Fabric ripped. Somewhere I’m sure Stefan sensed his creation’s destruction and wept, but I was too eager to care. Freed of Hishima, sharing my burden of revenge, I was buoyant, giddy. It was as if by peeling my clothing from me layer by layer, he shed the guilt and misery I had worn for so long. Venom-drunk, and happier than I ever had been, I twisted in his arms so that my skin was not the only flesh displayed. Murdoch left me wearing rosy undergarments and the matching corset. Laughing at his attempts to unlace the corset blindly, I finally had to slap his hands away.
After I untucked his shirt, I pulled it over his head and left his hair mussed. Before touching the ties of his pants, I glanced at him for confirmation. His response was to jerk them, leaving us with knots to untangle. Impatience got the better of me. I swatted his hands again. “Let me do it.”
Faster than his eyes widened, I plucked the knife from his belt and cut the ties. His pants fell open, distracting me from the hasty way he snatched the blade from my hand with a hearty curse.
“You are a dangerous female.”
“I am a female who has been waiting for this moment for some time.”
“There was the small matter of our survival to consider.” He resumed picking at my corset.
“Is a life without pleasure worth living?”
“Is living a pleasurable life worth dying for?” He borrowed my trick and sliced the laces.
My corset fell to the ground, joining our other clothes. “Can you die from lack of pleasure?”
“I doubt it.” He watched as I shoved his pants down his thighs. “Or else the world would be populated by half.” He helped me by toeing off his boots. The rest I accomplished with a yank. It must have been my frank staring that brought high color to his cheeks. “I am at a disadvantage.”
I chose to misunderstand him. “I do recall making a promise I have not made good on.”
His gaze lingered on my mouth. “Is that so?”
My smile revealed sharp teeth pulsing with venom our foreplay had aroused. “Oh yes.”
Murdoch came to me, pressing our bare chests together. The warmth from his skin delighted me. His rough hands cupped my breasts, thumbs flicking over my nipples until they stung. In my blood, his venom sang, and I was ready to share that bliss with him. I framed his face, stared into those coal-black eyes burning with desire, and drew his head down, meeting him with my mouth.
I found the harsh curve of his jaw, tasted him as I nibbled my way over to his ear, then down his throat. His breath hitched when my fangs rasped his skin. He arched his neck, giving me what permission I needed. I bit down, puncturing his skin with a guttural moan that resonated from his throat through my mouth. Venom flowed. Though mine was weaker compared to his, and I could give more to him than he had to me, I was unused to the privilege. Not all males allowed the bite.
Hishima had been one for biting. No surprise there. Most males enjoy sinking fangs inside a willing female. I stayed with him so long I had forgotten some males relished the burn of venom.
When I would have released him, Murdoch fisted my hair and held me still.
“More,” he demanded.
His hand eased inside my undergarments, his fingers teasing, finding me wet and ready. I gasped against him as he filled me. He set a rhythm that made me buck against his hand as he explored what I liked and how I liked it. Orgasm surprised me. I was teetering, teetering, then quivering as my mouth ran dry of venom and my knees buckled. He grinned at me, proud as any male ought to be. His exposed fangs brought my hand to my neck. Had his venom made me that weak? Was he so potent? His wicked smile told me yes he was. What’s worse was he knew it.
Intent on returning the favor, I stroked his length until his eyes glazed, then knelt at his feet. The more I kissed and nibbled him, the more I wanted to savor his taste all over. His hands found their way into my hair. Eyes on my lips, he guided me lower, put himself in my mouth and let me bring him pleasure. Above me, his breathing turned sharp and his fingers clenched into fists.
“Kaidi.”
His plea barely penetrated the languorous fog swirling in my mind.
Rocking back on my heels, I followed his glance, chuckling under my breath when I read his intent. “That reminds me of the desk in your room.” I stood, stepped out of my undergarments and let him watch me cross the room wearing nothing but candlelight. “Would you like me to sit here?” I patted a battered chair’s arm. He shook his head. “Oh, well, then.” I smoothed a hand across the worn desktop. “How about here? Is this what you want?”
He shook his head again while twirling his finger. I did as requested and faced the wall.
Murdoch’s lips brushed my ear. “This is what I want.” Grasping my hips, he set me onto the desk in a kneeling position. His palm covered my spine, pushing me down until my cheek rested against cold wood and my core was exposed to his gaze. I jumped when his hand landed firmly on one cheek. “This is what I have wanted since that day I caught you crawling over my desk to reach the window.” His palm struck my other cheek with a force that made my stomach tighten in anticipation of another blow.
Hissing through the sting, I glared back at him. “Sex, or to punish me?”
“Both.” He stepped behind me, between my spread thighs. His hand brushed the heart of me, caressing the small pearl in a way he had discovered made me come undone. “I almost lost you.”
Pleasure built until its release left me shaking, clinging to the desktop. I braced my forehead on the wood, knowing it opened me to him, daring him to claim me. “I knew what I was doing.”
“So do I.” He slid home in a single stroke that left us both panting. “Driving me crazy.”
I smiled against my arm and held tight as his strokes became harder, shorter. His grip on my hips would leave bruises. I didn’t care. I met his pace and kept it until his clever fingers resumed their decadent work on me. Teetering on the edge of bliss, I cried out when his fangs pierced my shoulder. Venom prickled beneath my skin, shoving me headlong into orgasm. Murdoch’s growl of completion was snarled against my back. We collapsed onto the desktop in a boneless mass of sweaty limbs. His harsh breaths warmed my nape. His arms circled my waist, holding me to him.
“When I can move again,” I said with a wince, “there’s a quill jabbing my breast.”
His hand slid between me and the desk, flicking the quill onto the floor. With great care, his soft lips began working kisses into my skin. “Better?” His hips shifted, drawing a whimper from me. “Madness.” His sigh blew hot air across my spine. “Only you inspire this frenzy within me.”
“You are fond of saying I am mad, and perhaps I am, or was.” I rolled my hips against him, and he rewarded me with an audible snap of his teeth. “But as you appear to favor my company, it seems there are those who may assume you are quite mad yourself. What will you say to them?”
“Only that if it is true, you drove me to it. That our madness is a shared condition.”
“And love?” I glanced over my shoulder at him. “What of that?”
He grasped my arms, pulling me upright and pressing my back flush to his chest. He guided my head onto his shoulder. “Love is another, rarer form of insanity that I fear must be catching.”
“How so?”
“The look in your eyes,” he rumbled against my neck. “How can you not know I love you?”
“For a male so fond of reading words, did you not think I might crave to hear them spoken?”
“I love you, Kaidi.” His lips brushed my ear. “Wild as you are, I hope never to tame you.”
Happiness twined around my heart, squeezing until the sweetest ache encased me.
“Well?” Murdoch stared at my mouth expectantly. “Have you nothing to say to me?”
“I do love you.” I kissed his sweet lips. “Tame as you are, I hope ever to drive you wild.”
A Kiss of Venom
Araneae Nation, Book 3.5
A Kiss of Venom Blurb
All’s fair in love and murder…
Betrayed by her lover and exiled from her clan home, Nicolette has carved herself a new identity from the heart of her old life. Hardened by grief and desperate to survive, she hones a new skill set…and the daggers that go along with it.
Armand is heir to the wealthiest clan in the Araneae Nation. His entire life is as mapped as his heritage. Tradition dictates his every decision, and the one choice he ever made for himself cost him the woman he loved.
When Nicolette is offered a contract she can’t refuse, she returns to Erania with deadly intentions. Her secrets are safe behind the façade she created. Or they would be if Armand would stop chipping at the cracks in her veneer.
One kiss ignites an old flame, and suddenly their history is in danger of repeating. Armand falls for Nicolette’s charade, but she can’t let a second chance at happiness distract her from her mission. Someone in the Araneidae nest is marked for death, and Nicolette aims to deliver.
Warning: This story contains one heroine bent on revenge and one hero determined to atone for his sins. Also included are venom kisses, poison hangovers, pointy objects and questionable taste in condiments. Expect fireworks, near-death experiences and one surprise ten years in the making.
Chapter 1
Talons pierced the meat of my bare shoulder. I winced at Tiah, who blinked wide black eyes at me. White was a rare color for a falco. Most were common browns and blacks. Not my girl. Plumage dyed teal and indigo to match my hair, Tiah lent my soft curves a razor edge with her predatory grace. Ever my companion, she could have pitted her wits against the cleverest of my peers, and she would have found each of them lacking. As I stroked her soft breast, she playfully nipped my finger with her wicked beak.
A vicious shiver racked my body, spooking her into flight. Each exhale frosted the air in front of me, but presentation was crucial. Skin as numb as my conscience, I was grim tidings swathed in vital colors. I was the end no one envisioned, because death should be darker than any shade I ever wore.
“Are you sure we ought to do this?” A small hand slid into mine.
I gave Maisy’s gloved fingers a squeeze. My heart clenched when I glanced back at the rainbow girl amid the swirl of snowflakes that enveloped us. Her coat was violet, her favorite color this week. Her dress had a rich cream-colored bodice that blended into the yellows and oranges in her skirt. The leggings she chose were soft pink, which fed into her thick travel boots that had been dyed a gradient red. Pale blue edged her mouth from the biting cold. I smiled, my own lips cracking beneath their carefully applied paint. “This is the last time. Promise.”
One final contract would earn me enough gold to supply her with the plush life she deserved.
Deep creases appeared between her eyes, prompting me to rub them smooth with my thumb.
“You’ve said that before,” she whispered.
“This time I mean it.” I kissed her forehead. “One and done, I swear it.”
Her smile was missing a tooth, and I ached to see faith in me sparkle in her bright blue eyes.
She leaned her head against my side. “Will they call for us soon?”
“It’s almost time for gifts to be presented.” From this vantage, I saw the party winding down.
My feet were bare, my toes blue atop the black stone cobbles where we stood. Beside me, Maisy shuffled her feet. We stood exposed to the elements while our hosts reveled. The Araneidae clan held their tradition in a chokehold, preservation of their precious monarchy their sole concern. Long live Maven Lourdes.
While Maisy’s teeth chattered, my blood simmered too hot to allow the cold to penetrate me.
She toyed with the chain slung low around my hips. “Do you think they’ll like me?”
I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “They will love you.”
Her head fell back, flakes melting on her round cheeks. “Not as much as you do.”
“No.” I tweaked her nose. “There isn’t that much love in the second world. I stole it all for you.”
Footsteps crunched on snow behind us. I slid a hand up my ribs, fingers brushing the handle of a throwing knife sheathed in the side of my hammered gold corset. Easing Maisy behind me, I waited.
A slim youth appeared dressed in the shimmering gilded livery of our hosts.
“Lady Nicolette,” he said, voice cracking as his eyes drank in my outfit. “I came to…”
“Yes?” I made him work for it, a fitting test of the gown I had chosen. Though gown might be a generous word for this ensemble considering the corset was the only solid piece, the better to plump my breasts. The skirt was sewn from curling ribbons in sunset colors, in different lengths and widths. I wore nothing underneath. Even standing still bared the length of one thigh and the curve of my hip.
Provocation was the game, and in the spirit of temptation, the ribbons were thickest between my thighs, my sex a curtained mystery. More than one male’s hand had tried to draw aside that veil, to his peril.
“I’m to fetch you, my lady.” He gulped. “The herald is ready to announce you to the maven.”
A throat cleared daintily behind me. The youth tore his gaze from me, peering around my side.
“Forgive me.” I stepped left with a flourish. “May I present my sister, Maisy?”
Her soft giggles wounded my pride. She was of the opinion I was too old to pass for her sister.
His eyes widened when she stepped forward and lowered her hood, indigo hair tumbling in curls down her back. Her curtsey flashed the vibrant layers of the multicolored skirt under her long coat.
“Miss, the pleasure is mine.” He bowed to her. “Word of your incredible talent precedes you.”
Pink suffused her cheeks. She reached for my hand. “Can we go in now?”
I blew a shrill whistle, and Tiah lit on Maisy’s shoulder, picking at the paper flowers in her hair.
The youth’s eyes stretched even further. You would think he had never seen a dyed falco before.
“If you don’t mind,” I said, gesturing toward the stairs, “my sister is cold.”
“Of course.” He ducked his head. “Forgive me. This way, please.”
He guided us past a quintet of weeping black stone statues, to the front of the massive hall where the festivities were underway. We climbed a set of winding stairs leading to a door that stretched several heads above mine. Through its panes, I glimpsed the ruling family. Down the table my gaze skipped until it landed on the Araneidae heir, Armand.
Drawn closer by the scene before me, I touched the icy glass, let it numb my finger while I traced the silhouette of his face.
Ten years had passed since I last saw him. That decade had honed the brilliance of his smile until it hurt me to look at him.
My hand lifted of its own accord, tucking strands of hair behind my ear, and my fingers grazed a ridge of thick scars hidden there. I forced my arm to lower while I choked down bitter memories before they rose like bile up the back of my throat. No time for sentimentality. I was here for the job.
Armand sat at his sister’s right hand, dark blond hair slicked to his scalp. His lavender eyes crinkled at their corners. His formal coat was sewn from the same golden brocade as his sister’s gown, as were their siblings’.
One, two, three, four royals present for the night’s festivities. Where was the fifth? Pascale’s absence from the table left me tapping my nails against the glass.
“Lady?” The youth paused with his hand on the doorknob. “Is everything all right?”
Tearing my gaze from the spectacle, I put a hand over my stomach. “I’m a little nervous.”
“You have nothing to fear.” He twisted his wrist. “Maven Lourdes is most kind.”
I remembered her as amiable, preoccupied but polite during our few exchanges. Those had been a lifetime ago, before I shed all vestiges of the love-struck fool she once caught in her brother’s bed.
“This is a cruel thing you’ve done.” Lourdes slammed the bedroom door. “You’ve ruined her.”
“If you loved her,” Lourdes said, eyes soft with pity, “you would never have touched her.”
Talons punctured my skin when Tiah flitted to my shoulder, ruffling her feathers at my ear.
Maisy’s gloved hand touched my arm. “We don’t have to do this.” Her warmth seeped into me, the perfect balm for my past hurts.
“Yes.” I straightened my spine. “We do.”
The youth ducked inside, reappearing a moment later. “The herald will announce you next.” He gestured us into a foyer that opened into the enormous chamber serving as a dining hall this evening.
Once he left, I peeled the winter layers off Maisy, handing her coat, boots and gloves to a valet.
When the herald appeared, adorned in clan colors and blasting a gold horn, I pasted on a smile.
“On behalf of Paladin Wendelin of the Ctenidae clan,” he proclaimed, “it is my great pleasure to present to Maven Lourdes and to Paladin Rhys, the virtuoso Maisy of the Ctenidae and her guardian, the ethereal Nicolette, also of the Ctenidae. In honor of your first anniversary, Paladin Wendelin has commissioned the composition of a sonata for your pleasures, to commemorate this auspicious day.”
Hand in hand, we strolled down a length of rug until we stood before the maven and paladin.
We curtseyed, we smiled, and I held my breath as their stares rolled over Maisy onto me.
Lourdes frowned at me until my lungs burned for air. When she gestured I should approach her, caution ghosted my steps. I inclined my head, sweat beading my forehead as she examined me. I half-expected her eyes to narrow, for her jaw to drop or for an accusation to tumble from her mouth.
Araneae Nation: The Complete Collection Page 83
