He had had sexual relations with many women, had been tempted by their bodies and their wiles, but never had it been like this. This all-consuming hunger and intensity. It should have worried him, but it did not. He threw himself into the sensations, into the cravings. He devoured her with all of his senses, from sight to touch to the sweet sensual smell of her. He heard her gasp in a soft breath as his fingers slid up her belly and embraced her breast.
She was a warm, lush weight in his hand, his fingertips brushing over her nipple, back and forth until it puckered and distended into a hard little point. He groaned at the responsiveness, yearned to put his mouth on her. To that end he grasped her blouse, yanking it the rest of the way free of her waistband, and then stripped it over her head. Then he paused, looking down at her, remembering how beautiful he had thought she was ever since he’d first seen her naked. Not in their sex majic. Sex majic always reflected the perceptions people had of themselves. No…it had been when she had come to his bath, the beautiful lines of her sweet body so lush and shy.
She had nipples the color of a combination of tan and pink. Hovering somehow between the two colors. Now that she was exposed to the slightly chilly air both nipples puckered up tight.
“I want to have you on my tongue in every possible way,” he said hotly.
And he meant it. Every possible way. And he would see to it that he did before he was through with her.
His words sent fire racing through Yasra’s blood vessels. It burned her from the inside out, the way he was looking at her. Half of his chocolate colored hair had escaped the tie at the back of his neck by then, the long strands framing his handsome visage as he stared down at her. Then he lowered his head and, direct as you please, he caught her nipple between his teeth and then sucked it into his mouth.
Yasra gasped at the hot, wet scorching of his tongue. Of the way he drew on her as if he were starved for her. His hands were not idle, one coming up to embrace her opposite breast and the other sliding down between her bottom and the bedclothes. He gripped at her, almost desperately, and it made her feel more wanted then she had ever felt in her life. This was nothing like the fumblings and gropings of her only previous lover, his selfishness leaving her wanting. She was only just beginning with Dendri and already she was more satisfied then ever she had felt with…she couldn’t even remember his name right then. And that was just as well. He had no place in her thoughts. Deserved no recognition.
Dendri released her nipple slowly with a wet scraping of his teeth. Then he switched to the opposite breast and danced attendance on it as well. Her hands dove into his hair, freeing it completely of the clasp at the back of his neck, tossing the tie aside somewhere and reveling in the silky feel of his long locks. She half held him to his task, half massaged his scalp just so her hands could feel the heat of it. Her hands drifted down the back of his strong, taut neck and on to the width of his capable shoulders.
All this while he had remained on his knees above her, keeping his weight off of her yearning body. But now she tried to pull him down. She was craving the feel of him against her.
“Wait,” he murmured against her breast. Then he pulled back and she could see the fierce fire of desire in his forest green eyes. The appetite within them was stark and breathtaking.
He reached for his coat, shrugging it back off his shoulders. He was always so impeccably dressed. A perfectly dressed gentleman. Watching the layers of his civilization get peeled off of him, she felt an undeniable hunger building inside of her. He slipped off his waistcoat next. He put both garments over the footboard of the bed and then, after whipping off his cravat, he began on
his shirt, yanking it free of his waistband. He loosened the ties at his wrists and his throat and grabbed the back of his collar and pulled it off of his back and over his head. That immediately afforded her an unimpeded view of his broad and spectacular torso, the muscles strapped to it a thing of sheer masculine beauty. She wondered what it was he did to keep himself in such ready physical condition. Did he fence like many aristocrat males did? Or did he wrestle or box like the more middle classes did? Perhaps he was an equestrian? Oh, the possibilities were endless…and unimportant. At least they were right then.
“You’re beautiful,” she breathed as her hands went to his chest. There was only the lightest of hairs on his chest and she traced her fingers through it. He smiled at her compliment, amusement lightening his otherwise dark eyes.
“A sentiment I wholly reciprocate,” he said as he took a moment to run both of his hands up her belly and chest, embracing both of her breasts briefly before switching direction and trailing his fingers to the laces of her breeches. She followed suit and began to loosen his as well. She could feel the heat of him radiating through the fabric and into her hands, she could feel the hard line of flesh her fingertips brushed over. He was heavily aroused, his body making no mystery of it. She paused in her actions to press her hand to him, making out the shape of him through the fabric of his trousers.
There was a hitch in his actions as he groaned and thrust his hips into her hands. Encouraged, she fondled him more blatantly between his legs.
“Enough!” he barked suddenly. He launched himself off of her, grabbing hold of the waist of her pants as he did so, shucking them down her legs. Then he reached to do the same with her drawers.
She was naked now and he just stood there looking at her until she began to feel self-conscious. Her body turned to shy away, but he would have none of it.
“No. I have waited long enough to have you naked in my bed…I will take the time to enjoy you.”
He stroked her skin slowly, brushing his touch up her thighs, his fingers raking through the curls protecting her sex. Instead of lingering there he continued upward, touching her everywhere between there and her shoulders. When he came close enough she reached to touch his waistband again.
A Kiss of Magic: A Kiss of Magic Book One Page 14
